Hir þotted in desen as well. “Noted. One small dog, preferably fluffy”
They laughed enough to make their stomachs hurt and then lay on the grass with their heads at opposite ends and stated up at the clouch.
Jennifer used to feel that love had to be complicated. “It had to hurt to be real,” she said.
“Now I know love can be gentle. Soft. Like this”
He kissed hes temple. “I want to build a life with you, Jen. Every piece of it.”
“And I want to build it with you.”
That night, when they packed the st
stult as the next day, Jennifer stood center in the cabin and looked all around. “We should build something like this one day,” she said. “Aplace just for Where we can come when life gets too noisy.”
Byron came up from behind and wrapped his arms around her waist. “Let’s do ¡L”
She turned in his arms. “Are we really doing this
“Yes,” he whispered “We’re starting something real.”
Jennifer united, leaning her head against his chest. The sound of his heartbeat was steady, strong, and familiar.
For the first time in a long time, she felt not afraid. She felt safe. She felt like she belonged.
Not in a plann
But in a person
And that was everything
Chapter 2
The sun was still rising on a silent Sunday morning. The kind of morning when the air felt freshly poured from a pot, and the sun sat haphazardly in the sky, dragging on the moment Happöy–fermifer stirred awake to the sound of birds chirping outside her window and the gentle sound of dishes being moved in the kitchen.
pereifen smiled in a half–sleep. Byron was already awake. She stretched upward, taking a seat with the soft, cozy blanket around her; everything feir lighter now since the weekend spent at pe cabin easier, more hopeful. Byron had moved in two weeks before. It was fresh, yet it felt the ho
Jennifer got up, slipped on a robe, and packed down the hall. Byron was making pancakes, his hair a slight mess, a tune softly playing on his lips.
“Morning,” she
He turned around, smiling and holding out a hand. “Moning, beautiful”
Without so much as a moment’s pame, the stepped into him against his chest. His heartbeat was steady and strong. That wound was indeed, what she adored more than anything.
You make moching better,” the whispered.
“Only because you are in them.”
They stood together for a long time, their embrace saying everything their lips could not. He kissed the top of her head and turned back to the stove.
“Your favorite,” he said, flipping a pancake “Blueberry with a pinch of cinnamon
Jennifer smiled and sat at the table watching him with pride. There was thought behind him. It wasn’t some grand thing; it was an accumulation of little gestures. How he remembered her coffee order How he tucked her in with the blanket when she passed out on the coach. How he looked at her, as if the mattered
After breakfast while sharing some quiet smiles together, not knowing it would become something even more significant, it was Jennifer’s morning that day.
Late afternoon, listen suggested they walk in the nearby park. That park had always been special to them because before becoming a couple, they would sit on those benches talking all manner of everything and nothing.
about
Jennifer was wearing a simple seater and denim trousers, while her hairstyle wasted into a loose ponytail. The weather was warm but a little breezy, with spring flowers popping even wwwrywhere along the path.
They walked really slowly, holding hands, sometimes just stopping to admire the bright blossoms radiating their respective colors or watching the peaceful ducks in the pond
*1 krve days like this,” said Jermiter “Simple. Peaceful.”
“Ideold Byron, squeezing her hand Sightly.
When they reached their usual bench under the andem oaks, Byron stopped.
“Let’s sit for a moment,” he said
jennifer nodded and settled beside him, leaning against hin,
For a while, they just sat in silence down there, seeing the moment.
Then Byton turned toward her, a soft but serious look in his eyes.
“Tem,” he said. “Thave been thinking a for the past few days.”
some serious changes
“You need to look at me,” said the tour, and she understood that what it meant was going to cause sm
“About us,” he continued. “About how far we’ve come
She slowly nodded, her heart beating just a little quicker now.
“I know I’m not perfect, and things haven’t always been so easy. But loving you is the easiest thing I have ever done. You make everything better, even the hard days.” True his promise, Jennifer Leyes were now fill of emocions,
He dipped into his incoat pocket and retrieved a modest le red box that, judging from its genions, could well be the land you find inside a ring box, something she had been expecting winding too much television and movies but it didn’t resemble such a bar, it was simple, soft, and worn as if it had been kept in his pocket for a long time.
“I’m not cochestrating some major moment,” he ad. “Nothing flash, no big fireworks displays, Just as two here, where it all began.”
The opened the bom
tmulde it was a small, delicaterering, graced by a single, small diamond it was not extravagant, but rather beautful, pure and honest, just like him. Jennifer stared at the ring, her heart now full.
1 lave you jem,” he said, his vake shaking slightly. “Not because need you, but I choose you. Each day. And 1 want to keep choosing you Would you marry me Tram filled herejil
Not the kind of tears she used to shed in sadness, in confusion or in padr
These were different.
These were tears of the realization that your heart is finally safe. That is found a home.
She nodded slowly, unable to utter a sound at fast. Then she whispered, “Yes Yes, I will”
Byron similed, slipping the ring onto her linger.
Shan Loolandair then at hims
“It’s beautiful,” she said.
“You’re poulet,” he whispered back
And then he had her right there under the oak tree where their journey had begun
That night Dernier lay awake in her bed, staring at the ring on her finger. Byron slept next to her, breathing softly.
She reached over and brushed a place of halt from his fourhead, he heart so full it felt like it might oth
The past few months had seen the ergence of a gal who was much diferents the previous one – the broken gll who was fald, delete, and unsure of everything. The gui who had withdrawn from feeling pain
And today……. She is here.
Chapter 23
Not saved by tome other person, but rather allowing herself to be healed
In the right time frame.
And brainly.
She now understood healing did not mean that you forgot your past experience. Futher, it doesn’t mean you ignore the pain.
simply meant, looking at the scar and saying, “You don’t define me anymore.”
Teeling joy without puilt. Trust without fear. Love without the fear of loung oneself.
She rolled up to her side, placing her handover Byron’s.
“I thought I had lost everything,” she whispered into the dark “Maybe maybe I needed to lose myself to find the person I was meant to be.”
And then, she smiled softly to hersell.
Loving Byron wasn’t about filling someone else’s empty void.
It was about building something real with someone who picked her every day, Claws and all.
And when she closed her eyes, she knew that her heart would finally become whole again
Not because everything was perfect
But because she had chosen to love an
Wisely.
The End
