I STARE AT MY PHONE, wondering why Mare isn’t answering any of my texts. I’ve been trying to get a hold of her all morning and haven’t heard a thing. I keep reminding myself that it’s possible she’s just locked away finishing this book, but I can’t help but be a little worried.
Hopefully she’s taking care of herself. At least in a few short hours, I’ll be there with her to help however she needs. I’ll cook for her, clean for her, do anything while she finishes the book just as long as I’m with her.
I look at the text I’d sent Pippa earlier, wondering why it’s also gone unread.
I’m about to go through security when I get this feeling. It’s the same one I used to get late at night when Mare would show up at my door. I don’t know why I do it, but I look over my shoulder, halfway hoping to see the love of my life.
She isn’t there. It’s just my mind playing tricks on me.
The line moves again, but only by a few steps. I let my eyes wander around the crowded airport, wondering why I can’t seem to shake the feeling that she’s here. I’ve always been able to feel her, and I’ve never been wrong about it, except for apparently right now.
We’ve spent too much time apart. My heart—and mind—are playing tricks on themselves with how much they miss her.
I’m following the businessman in front of me when I hear my name called from behind me.
I freeze. I could be in the most crowded of rooms and I’d recognize the voice anywhere. My heart feels like it could beat right out of my chest with excitement. I turn slowly, wondering if it’s been so long since I’ve seen Mare that I’m now hearing things.
Everything around me fades away when my eyes land on her.
My Goldie.
She looks so beautiful. Her blonde hair falls down her shoulders in waves. There isn’t a lick of makeup on her face, and I can already tell that her eyes have misted over.
“Goldie?” I ask hesitantly, stepping out of the line. It seems like I might not be getting on the plane after all. At least not yet.
I can’t believe my eyes. She’s here. My intuition wasn’t wrong. I could still feel her anywhere, even when I wasn’t expecting it.
“Cade,” she whispers. For a moment everything seems to be frozen in time. There’s nothing but the two of us. The world around us fades to black as our bodies collide.
Mare lets out a sob as her arms wrap around my neck. I don’t know who clings to the other tighter. Her legs wrap around my middle as she hoists herself up. She tucks her face against my chest as she lets out another cry.
“What are you doing here?” I ask, my lips pressed to her forehead. We’re probably making a scene, but I don’t give a shit.
“I could ask you the same question.” Her words are muffled against my shirt. She pulls away, her eyes puffy and cheeks red with emotion.
I lean in, unable to wait another second. Our lips press against one another and it’s like everything falls into place. You would never know we’ve spent time apart. We kiss like a couple of teenagers, unable to keep our hands off one another. Her hands cling to my face, holding my cheeks so tightly it’s like she’s afraid if she lets go that I’ll fade away.
I keep her pinned against me with one hand. The other hand travels up and down her back as I relish in the feeling of holding her again.
“We’re never spending that long apart again,” I demand, talking into her hair. I breathe in, wondering how I’ve gone so long without her comforting scent.
Mare laughs as I wipe the tears from her cheeks. These tears I can handle. They’re happy tears. They’re proof of our love—of us being together again.
“What is it about us and airports?” she jokes, wrapping her arms around my neck once again.
I set her down slowly but don’t let go of her. “What are you doing here, Goldie?” I had all of these plans about going to Chicago and telling her that I was ready and willing to do whatever it took to actually be with her.
“I came to Sutten to ask you a question.” She bites her lip to try and hide a smile. It’s the most stunningly beautiful thing I’ve ever seen. She’s the most breathtakingly beautiful thing I’ve ever seen. She’s my Goldie. My sunshine. The light of my life.
And fuck, am I so incredibly happy to have her with me again.
“You came to ask me a question?” I ask, remembering her earlier answer.
Mare steps away, just far enough to reach into a purse I hadn’t realized she’d dropped to the ground when her body collided with mine.
“Yes,” she answers, reaching into her bag. “A very important question.”
I cock my head to the side, confused. A flight attendant calls over the intercom for the next group of people to board my flight. If Mare is here, I have no intention of getting on that plane.
“Ask me anything.”
Mare pushes a stack of papers into my chest. They’re held together by a large binder clip at the top. Her smile is so bright as she holds it against my chest, waiting for me to take it. “How about you tell me the ending?”
“What?”
She carefully guides my arms to take the stack of papers. She shifts it in my grip until she can fan through all of the pages. Mare stops when she reaches the very last page. At the top it says EPILOGUE in big, bold letters, but the rest of the page is blank.
“If I were writing an end to Wade and Daisy’s story”—she uses the fictional names as if this isn’t exactly our story—“then I see Daisy realizing that she has a lot of big dreams she wants to come true, but her biggest dream was always Wade.”
I swallow because I remember my mom saying a line almost exactly like that one. It isn’t lost on me.
“Are we really talking about Daisy?”
Mare shakes her head. “I have a lot of dreams, Cade Jennings. But none of them compare to the best dream come true of all. Loving you. Being loved by you. It’s the most special and real feeling I’ve ever experienced. I think I’m in a place now where the whole author thing can be done from anywhere—from Sutten—as long as it’s somewhere with you.”
I stare at her because I don’t know what to say. She’s everything I could’ve ever wanted in my life. There’s a thread that ties us together that is unexplainable, but also something so rare and precious that I’d put anything on the line to keep it—even if it meant moving wherever she wanted me to. Giving up whatever I had to in order to be with her.
“You’re not going to say anything?” she asks.
I run my hands along her cheekbones, needing to touch her. “All I want is you. With me. Wherever you want, Goldie. I can’t be without you.”
“I think it’d be a poetic ending if Daisy made her dreams come true from the small town she left in the first place.”
“You’d move back to Sutten? What about being an author?”
Mare leans into my touch. “I hear the man I’m in love with is building me a house with a breakfast nook I’d love to write at.”
“I’ll build you ten,” I say through the emotion clogging my throat.
“So what’s the ending going to be?”
I pull Mare’s forehead to mine, speaking against her lips. “An ending together in Sutten seems fucking perfect to me.”
Mare smiles. “That’s what I was hoping you’d say.”
Our next kiss is full of the promise of forever.
