Something soft brushes my forehead, and I blink my eyes open. Rex is in bed next to me, gliding his fingers through my hair. I run my hand over the smooth skin of his chest, reminding myself that he’s here. That I’m here.
I was only in the hospital overnight; the doctors let me come home yesterday. JJ and Erin fought with Rex over whose home I was going back to, but Rex wasn’t losing that battle.
I don’t know how I got so lucky.
Two amazing friends.
One awesome brother.
And Rex. There aren’t enough words for Rex.
“Why aren’t you mad?” I ask softly, drawing circles over his chest with the tip of my finger.
“What?” He shakes his head. “Baby, why would I be mad?”
“Because I kept something from you. After all the bullshit promises we made to be honest with each other, and after you told me about your father, I still kept this from you. I kept two things from you.”
“You were protecting yourself, Shae, and that’s a language I speak. I would never fault you for that. I wish you would’ve trusted me enough to tell me who you were, but I can understand how scared you must’ve been after finding out I was connected to the Salamanca family.”
I nod, his words pulling all the emotion from my body, wringing it clean. My lower lip trembles. “It’s not that I didn’t trust you,” I begin, the tears starting. “I wanted to. I wanted to tell you, but I was scared. For the last fourteen years, I’ve wondered if my life was in danger. I’ve wondered if the other families would come after me, and when you told me about your father, I freaked. I wanted to keep you close, I wanted you to prove to me that you weren’t a part of that life and that I could trust you with my darkest secrets, but until I was one-hundred-percent sure, I couldn’t take that chance. It could’ve cost me my life.”
Rex’s eyes are suspiciously glossy when he curls a hand around the back of my neck. “You don’t have to explain yourself, Shae. I understand.”
I nod, and he wipes away my tears.
“Do you remember that morning after Erin’s wedding?”
“Yes.”
“Do you remember what I said to you when you woke up from your nightmare?”
I nod, a fresh wave of tears forming. “You said you’ve been searching for me your entire life.”
“It’s true. I knew… When you cried out for Cami, everything fell into place for me. The age your parents died, you being adopted, some of the other things you would say in your sleep—it all clicked, and I knew that you were the girl who’d saved me all those years ago.”
“What? I didn’t save you, Rex. You saved me. You let me go.”
“No, baby. Trust me, you saved me. If it wasn’t for you, I would’ve followed in my father’s footsteps. But your act of kindness—offering me your inhaler—and the pain I saw in your eyes when you heard Cami scream, they stuck with me. I’ve carried those thoughts around with me every day, pulling them out when I needed a reminder of why I have to live a clean life. I wanted to be better for you. I wanted to make a good life in your name, because my family took so much away from you.”
“Rex.”
“So yes, I’ve been searching for you my entire life, and I’m not ever letting you go. I don’t care about our parents and what happened between them. That doesn’t touch us, got it?”
My chin quivers, my shattered heart slowly putting itself back together. “Got it.” My voice is thick, barely audible, but Rex hears me. He always hears me.
“You, Shae, stole a piece of my heart long before I was ready to give it away. But I’m ready now. You’re a part of my life. You’re my family, and I know I still have to prove myself, but believe me when I tell you that you can trust me with your life. My loyalty is with you, always with you. And no matter what happens, I need you to remember that.”
“This is what I wished for at the skating rink,” I confess. “I wished for us to make it through this mess. I knew my secrets, my life, would cause a whirlwind of disasters, but I wanted to keep you, Rex Ambrosi, so that’s what I wished for.”
“Shae.” Eyes full of emotion, he drops his forehead to mine. “I don’t know—”
“Shhh.” I press a finger to his lips, and he kisses the pad. “I wasn’t done talking.”
He blinks once, silently giving me the go-ahead, and I take a deep breath, because what I have to say is huge—life-alteringly huge.
“I love you, Rex.”
His eyes close as soon as the words pass my lips, and a tear falls down his cheek. I wipe it away.
“You don’t have to say it back; I just want you to know how I feel.”
“Say it again,” he whispers.
“I love you.” I sit up in bed, pulling him with me so I can cradle his face in my hands. “I love you, Rex Ambrosi. Only you. ”
Whether he says the words or not, I see them in his eyes. I feel them in his touch. I’m a part of him just as much as he’s a part of me.
He wraps his warm arms around me. “The past few days have been hell. When you hit your head and didn’t wake up…” He shakes his head as though he’s still trying to grasp everything that’s happened. “I didn’t know if you were okay, and that scared me to death because I love you too, and I was so afraid I’d never get the chance to tell you.”
“You love me?”
I’ve waited so long for someone other than a friend to say those three little words and mean them. I’ve prayed for this kind of love. This deep, soul-piercing, forever kind of love.
“So much,” he says, kissing away my tears.
“Say it again.”
His lips land on my cheek. “I love you. With everything I have and everything I am, I love you.” He kisses the tip of my nose and then my forehead. “You own every inch of my heart, Shae Black, and every piece of my soul.”
And then his lips find mine, and he shows me just how true those words are.
I love you.