Chapter 27 #5
“Not goodbye,” Logan choked out. He was trembling now, his entire body unraveling beneath the weight of it all.
“You are going to be okay, Adrian. You are going to be okay. Those past days, you… You’ve been feeling better.
You will be okay.” He repeated it like a prayer, like an incantation that might rewrite fate.
Adrian closed his eyes, exhaustion pulling at him, but his fingers brushed against Logan’s face, grounding them both.
“Lo… I have overcome death too many times.” His voice was quiet, but unwavering, as if he were telling Logan a truth as old as the sea itself.
“I survived four wars. I survived rescuing you from the ocean. I even survived the last time death came for me, when you left.”
Logan’s breath hitched, a sob breaking through his throat, but Adrian kept going.
“When you walked away that night, something inside me died. My soul died from how much I loved you.” He paused, letting Logan hear the weight of those words, letting them sink into his bones.
“But when you came back? I lived again.” His lips trembled.
“Every moment with you is worth a lifetime of agony, even if it was always going to end like this. And now, my soul will live even if my body won’t. ”
Logan pressed his forehead firmly against Adrian’s, allowing their breaths to entwine, his tears cascading onto Adrian’s delicate skin. One arm embraced him tightly, while the fingers of the other glided over Adrian’s cheeks, tracing down his neck, yearning to etch every contour into his memory.
“No.” Logan’s voice cracked, breaking like waves against jagged rock. “I’m sorry, Ad… no.”
His sobs fell against Adrian’s forehead, raw and uncontained, his body shaking with the force of his grief. “No. I’m not ready for you to become a memory that only exists in my broken heart. I’m not. And I’m sorry. Maybe it’s selfish, but I don’t care.”
His hands clutched at Adrian as if holding him tighter could keep him here, as if love alone could defy time, defy fate.
“I don’t care,” Logan whispered again, his voice drenched in agony.
And Adrian, despite the pain, despite the exhaustion, just held him.
Held him like the ocean cradles the shore, like the sun holds the horizon before it disappears.
He held him as if he could carry Logan’s grief for just a little while.
“I understand,” Adrian breathed, his voice carrying all the quiet acceptance that Logan wasn’t ready to give.
Logan closed his eyes for a second, gathering himself, wiping away the tears that refused to stop falling. Then, as if making a silent decision, he shifted, reaching for his back pocket. Adrian watched him with quiet curiosity, his brows furrowing as Logan pulled out a small black box.
“Ad,” Logan said softly, and Adrian’s eyes fluttered open, locking onto the delicate object cradled in Logan’s hands.
A wave of confusion washed over Adrian’s face, swiftly followed by disbelief, and then a flickering emotion that eluded description, a feeling that made Logan’s heart miss a frantic beat. He held Adrian’s gaze steady as he carefully opened the box, unveiling the glinting ring nestled within.
Adrian inhaled sharply, his eyes darting between the box and Logan’s insightful gaze, as if he were assessing the very fabric of reality. Logan beamed at him with a radiant and beautifully reckless smile, laced with a hope so profound that it almost hurt to behold.
With a mix of wonder and vulnerability, Adrian’s gaze fell on the small, shimmering band resting inside the cocoon of velvet, only to rise once again to the man who held it with hands that trembled in anticipation.
“Adrian,” Logan whispered, voice thick, tears pooling in his silvery eyes, “will you marry me?”
Adrian stared at him, stunned, overwhelmed, his lips parting as a shaky laugh slipped out. “What are you doing?” he asked, even though the answer was obvious, even though his heart already knew.
“What does it look like, you silly man?” Logan chuckled, though his voice wavered.
Adrian let out a breathless laugh, shaking his head in disbelief. “You are crazy.”
Logan grinned, the kind of grin that lit up his whole face, that made the entire world disappear. “And you just love it.”
Adrian swallowed hard, his fingers brushing over Logan’s as he stared at the ring. “You can’t… You can’t want to marry a dying man.” His voice was quieter now, hesitant, filled with sorrow he couldn’t hide.
But Logan’s grip on the ring tightened, his jaw setting. “I have the ring to prove I do.” His voice was fierce, unwavering. “Is that a no?”
“What? No! Of course not!” Adrian blurted out, his heart pounding so hard he thought it might break through his fragile ribs. “I mean—yes. It’s always a yes.” His hands trembled as they hovered over the ring, as if he couldn’t quite believe it was real.
Logan stood then, tugging Adrian up with him, slow and careful, making sure not to strain his body.
A playful smirk danced upon his lips as he leaned closer and whispered, “I want to do this right, now that I’m positive I won’t be humiliated.
” He winked at Adrian, and oh that wink, a subtle gesture, tugged at the very strings of Adrian’s heart, igniting a warmth in his cheeks and making his smile blossom impossibly wide, filled with uncontainable joy.
And before Adrian could process what was happening, Logan dropped down on one knee.
Adrian let out a choked laugh, covering his mouth with his hand, his entire body trembling—not from weakness, not from sickness, but from the sheer depth of emotion drowning him.
Logan took a deep breath, his own voice struggling past the weight of his heart. “Adrian,” he began, and his eyes were stormy oceans, endless and filled with love. “Will you marry me?”
Adrian let out a broken sob, nodding furiously. “Yes. Of course. Yes.”
Logan’s face split into the most radiant smile Adrian had ever seen, a smile that could chase away every storm, every shadow. With unsteady hands, Logan pulled the ring from the box, slipping it onto Adrian’s trembling finger.
Adrian didn’t even let him stay on his knees for another second—he pulled Logan up, and then Logan practically jumped to his feet, arms wrapping around Adrian as tightly as he dared, as if holding him close could somehow fuse their souls together forever.
Adrian buried his face into Logan’s shoulder, inhaling him, clutching him, grounding himself in the only thing that had ever truly mattered.
After a long moment, Logan whispered against his temple, “Now, we’re going to take a bath together.”
Adrian let out a breathless laugh, his lips brushing against Logan’s neck as he murmured, “Okay.”
Logan squeezed him tighter.
Adrian sighed against him, feeling the warmth, the love, the life that pulsed between them.
“Logan Vaughn…” he whispered, his voice full of wonder, full of love. “I really don’t know what I’ve done right in my life to deserve you.”
Logan pulled back just enough to meet his gaze, his hands framing Adrian’s face with infinite tenderness.
“You were you…” Logan murmured, his voice full of quiet reverence. “Jumping into twelve feet waves to save the idiot who went surfing in the middle of a storm, with his mind messed up and no sleep.”
Adrian let out a weak chuckle, squeezing Logan’s fingers. “You know, Lo… I checked it.”
“Checked what?” Logan asked as they stepped into the bathroom.
“The weather. Before going out that day, I checked the forecast.” Adrian’s voice was quiet, thoughtful, laced with something almost…
mystical. “There were supposed to be ideal surfing conditions, like two- or three-foot waves, nothing major. Barely something you’d even notice.
But the storm we had? It came out of nowhere.
It had no forecast, no warnings. And that kind of storm?
It wasn’t normal for that time of year. It wasn’t supposed to happen. At all.”
Logan turned to look at him, watching the way Adrian’s tired eyes flickered with something… something he had never spoken of before.
“I didn’t think much about it back then,” Adrian continued, watching Logan turn on the water, steam rising slowly from the filling tub.
“But after you left… and then when I got my diagnosis… I wanted to look at it again. I wanted to find something—some meaning, some reason for everything that happened.” He swallowed.
“And I realized… it shouldn’t have stormed that day.
It was like… something made it happen. So we could meet. So you could be there.”
He let out a small, self-deprecating laugh. “It’s stupid, I know. But I held on to that.”
Logan shifted his gaze, his face an unreadable mask, yet beneath it, his heart thudded with trembling uncertainty, a secret storm he couldn’t quite name.
“That’s not stupid at all,” he declared, his voice carrying the steady, commanding weight of a boardroom, echoing strength and conviction that seeped into Adrian’s soul, transforming that moment into an almost oneiric state because Logan Vaughn was out of this world.
And when he spoke in that low, deliberate register, something in it held the weight of oceans, the hush of cathedrals.
And Adrian, like the rest of the world, stood no chance. He was already undone.
Slowly, Logan’s hands reached for the hem of Adrian’s shirt, peeling it away, careful with every movement.
Adrian let him, watching as Logan’s fingers ghosted over his bruised skin, the sharp rise of his ribs, the ghost-blue bruises blooming like dusk, the pinprick scars left by weeks tethered to machines.
But he was here. He was alive.