37. Mitch
CHAPTER 37
MITCH
“ I ’m so proud of you,” Stacey says, laying her head on my shoulder.
I wrap an arm around her and guide her to the couch. We’ve barely taken a moment to stop since we started putting together the ad, and I want to talk to her. As we both sit down, my eyes fall on the bouquet of flowers I brought her the other day. I see the little card peeking out of the edge and I know that it’s finally time.
“Hey,” I say. “You never opened it.”
“Opened what?” she asks. I point to the card in the flowers. “Oh, I guess I didn’t. Are there more Blizzards tickets in there or something?”
I laugh, remembering the first flowers I ever sent her last year included a ticket to a home game. “No. Open it.”
She reaches for the envelope and pulls out the card. I can see it over her shoulder, written in my own handwriting this time .
Hey love,
You don’t just deserve peonies. You deserve the whole dang garden. I hope you’ll let me keep giving it to you. I love you.
- Mitch
“I love you,” I whisper in her ear. “I didn’t think I could be with anyone because I don’t want to be a burden, but you make me want to try.”
She looks up at me with soft eyes and says, “I love you, too, Mitch.” It floors me, those words coming out of Stacey Anderson’s mouth aimed at me. “You could never be a burden,” she says. “You make me want to try too.”
“So,” I say. “Are we doing this?”
She takes my neck in her hand and pulls my head down to her level. Her fingers run through my hair as our lips meet. The kiss is quiet and sweet and so different from our first. It’s also just as perfect. Because it’s us.
When we finally part, she rests her nose against mine and says, “We’re doing this.”