“They weren’t going to kill me, Letty. People notice when mobsters murder wrestling stars who they just recently tried to draft into an illegal gambling ring.”
“Well even so, my point stands. Working with me on a project was a great idea. It did make me happy, Tate. It made me happier than I’ve ever been.”
“Doesn’t change how selfish it was. I just…wanted to hang out with you.”
“If you’re waiting for me to fault you for that, you’re going to be here a long time, babe.”
He looked up at that, in a way that reminded her of something.
And then she remembered: it was what she used to do, to stop herself crying in front of him.
“I love you. Do you know that?”
“I don’t see how I could possibly not. You’ve told me in every conceivable way.”
“I’m gonna keep telling you, every day and all the time and always. And I have time now to do it. I got five hundred thousand dollars in my back pocket and nowhere else I need to be.”
Five hundred thousand dollars! her mind screamed.
But she couldn’t focus on that now. Nor on where it would leadbecause by God she would make sure it wasn’t somewhere bad. No, all she could think about was the world now opening up before them, built on trust and truth and love. Oh, so much love.
“No more wrestling?”
“No more wrestling. No more of anything except all the things we should have done seven years ago, before I fucked it up. All the movie marathons we missed and the hand holding we didn’t do…the music we didn’t share while lying on your bed in a room I never saw…” he started, voice wavering so much by the end that she had to pick up the thread where he had put it down.
She just didn’t expect it to be so easy.
As though the life they should have led had been inside her all along.
“Splitting pizza slices outside DiMarco’s, safe and warm inside your jacket.”
“And me driving you home, with ‘Pocketful of Sunshine’ blaring out of the speakers.”
“Then in the summer…in the summer maybe you take me to the beach…and draw our names in the sand…” Letty said, her own voice wavering nowfor the loveliness of the past that never happened, and for fingertips that swiped away the tears.
“God yeah, honey. I’m right there. I’m doing it now, with a heart around them both. Do you see it?”
“I see it. I really see it. I see exactly how sweet our lives could have been.”
She was crying openly when she said it, one hand pressing his to the side of her face. Holding him there, so he would hold her. Though she didn’t need to.
He had hold of her just fine. He would always have hold of her now.
“Oh my love. My Letty” he said as he drew her to him. “Our lives have only just begun.”
For all of you everywhere who know what it’s like.