I could kiss Brooke forever. Like, seriously, forever wouldn’t even be long enough. This girl had me so tied up in knots I didn’t know which way was up half the time. I had spent the last two years not caring about anyone or anything, which had ended up with me spending most of my nights trying to forget who I was and how I had gotten there. The first twenty years had been carefree and full of laughter, then I met Charlotte and I was still happy but not quite as carefree. The demanding schedule was mostly to blame for that. Things had just started to take off with the band when we met. She was a pretty girl who loved everything I did. What young twenty-one-year-old wouldn’t love that? During our time together I was gone a lot, which wasn’t easy in a new relationship. I knew this, because I heard it every chance she could bring it up. It wasn’t that I didn’t care about her, I truly did, but I hadn’t been ready for the kind of commitment she seemed to be interested in. I managed to hold her at bay for a while, but after a year she had grown tired of waiting. She’d wanted more. Now, as I stood here holding Brooke, I was able to look back and understand exactly what Charlotte had meant by more. Holding Brooke in my arms, rocking slowly back and forth to the music that played in our heads, I came to realize that more would never be enough. When you truly loved someone, loved them with your whole heart, the craving for more was one that could never be fully satisfied, not because what they had to offer wasn’t enough, but because the more you were given, the more you needed.

“Hey,”—I brushed the hair from her forehead—“do you want to go for a walk on the beach? We could watch the sunset.”

“That would be lovely. Just let me change my clothes.” She scurried down the hall and came back a short time later, twirling before me as she stepped into the room, dressed in yoga capris and the T-shirt I had bought her in Malibu. I didn’t bother holding back the smirk that had spread across my face.

“I thought you weren’t going to wear that while we made our ‘memories’ together,” I teased, complete with finger quotes as she had done at the boutique in Malibu.

“Yeah, well, that was before.” She shrugged.

“Before what?”

“Before I fell in love with you.” She clasped her hand in mine. “Now, the memories we make have more meaning. When you bought me this, I didn’t want you to know that I had a crush on you.” She shrugged once more. “Now, I don’t want you to forget.”

“Well, there’s no chance of that happening. You’re the best thing that has ever happened to me. I can promise you that you are the one thing that, no matter what happens, I will fight like hell to remember.”

“Sebastian Miles, that’s three promises you’ve made to me now. I hope you’re able to keep them.” She lifted up on her tippy toes and placed a soft kiss on my nose. We made our way down the beach, hand and hand, talking about everything that came to mind, everything except the one subject that hung over our heads. I had been waking up each morning, mentally counting down the days we had left and trying my best to make the most of our time. I think what concerned me the most was whether or not she would want to continue seeing me after she went back to her world. While she was here, I had tried to make her a part of mine, and she fit in perfectly. I worried that if I visited her, and she attempted to do the same, would I fit into her world as comfortably as she had folded into mine?

“Wow, look at that.” She stopped and gazed out over the water, watching the sun as it set behind the rocks in the distance, the colors in the sky changing from pink to orange to darkness within a matter of moments.

“It’s beautiful,” I muttered, “like you.”

“Awe, you say the sweetest things to me.” She nudged me with her elbow before reaching a hand up to pull me down to her waiting lips and planting a soft kiss. “Thank you.”

“Hey, let’s head back. I don’t want you getting too cold.” I clasped my arms tightly around her, then pulled her up so that I was holding her in a forward style piggy back ride.

“What are you doing?” she asked, tilting her head sideways and grinning happily.

“I wanted to be close to you, and this seemed like the best alternative at the time. Besides, this way we can kill two birds with one stone.” I chuckled devilishly.

“Oh, yeah, how’s that?”

“We can walk and kiss at the same time.”

“I like your thinking.” She smiled before pressing her lips to mine. We walked the rest of the way home, well, I walked while she sat in my hands, her nose nuzzled against my neck, giggling the whole way. What should have been a ten-minute walk turned into something much longer, and when we finally walked through the front door, we were both exhausted and covered in sand.

* * *

BROOKE

Sebastian seemed to have a thing for carrying me, not that I was complaining mind you; he just managed to take advantage of every opportunity to literally sweep me off my feet. Our walk on the beach, like most of our time alone lately, had taken a turn for the romantic. I had never kissed another man as much as I had kissed Sebastian, not even when Devon and I were dating. Looking back, I was now able to see that not only had I been naïve, but afraid of getting too close to another human being. Maybe that was why it had been so hard for me to accept his proposal. After Devon’s accident, I spent some time in therapy, trying to process what had happened but also to try and come to terms with why I hadn’t been able to allow myself to fully give and receive love. I made a promise to myself that if I were ever to be presented with the opportunity to fall in love again, I would embrace it with both arms and hold on for dear life. The scariest part of that was knowing how to gage the other person’s level of commitment to the relationship, and knowing when to let go if they didn’t feel the same way.

Later that evening, we were hanging out and listening to music, neither of us saying a whole lot. The fact that tomorrow was our last full day together loomed over us like a heavy cloud. The topic of how we were going to make a long distance relationship work hadn’t even been brought up. It was almost as if we were trying to remain in our bubble, as if any mention of reality might suddenly cause it to burst. Regardless of that unspoken fear, I knew that we had to have that discussion at some point in time. Seeing as how I was not a patient person I chose to tackle it head-on.

“Sebastian, we need to talk about something.” We were on the floor of the man cave, head to head, but our bodies were reversed so that our feet were on opposite ends. I clasped a hand over his, threading our fingers together.

“Uh oh, this sounds serious.” His grip on my hand grew tighter.

“I don’t know. I guess it is serious, but we’ve been avoiding it all week, and we need to discuss it.” He sighed heavily, draping an arm over his eyes.

“This is about you leaving, isn’t it?”

“We have to discuss it at some point. I mean, it’s not like I can stay here forever. I have a life waiting for me back at home.” I felt his body stiffen at the mention of me having a life outside of these four walls. “You do realize that, right?” I asked softly.

“I know,” he groaned, “it’s just easier to stay right here in our little bubble. I knew from the moment I sat at the foot of that guest bed that you had to go home. I guess that if you had left a week ago, it might have been easier for me. Now,” he shrugged, “it just hurts too much to think about it. The thought of dropping you off at the airport, watching you walk away from me, not knowing if I will ever see you again, that scares the hell out of me.”

“Well, let’s talk about it, get it out in the open,” I offered. “You say it scares you, thinking that you won’t see me. I think we can try to figure out a way to give a long distance relationship a trial run.”

“What do you mean?” His fingers played up and down my forearm in a nervous pattern. “Like video chats and stuff?”

“Yeah, we can use technology to our advantage. People like us make it work all the time. I mean, if you want to make it work, that is,” I stammered.

“Brooke, of course I want this to work. I’m not ready to give up on this just because of the amount of miles between us. But don’t you worry that it will be too hard?” I sat up and spun around on my rear so that we were now parallel, and snuggled against him.

“I think it will be hard, but it would be harder to imagine my life without you, even if you are far away. Just knowing you are there to listen to me when I am sad or happy, and that I get to hear about how your day went, and be there for you when you need support, all of that fills me with hope.”

He lowered his chin and placed a quick kiss on top of my head, then pulled me tighter against him. “We’ll see each other again, right? Somehow we’ll find a way to make time for visits. That wouldn’t be too farfetched, would it? I mean, I don’t know about you, but I’ve already thought about what it would be like to see where you work and where you live.”

“Well, I can guarantee it doesn’t come close to how you live,” I snorted. “But I would love for you to see my restaurant. It really is a fabulous place to eat and work.”

“I don’t care that your apartment isn’t anything like my home. It’s special because you live there. It’s the place you call home. I want to see it because it’s special to you. Everything you care about, I want to care about, don’t you see that? I’m so caught up in you, I don’t know which end is up. All I know is that I’ve never been happier. That’s all because of you, baby.”

My heart swelled momentarily, and I found myself grateful that he couldn’t see the tears forming in the corners of my eyes. He had already seen me crying enough for one week, though these weren’t tears of sadness; these were tears of joy and the expectation of great things to come. For the first time in a very long time, I had someone to share my life with, and the thought of that made my heart smile.