Chapter 19

My night on the sofa with Lizzie was beyond anything I’d ever experienced or could have imagined. Of course I’d been with women before. However, my feelings for her were like some sort of vibrating force that began deep in the pit of my belly and sizzled outward to the tips of my fingers and toes, to the very top of my head.

I felt euphoric. The happiness was almost frightening; I hadn’t believed I could feel anything like it, not for a very long time.

The sun was just coming up when she kissed my lips softly and climbed quietly back upstairs.

J.J. and Meg had planned a picnic for lunch. We had to walk a path through a small forest.

“Are you all right?” Lizzie asked me when I paused again to let my leg rest. “I knew we shouldn’t have walked so far.”

“I’ll be fine. I just need to sit down for a minute.” I pointed. “I see a bench.”

“Take your time,” Meg said. “Why don’t the two of you meet us at the picnic area in about a half hour? It’s just across that bridge. We’ll take the kids.”

Meg pushed the stroller down the path while Lizzie and I sat down on the bench. She immediately took hold of my hand.

“Are you feeling all right?” I asked her.

She faced me and smiled. “Far better than all right. It’s strange, because days ago I was mourning Wendy’s loss and I thought I could never be happy again. What about you?”

“I’m great. Never been happier. I promise I’ll never hurt you, Lizzie. We can take a step back if you prefer.”

She squeezed my hand. “I don’t want to fight this. I can’t explain it, but everything in my heart and mind is urging me to leap right in. Blindly. I can’t possibly walk away from you.”

I wrapped my arm around her shoulder, pulled her close and kissed the top of her head. “When I woke up this morning I was afraid. Afraid that you were going to tell me we made a mistake, and that I should go home and give you some space to decide what you really want.”

“I don’t want space,” she replied. “Not from you. I’m just going to have to figure out how to make everything else work around what we’ve started.”

“I want that too. I want you in my life.”

Lizzie wet her lips and spoke with conviction. “I’ve been doing a lot of thinking. I don’t want to live at home anymore.”

“Wow. Are you sure?”

“Yes, very sure. Trust me, this is not a rushed decision.”

“I can’t believe how much my life has changed for the better since I met you,” I whispered. “It hardly seems real.”

“I feel the same way,” she replied.