Chapter 75 AND JUST LIKE THAT, OUR LIFE FINALLY FITS
AND JUST LIKE THAT, OUR LIFE FINALLY FITS
Oliver
Daphne holds my hand, our fingers interlaced, on our way to the SUV that I’ve now registered properly in my own name here in New York, and then she challenges me to a game of rock-paper-scissors for the right to drive.
Watching her expression dance as the redness and puffiness clear away, both from her eyes and from her cheeks, the way she’s bouncing on her toes like we’re about to go on another epic road trip—this.
This is what I want.
I’ve lived in financial luxury my entire life. Slept on the world’s most expensive sheets. Eaten the world’s most expensive food. Traveled by private jet and visited resorts that most people don’t even know exist.
None of it compares to being someone’s favorite person.
To being Daphne’s favorite person.
“Tell me what you’re playing so I can lose,” I tell her.
She laughs. “Nuh-uh. You have to lose all on your own. Ready? One, two, three, go!”
She plays rock.
I switch my paper to scissors, and get the joy of hearing her laugh bounce across the parking lot.
“Cheater,” she says as I gesture her into the driver’s seat.
I kiss her because I can. “Damn. You’ve figured out my secrets.”
She drives me all over Athena’s Rest, pointing out her favorite diner—Hudson’s home crush apparently works there on the weekends—and the restaurant that Bea’s ex stole from her—with a mostly-empty parking lot and a few protesters outside, which makes Daphne cackle in glee—and the entrance to a walking-only street called the Secret Alley—we’re going back later for the cheese shop—and the place in town where she led the protest against the university’s emotional support animal policy.
We eat in the car as she drives.
She gets fries as I hand them to her.
I eat both burgers, because she’s right.
Even smashed after the way she dropped them, these are even better than the burgers we had at the saloon.
And I would’ve said that even if we hadn’t been arrested at the saloon.
Finally, she pulls into the parking lot of a four-story apartment building. “Tomorrow, I would love for you to meet my boss, and also, I’ll show you where Simon and Ryker live, but this,” she announces, “is home.”
I study the rectangular building, which seems very boring for someone like Daphne. “I like it.”
She cracks up.
It’s music.
The sound I want to hear every day—every waking hour—for the rest of my life.
I lean over the center console and kiss her again.
Her hands flutter to my cheeks as she holds me there, kissing me back with a desperation that I feel in my bones.
“I missed you,” I tell her.
“Never leaving you in jail ever ever again,” she whispers back, which sends both of us into a fit of laughter.
“God, I love you,” I say as I pop my door open.
I need to get her inside.
Inside and naked.
I can’t keep my hands off her in the elevator. I don’t know how we get through the door.
I couldn’t tell you if her apartment has carpet or wood floors or rainbows on the walls or photos of every animal Daphne’s ever saved.
How we make it down the hallway.
When my clothes all fell off me. Shoes too.
I just know I’m finally where I’ve desperately needed to be—in her arms, kissing her rough and hard and desperately while I thrust my cock inside her until we’re both coming so hard that I might never walk again.
She curls into me afterward, drawing little designs across my chest while we both catch our breath.
“You shaved,” she whispers.
“Last time,” I murmur back.
“Good. I like you scruffy.”
“I like you.”
She reaches around me and tugs at something under my shoulder, then plops a stuffed lobster down on my chest. “Oliver, meet Lolly the Lobster. She’s staying in the bed until I’m sure you’re an adequate substitute.”
I laugh. “You’re not sure I’m an adequate substitute yet?”
“Lolly’s never kidnapped me and gotten me thrown in jail.”
I roll with energy I don’t have, smiling so hard my cheeks already ache.
Daphne grins back at me and touches my cheek. “I love your face. Even when it’s grumpy and scowly. But especially when you’re happy.”
I shake my head at her. “I never expected you to be my happiness.”
“Right?” She kisses me again. “I can’t stop doing this.”
“Then don’t.”
She doesn’t.
Freaking Daphne Merriweather-Brown.
The most amazing woman in the world.
She’s my future. My dreams. And my forever love.