Page 100 of Life’s Too Short

He smiled. Then he took the ring out of the tin, slid it onto my finger, and bent to kiss me. When he came back up, I stood there, looking at my hand, blinking back tears.

“Thank you,” I breathed, peering up at him.

His green eyes held mine. “I would give you the whole world if I could.” He studied me for a moment. “You had all of this planned, didn’t you?”

“What?” I sniffed.

“You knew I was going to fall for you. That I didn’t stand a chance.”

I smiled. “I’d like to take more credit. But to be honest, with all my problems, I didn’t think you’d even want me.”

He shook his head. “Did you know my grandparents lived their whole life in this house? They were the happiest couple I’ve ever known. My grandma married my grandpa a month after they met. I never understood it. I never imagined that I’d ever feel that sure about anyone that soon. Or ever. Until you.”

He put his warm hands on my cheeks.

“You are the flood, Vanessa. You pour into me, washing away everything that I used to think mattered and then filling me up to the top until I’m drowned in nothing but you.”

My mouth fell open and I couldn’t even breathe. No one had ever said anything so beautiful to me. Ever.

“Adrian…”

He shook his head. “You don’t have to say anything. It’s just true. And I never had any choice in the matter.”

The welling tears broke free and slid down my cheeks.

I felt so lucky to be cared for by him. And to be different for him than anyone else had ever been.

He was different for me too.

I was in love with this man. There was no other way to put it. I was in love with him. And he wasn’t even trying to make me love him. He was just being who he was.

I’d seen so much of the world. But I’d never see enough of Adrian. Even if I got a lifetime on this Earth, to be married to him and grow old with him, it wouldn’t be enough.

A sudden, bottomless, aching sadness overcame me. Invisible fingers reached up and choked me from the inside.

I was probably going to die. Soon.

This realization hit me in a way that it never had. In all my years of living with this unknown, I’d never felt it this deep in my bones. It had never been this savage.

I’d always suspected I would die young. Then my hand started acting up and I knew I would. I was at peace with it, for the most part. I’d lived a great life. I had no regrets. But now everything was different.

I wanted to stay. I wanted to stay with him.

And the fact that I couldn’t, that I couldn’t get all of him that I wanted, was devastating.

I didn’t want to leave him.

How could the universe show me how pure, how perfect, love could be, and then kill me?

A wave of grief poured over me. That forbidden emotion that I never let in. I looked right at the sun and it exploded, crashed into me, and seared me alive.

I started to cry. Racking, choking sobs.

His arms wrapped around me. “What’s wrong?”

I shook my head into his chest. “I’m so afraid of losing you.”

“You won’t,” he whispered. “You will never lose me.”