My head is swimming. My pulse is pounding. I’m surrounded by the smell of Garrett, swamped by the sensations of his hands and mouth on me.

He kisses a path down my body, settling between my thighs. I tense in anticipation; his tongue sweeps across me and I can feel my legs shaking. When he slips two fingers inside me, moving them in tandem with his tongue, I just about explode. My whole body is shaking now, and I can hear myself moaning as though it’s coming from somewhere outside of myself.

Then he curls his fingers, the same way he did that night at the Monroe, and I come apart at the seams. My body clenches around his fingers and I gasp out his name as an orgasm crashes over me like a tsunami.

I’m still spasming as he kisses his way back up my body, finally reaching my mouth. I can taste myself on his lips, and it’s impossibly erotic.

He reaches over and opens the drawer in the nightstand, pulling out a condom and setting it on the bed beside us.

“Might be best to keep that away from me,” I say.

He laughs, a genuine roar of laughter. Leaning his forehead down to rest against mine, he says, “My God, I love you.”

My mind reels; the enormity of that statement absolutely floors me. I mean, when he showed up at Manetti’s like something out of a romantic comedy, obviously this was in my mind. But he didn’t say it, and neither did I.

We’ve each said “I love you” to each other hundreds of times—maybe thousands of times. But this is different. This is real, and it matters. I push him up to give myself room and prop myself up on my elbows.

“I love you, too,” I say, earnestly. “I love you so much, and it’s better and bigger than I could ever have imagined.”

“I know,” he says. “It’s huge.”

“That’s what she said.”

He laughs again. “I’ve never laughed in bed with a woman before,” he says. “I can’t imagine I ever would have. I think … I think that night, in Boston, when we laughed together in bed and we were having so much fun, I think that was the scariest thing that ever happened to me. Because it felt so right, Beck, and I was convinced it was wrong.”

“A big mistake,” I whisper.

“Not even a little one,” he says. “It’s the smartest thing I ever did. I should have known what it meant—that you were the one. The only.”

I wrap my arms around his neck and pull him down on top of me. He slips between my legs and reaches for the condom beside me, tearing it open and putting it on quickly.

“I’m going on the pill the instant the doctor’s office is open,” I say, arching up to meet him.

“That sounds fantastic,” he says. Then, hitching my hips up, he sheaths himself inside me.

I shudder, from head to toe, and wind my legs around his waist. It feels amazing to be full of him; I’m so sensitive from my orgasm, and right away I’m climbing toward another. He moves against me in exactly the right rhythm, as if we’ve been together forever, as if we’re made for each other. Which I guess we are.

Together. Me and Garrett.

“Beck,” he murmurs in my ear. “So beautiful. You feel so good.”

I gasp as he thrusts even deeper and pull him close against me, turning my head to find his lips. We kiss, and his tongue slips into my mouth just as his cock is slipping into me; the sensation is exquisite. He moves faster, goes deeper, and the muscles in his back are tense under my fingers as I hold on tight and let myself go, welcoming that second crashing wave of pleasure. Garrett buries himself deep inside, all the way, and I feel him pulsing as comes with me.

He drops his forehead to mine again. “I love you,” he says. His voice is ragged, his breathing uneven. I can feel the sweat on his forehead, the sheen of sweat along the planes of our bodies where they are pressed together. I can feel everything, so acutely that it feels supernatural.

This is what perfection is, I think, dreamily. Blissfully.

He rolls to the side and pulls me against his chest, and I just rest against him, shocked and satisfied in every cell. I drift a little, just enjoying the sweat cooling on my body and the feeling of his body next to mine.

After a bit, he gets up and goes off to the bathroom, but he comes back immediately and slides back into the same spot, holding me close—cradling me like I’m something precious.

I think I can live with that. He can treat me like I’m precious, as long as he’s not trying to protect me from himself.

“Hey,” he says. “Question: have you decided about grad school?”

“Yeah,” I say. “In the end, there was only one choice.”

“So where are we going?”

I tilt my head back to look at him. He looks down at me solemnly.

“What?” I say.

“I’m going wherever you go. So I’ll have to figure out where I’ll finish school.”

“Garrett, you can’t just up and change schools—”

“I’m going where you go.”

“It’s a moot point,” I tell him. “I’m going to Colby.”

He grins widely. “Beck! That’s amazing! How? I thought they didn’t come through with the money?”

I tell him about Eileen’s offer, and he pulls me into a hug. The weirdest part is that, even though we’re naked, it’s not a sexy hug, or a prelude to anything; it’s just the same sort of hug Garrett has given me our whole lives—warm, supportive. The hug you give your best friend.

He’s still in there, my best friend; there’s just more now. We’ve loved each other forever, and now we can have it all.

My eyes fill with tears. How am I this lucky? Garret and I are together, I can go to the school I want, I get to keep my dream job and it’s going to get even cooler… I can hardly believe any of this is happening right now. My life could literally not be any better.

“This is wonderful,” he says. “You’ll have to commute up to Colby—we should look for someplace a bit closer, so you don’t have to drive quite as far. Maybe right between there and Portland; we can both commute. And we can—”

“Are you asking me to move in with you?” I ask.

“Not really,” he says, grinning. “It’s more like assuming.”

I kiss his shoulder, since it’s right there and easy to get to. “That’s very bossy. So, pretty much par for the course.”

“I can ask, if you’d rather.”

“Nah, I’m good.” I stretch a little. “We can hardly keep living with our parents now.”

He sits up, swings his legs over the side of the bed, and turns to face me. His expression is suddenly very, very serious. “Your parents will be upset.”

I shake my head. “No, they won’t. They just want me to be happy.”

“My dad—” He pauses, seems to be collecting his thoughts. “My dad was really mad at me, after that night on the boat. He took me into his study and told me your dad had called, and gave me a pretty serious lecture about toying with your feelings. He was mad, your dad was mad—I’m not sure it’s as simple as telling them ‘Hey, everything is great now!’”

I shrug. “They’ll deal. I’m a grown-up, Garrett, and I make my own choices. I’ve already given my mom that speech, and I’ll give it to anyone else who might happen to need it. I don’t need to be protected and taken care of and cherished.”

He reaches out and lays a hand on my face, then leans over to kiss me, very slowly, very expertly. “Yes, you do,” he says. “That’s my job now, to cherish you. How’s it go? Love, honor, and cherish, right?”

I go still all over.

“Yeah,” he says, and there’s something like wonder on his face. “That’s how it goes. That’s what I’m going to do.” He looks into my eyes, runs his hand down my arm and takes me by the hand. “Beck—”

“You don’t—”

”Hush.” He brings my hand to his lips and kisses the back of it, gently. “I’m sorry. You’re naked. This is a weird time. As usual, I’m doing everything wrong. But I want you to marry me.”

I just blink at him. “I’m sorry?”

“I want you to marry me. I’m never going to stop loving you. We’re it, Beck. We’re forever. Why wait?”

For possibly the first time in my entire life, I’m completely speechless.

“This is the part where you say yes,” he prompts me.

And he’s right. This is the part where I say yes. Because why would we wait? Why would we impose some kind of waiting period on ourselves when we’ve been lucky enough to find each other now?

Who else would I ever marry, if not Garrett?

He’s always been so many things to me. And now he’s everything.

“Yes,” I say. Just that. Yes to him, to us, to forever.

To everything.