Maybe home is where the heart is? the note said. Our third date was at Calder’s apartment. I imagine he broke the lease when he moved up to New York, but I don’t know where else to go, so I drive over to his complex.
The third lily rests on the doorstep of his old residence. I give a tentative knock at the door, but no one answers, and when I peek through the window, I see that the place is empty. He’s not here. I open the note.
No one lives here anymore. Where do you feel at home?
Truth: The only time I felt at home in this apartment was when you were here with me, on our third date. The only time I’ve felt at home anywhere since I sold the estate was by your side. In your arms.
Dare: I dare you to trust me. I dare you to believe that I would never intentionally hurt you, that the lies I’ve told and the poor choices I’ve made were done out of a misguided attempt to protect you from the worst parts of me.
You don’t need that protection. You need me to trust you, too.
I dare you to give me the chance to prove that trust to you.
His words warm me from my toes to my ears. He trusts me. He wants to earn my trust, too. It’s like he’s seen the very core of my fears and is doing everything in his power to chase them away.
I need to see him. I need to hear his voice and feel his skin beneath my hands.
Our last “date,” if you can call it that, began at my apartment. I speed the entire way there.
Once more, I find the lily and note on the doorstep.
Truth: The night I showed up at your apartment was the night I realized the true depth of my feelings for you. When you called me, I thought something terrible had happened, and it was as if my entire world came to a halt. You’ve changed me forever, Lily, and that was the night ">I start to protest, but he Dare: I dare you to love me. It’s selfish of me, I know, but your love is the only thing I truly want in this world.
I dare you to meet me where it all began—back at the gallery.
There are tears in my eyes, but I don’t bother trying to hold them back.
I brush the back of my hand against my cheeks as I head back to my car. Our next “date” of sorts was our mini-escape up to the Cunningham estate. It’s a bit of a drive, but I’d travel across the world to see Calder right now.
One thing niggles at me, though. Calder and I definitely shared a very intimate experience in the gallery at his estate, but even though that was the first time I allowed him to touch me, I don’t consider that to be where everything began. In fact, by Calder’s own account he’d noticed me months before, at the Center’s Arts & Hearts fundraiser.
Which, I remember suddenly, took place in the Frazer Center’s gallery.
I pull a U-turn at the next light and race back to the Center.
It’s late by the time I pull into the parking lot. Dad’s car is missing, so it looks like he’s already gone for the day, but I spot Calder’s silver sedan right next to the door. I park next to him and run inside.
“Calder?” I race down the hallway and back into the gallery.
He’s facing away from me, looking at some piece on the wall, but he turns when he hears me and his entire face lights up. My chest aches at the sight of him. He crosses the room to my side in a matter of heartbeats.
He has another purple lily in his hand, but it’s forgotten as he grabs me and yanks me against him. He curls his fingers against my back and buries his face in my hair, and I can feel his breath shudder in his chest as he breathes me in.
He must remember himself suddenly, though, because he stiffens and pulls away. His eyes sweep across my body, lingering on the wound on my face and the cast on my right arm. publicationit10
“I didn’t know,” he says. “I—when I heard, I…” His eyes drop to my arm, then shift back to my face. “I’d been avoiding the news, the internet, anything that would remind me of my past life. Or of you. Not that it mattered. I thought of you every waking minute.” He shakes his head. “It was only chance that I saw the story, and when I realized what had happened, when I saw you’d been hurt, I… I lost it. I completely lost it.”
He pulls me closer.
“That man will pay for this,” Calder says, his voice like steel. He reaches out and touches my sling—lightly, as if he’s afraid that he might hurt me.
“We’re pressing charges,” I tell him.
He nods, but his eyes flash with anger and I know he won’t let this go easily.
But I don’t want to think about that incident now, not when he’s in front of me. I raise my hand and touch his cheek, and the warmth of his skin confirms that he is in fact real. He’s actually here in front of me.
“This is my fault,” he says. “God, I’m sorry, Lily.”
I shake my head. “You couldn’t have known this would happen.”
“But I could have guessed the reporters would come after you. I should never have left you here alone.”
I don’t have an answer, so instead I curl my hand around his neck and pull his face down to mine.
The kiss is tentative on both sides, little more than a brushing of the lips, but it sends tiny shocks all the way down to my toes. I can try to hold on to my anger, my fear, my better sense—but my body will betray me every time. My body knows the truth.
“I love you,” Calder says against my mouth. “I love you, and I promise I’ll never walk away from you again.”
“I love you, too.” I’ve waited so long to say those words that they don’t sound like enough. Not nearly enough.
But Calder’s eyes grow bright, and he breaks into a grin before leaning down and kissing me again. This kiss is Wentworth Cunninghamhe" aid="lpn’t hesitant. This kiss holds all of the emotion of these past few weeks, all of the longing and passion and hope we’ve both held back.
When we pull away from each other, I’m grinning like an idiot. “How did you even get in here? How did you get past my dad?”
Calder chuckles and rubs the back of his head. “It took some work. I called him this morning and actually convinced him to hear me out.”
“What did you tell him?”
“The truth. That I love you. And that I was going to do everything in my power to earn your forgiveness. To make you happy. I told him that if I had to spend every day for the rest of my life on my knees begging you to forgive me, I’d do it, just for the chance to be by your side.” The corner of his mouth curls up. “I guess I convinced him, since he let me in here.”