Page 105 of Call You Mine
My chest feelswarm as my eyes grow heavy, my body sinking into my bed.
The night felt so easy. So right.
Soreal.
I keep getting glimpses of that side of Ava—the one I thought she kept hidden, but it’s the one I think she’d be if she wasn’t so wrapped up in that beautifully complex brain of hers—and I cherish them.
She seemed a little caught up in her mind when she got home from work, but I wanted to make sure she was fed and relaxed. I was hoping she might want to stay up and talk, maybe just spend some time together after Georgie went to bed, but I don’t think we’re there yet.
Maybe one day.
Because I refuse to accept that there’s anything fake about this.
And I plan on proving just that to Ava.
We have a few weeks before the adoption will be finalized—there’s no doubt in my mind that it will be. Ava is everything Georgie needs.
And I need them both.
I decided the moment I said “I do”, and our lips met in just a whisper of a kiss, our closest friends cheering as the officiant introduced us as the Montgomerys, that I needed to tell Ava how I feel about her.
How the feelings have only grown since that Valentine’s Day night.
The night I was going to pour my heart out into her hands and watch with bated breath for what she was going to do with it.
She needs to know how I feel.
I drift off to sleep, my mind on Ava and the feeling of her skin, her hair, her lips. Everything and anything about her, because she’s better than any dream I could ever have.
My heart leaps in my chest as I resist the urge to let out a scream that would be quite embarrassing for me. I rub my eyes, trying to adjust to the darkness, making the dark figure standing in my living room clear enough for me to see who it is. “Georgie? What the hell are you doing up?”
I just needed some water, and now I’m almost peeing my pants on my kitchen floor.
Letting out a dry chuckle as my heart rate goes back to resting, I grab a water bottle from the fridge. “Is this a new hobby of yours? Standing in the dark until someone notices you?”
Georgie doesn’t say anything, but I see her bring a hand to her eye, swiping just under her lashes. She sniffles, and I immediately set my water down, closing the distance between us.
“G,” I start, leaning down to meet her eyes. “What’s wrong?”
She shakes her head, taking a step back from me, and theurge to pull her close, demanding to know what’s wrong so I can fix it is almost too strong to ignore.
As my vision adjusts to the darkness, I find her eyes red-rimmed and glassy, her shoulders folding in as she wraps her arms around herself, and I can’t stop myself from reaching for her, bringing her into my chest where her sniffling immediately turns to sobs, and I can feel my heart breaking in half.
It’s at that moment that I realize I will do anything for this girl. I will find whatever she’s lost; I will fix whatever was broken; I will kill whoever hurt her.
My love for Ava has been a fire I feel deep in my soul, one that has been burning for months and months, slowly growing stronger the longer I tried to ignore it.
But my love for Georgie, while just as certain, is the kind of fire that catches all at once—a sudden blaze that somehow settled into my chest without me realizing.
Like it’s always belonged there.
Georgie’s breaths become slower as her sobs fade into muffled cries against my chest, her body settling into me as if realizing that I’m here to hold it all together, so she can fall apart.
She reminds me so much of Ava—putting on a strong front until it all becomes too much.
The tension in her body begins to release, and her arms, tightly wound around her waist, fall to wrap around me. I hold her closer, hoping she feels safe, here in my arms, from whatever made her cry.
I don’t know how many minutes pass—it could’ve been two, or it could’ve been twenty—when she finally lifts her head from where it rests against me, pulling away just enough to stand on her own.
