WITH THE SUN slowly lighting the sky and peeking between the vertical blinds, I played with the metal on my bracelet, tilting it back and forth so it caught the light while I studied the numbers stamped into it. I had more appreciation for those numbers now than I did at the time Tyler gave it to me. Because the numbers represent the place my heart started beating. Twice now.

“You know, I looked those coordinates up once.” Jude’s soft voice broke through my thoughts and I turned to face him, my head resting against the soft white pillow.

“And?”

“And the location is that path in the university. The same place you spat gum at my foot and where we met. I’d have thought they were related, had I not noticed you wearing it that very day. I saw you studying it before you let that torrent of filth out of your mouth that embedded itself on my shoe.”

I giggled at his choice of words, seeing the mirth in his eyes as he described the event that brought us together.

“Does it have something to do with how you met Tyler?”

I nodded. “I go there on that same day every year. It’s somewhat of a tradition to spit gum in that spot now.”

He chuckled softly. “OK.”

Leaning up on my elbows, I looked into his eyes, an inclination taking hold inside of me. “There’s actually something I think you should see. You shared so much with me yesterday that I think it’s only fair I do the same. Will you come to my apartment with me?”

“Of course.”

Taking a seat at my kitchen counter, Jude waited while I went into my room and pulled the journal from the top of my wardrobe. “I hope you’re ready for this,” I whispered to it, running my hand over the worn cover. A beautiful nostalgia filled my heart and I hugged it, feeling how much I loved the boy whose words and pictures lived inside it. “I think you’re the reason I found him and I’d like him to meet you.” Opening the cover, I flipped the pages, hoping I was doing the right thing. Jude and I were at the point where to move forward, there could be no secrets in our relationship. He needed to see inside my heart the way I had seen inside his.

When I went back to Jude, I held it in front of me with both hands, needing to say a few words before I handed it over. This was an important moment. I was introducing the love of my life to the man who was healing my heart. It seemed silly, but I wanted them to like each other.

“Yesterday, you walked me through your life and your heart. Inside this journal is where you’ll find mine. It was Tyler’s. He started it on the day we fell for each other and ended it just after our wedding a little more than a year later. He died shortly after that. Its pages are full of his hopes and dreams, and mostly his fears because of his illness and his struggle with his love for me. We didn’t have an easy time, but it was powerful and it shaped me. I want you to read it. I want you to know the man I lost and understand what I went through, the same way you helped me understand what you’ve been through.”

I handed it over, my palms leaving damp marks on the leather due to my nerves.

“Oh Sarah.” He took it with a slight hesitation, his brow furrowed as he looked over the cover and held it like precious cargo. “You don’t have to do this. These are his private thoughts.”

“I know. But, he would have wanted me to do this. He had a list of things he wanted to do with me when he was alive, and when he started to decline, he added one more thing; something he wanted from me after he was gone.”

“What was that?”

“He wanted me to fall in love again.”

His eyes dropped then lifted to meet mine again. “Is that how you feel about us?”

I swallowed hard. “I don’t think I’m ready to say it yet, but it feels that way, don’t you think?”

He nodded, his features softening. “Yes. It feels exactly like that.”

“Then I want you to read it. You’ll understand why we met and why I needed you to share your secrets with me. And why it means so much that you did.”

“OK,” he whispered, taking my hand and kissing my knuckles.

Then he saw my smile before the word came out, together we said, “Enchanté.” It was possibly becoming our thing.