It’s years. Decades. A millennia before the edges of Bri’s mouth turns up in the most beautiful smile I’ve ever seen. If I could see her eyes behind her sunglasses I have absolutely no doubt they’re shining as brightly as her smile is. She puts her hands up to her cheeks, holding onto them.
“You do? You love me?”
Like it’s even a mother fucking question. This woman has hit me like a tornado and swept me up into her atmosphere. Honestly, from the first moment I saw her, I knew I would love her, without a doubt I knew we’d be together, I just never expected it to be like this.
“I do.” I grin back at her. “Never thought it would get me, but it did. All that shit my parents have talked about their entire lives? Somehow it all ended up coming true.”
Her arms go tightly around my neck, holding me so close to her body there’s not a centimeter of space between us, which is just how I like it. If it were up to me, we’d never be apart again.
Crazy thoughts from a guy who wasn’t sure he was ever going to be the marrying kind.
“Just wormed my way in there, huh? Past all those tough-guy defenses.”
Time to be honest.
“There were never any defenses for you, Bri. Something was different the moment I met you. I can’t explain it.” I push her hair out of her face, dipping my lips down to take the kiss she offers. “Even when you were that teenage girl who tripped coming off the elevator,” I chuckle.
“Oh my God!” She buries her face in her hands. “You knew?”
“I always knew, but if you wanted to pretend like we hadn’t met before, that was up to you. Even grabbing hold of my biceps like you’d never felt them before was cute and adorable. I was just too old for you back then, way too experienced. Doesn’t change how I felt when I met you again in Vegas, though. As soon as I saw you, I felt like I’d known you my entire life. I never felt the need to be EJ with you, I could always be Everett. Nobody else besides my family ever let me be who I am, and you’ve never asked me to be anything but.”
“I felt it too,” she whispers, her voice trembling, tears glazing over those light eyes of hers. “I don’t have parents like you, Everett, I don’t have this great love story to learn from and compare to.” She pulls back from me and I go cold, worried that she doesn’t reciprocate the feelings I’ve given to her. Now I’m scared, but I let her keep talking. “For a long time, I didn’t even really know what love was. Believe it or not, Madison kinda taught me. I used to go out in the city by myself, with no bodyguards, wouldn’t tell anyone where I was going. As kids we didn’t really check in with our parents. They were too busy trying to one-up each other or fighting over the stupidest shit. So one day I went out, didn’t have my phone on me, and spent the day just exploring. A cop actually stopped me, telling me they were looking for me. Madison was worried someone had hurt me. I felt so embarrassed, and when I got to the venue, I asked her what the hell she was doing getting the cops to look for me.” She laughs loudly. “Maddie was like, you idiot, we were worried, we love you!”
Bri stops for a minute, swallowing roughly.
She seems to slightly pull herself together while I’m totally falling apart.
“Do you know I hadn’t said I love you to anyone in years at that point? And this wasn’t that long ago. It was hard to tell her I love her. I had to try it a few times, get used to making the word with my mouth, pray it wouldn’t get stuck on my tongue, hope to fuck I didn’t embarrass myself by crying because it’s such a personal thing, to tell someone they mean that much to you. When I finally told her she was my best friend and I loved her, it was the hardest thing I’d ever done, Everett. Because it made me vulnerable to someone.” She takes off her sunglasses, and her eyes are shining just like I thought they would be. “But telling you I love you? It’s the easiest thing I’ve ever done, because I know without a doubt you love me back. I can see it when you look at me, when you do that husbandly stuff RJ gives you shit for. I can hear it in your voice. I can feel it when your inside me.” She puts her hand on my jaw, caressing the tightness. “And I can say without a shadow of a doubt, I love you too, Everett James.”
No sweeter words have ever passed her lips.
“’Bout fuckin’ time, Bri. Bout fuckin’ time.”
She giggles as I dive in and take the kiss I’m due after my heart almost stopped wondering if she was going to say the words back.
For long moments we sit there with one another, me with my arm around her shoulders, her head on mine. “How long have you known?” she whispers.
“A long time,” I admit. “I’ve wanted to tell you since before we came to Europe, but I kept convincing myself it was too soon, that the only reason I was feeling so strongly was because we were thrown into this situation. You know what they say about couples in high-stress; either you make it, or you make decisions not based on reality. I wanted to make sure this was reality.” I let go and grab her hand, entwine our fingers together.
“What convinced you this is reality?” she whispers.
“The other night,” I whisper back.
“When you came off the stage?” I can hear the smile in her voice, but I refuse to pull my eyes from where our fingers are wrapped tightly around each other.
“Yeah, if you could handle me then, you can handle me any time, any place. If you can take demanding EJ, you can take every single EJ there is. You weren’t scared, and you didn’t try to make me feel bad about my appetites.”
“I loved those appetites,” she admits.
Taking my eyes from our fingers, I kiss her forehead, pulling her closer into me. “Which is why I know you were made for me, and what made me believe we’re meant to be together. I’ve searched.” I hook the edge of her chin with my thumb. “I’ve looked for women who could handle me, and no one’s ever been able to. We were thrown together, but maybe the universe knows what it’s doing after all?”
She dips her chin, kissing my thumb. “Maybe it does, and maybe we’re the lucky ones who get to experience it.”
“That once in a lifetime type of thing?”
She smiles. “Yeah, that once in a lifetime type of thing.”
An hour later we’re back on the boat while my parents are out in the water. Bri and I are drying off, laying in the sun. I hear her moving around, opening an eye, when I see her with her phone poised.
“What are you doing?” I question, my voice deep with what is the almost relaxed sleep you go into once you’ve been swimming.
“Posting a picture to my Instagram of the hottest husband ever.” She blows me a kiss as she sits up, crossing her legs in front of her.
My phone dings, telling me I’ve been tagged in something. Out of habit I grab it immediately, checking it. It’s the picture she just took with a heart emoji under it, along with the words – Love this guy so much! I got super lucky!
Immediately, I flash a smile just reading the damn words. God this woman has me in every way she can. I quickly comment on post. Pretty sure I’m the lucky one. Love you, babe!
After she reads what I’ve commented back, we kind of just stare at each other for what feels like forever. “I never counted on this.” I run my fingers through my hair. “I knew you were different, but I never counted on how I feel about you.”
“Me neither.” She leans in closer.
Just close enough for me to grab one of her braids, pulling her to me so that our lips can meet. I’m contemplating finding a way to get her below deck with me when I hear a voice clearing behind us. Groaning, I tip my head back, surprised to see RJ and Montgomery standing there.
“So we’re hungry, and we figured everybody else is too. We’re gonna do a late lunch if that’s cool?”
I’m looking at the two of them, trying to figure out if they are okay. Both of them look relatively unscathed, and RJ has an ease about him I haven’t seen in months. “Sounds good,” I answer for the both of us just as Mom and Dad come in out of the water. He says the same thing to them, our parents agreeing lunch would be a great idea. As the two of them leave to go prepare it, the four of us look back and forth at one another.
“What the fuck just happened here?” Dad asks, running a towel over his head.
“Fuck if I know, I’m trying to figure out if they’ve been replaced by pod people or if they’ve just fucked it out.”
“Everett James!”
I will always know that voice anyone. “What, Mom?”
She sighs. “Can you please be less like your father?”
Bri giggles as she looks between us, before she’s stopped with words only a mother can throw out.
“Laugh it up, Bri, just wait until you have one, just like these two.”
And while it once would have scared me, imagining Bri pregnant with my child doesn’t phase me. In fact, I find myself wondering just what in the hell that would actually be like.
Not nearly as scary as I thought.