“I was wondering how long it would take you to get here,” Nate says as he kisses my shoulder, the gentle brush of his mouth making me shiver.

I know he’s talking about a metaphorical journey, so I can’t really find it in me to apologize. Three weeks is nothing; it could’ve taken me years to get to the point where I was ready to be with him.

“I was also worried that you’d never find that damn cereal box.”

I laugh, lacing our fingers together. Holding his hand is one of my favorite feelings.

“I met Gabby and Jasmine at a park for lunch yesterday. I had already made up my mind that I wanted to talk to you, I knew that if I shut you out forever I would regret it. I was miserable without you, Nate, I was thinking about you all the time. I realized how stupid I was being, trading one form of misery because I had the potential to feel another. Why make myself unhappy in order to avoid something that I wasn’t sure would ever happen in the first place? At least if something does happen…” If we break up, I want to say, but I don’t want to jinx it. “I’ll have gotten the chance to be happy. I don’t want to miss out on that; it would be one of the biggest regrets of my life.”

Nate’s quiet, so I look up and he’s gazing down at me with an expression that I can only describe as being full of love. How did I ever doubt, for one second, that this is exactly the place that I belong, that he’s the person that I belong with?

“Anyway,” I say, sighing. “We were at this park, and after lunch was over, I was sitting on a bench and I looked up and saw a sign that read that the playground there had been donated by this client of mine, and I thought back to what you said to me that day we were on the river, about making a difference in the world no matter how small it is,” I say, gripping his fingers tightly. “You make me see everything differently. You quiet the cynic inside of me and make me believe there’s so much more to life. And yesterday, I just wanted to talk to you; I’ve never wanted to talk to someone so badly, but…it wouldn’t have been enough.”

Nate’s arms wrap around me a little tighter, and I feel myself relax against the heat of his body. It feels so good, so freeing to get all of this out, to have it in the open between us once and for all.

“I’m sorry about the way I left that night,” he says. “I need to apologize for that.”

“No you don’t,” I tell him.

He runs his palm across my thigh, just because. “I do, Callie. You were very straightforward about what you wanted from the get-go. I just…being with you, I couldn’t help but want more. And I don’t want you to think that I deal with my problems by running away from them, because I don’t.”

“I know,” I tell him, punctuating the sentiment with a soft kiss. He brings his head down until our foreheads are touching.

“I just knew that if I stayed I’d wind up messing things up.”

“What do you mean?” I ask. If anyone was going to mess anything up, it was going to be me.

“You needed some space to figure things out. If I had stayed that night, I don’t know if I would’ve given it to you. I knew it would be best for me to get some distance from the situation, and I thought—I hoped—that when you were ready, if you were ever ready, I’d hear from you when you found that box.”

“What if I hadn’t ever found it?” Not that I really want to know the answer, but exploring possibilities is less sad and scary when you’ve already made your choice.

“With that bag of yours, it’s entirely possible,” he says laughing.

I playfully smack his arm. “It’s not that big!”

“But it is that messy,” he says, rocking me a little. “If you hadn’t found it, I probably would’ve eventually asked Gabby to arrange some kind of party or something so we could bump into each other.”

When I turn my head and look at him, I love the wry smile on his face. We’re both thinking the same thing.

“You wouldn’t have had to ask,” I tell him, laughing. Gabby would’ve been all over that without Nate ever bringing it up. She was probably planning said party when we were eating lunch yesterday. “I’m glad I found it. Doing something like that, it was so you. Even if I hadn’t found it, even if you hadn’t left me something like that, I would’ve come looking for you. I knew I would do that eventually, even when you left. I just wasn’t ready to accept it yet, if that makes any sense.”

“It makes sense.”

I bring his hand to my lips, and place a kiss on his knuckles. “You make me happy and hopeful in a way that I didn’t think I’d ever feel again,” I admit. He does so much more for me than that, but I have so much time to tell him those things.

Nate brushes his cheek against our clasped hands. “You make it easier for me to breathe. I just want you, Callie. Just you.”

I snuggle against his chest, turning my head toward his heart. “You have me.”

NATE AND I walk along a dirt path that leads back to his house. My clothes are mostly dry, but I only slipped on my pants, not feeling quite comfortable enough to walk through his neighborhood just wearing his shirt and my shoes. My own shirt and the towel we’d been sharing are draped over Nate’s right arm. His left arm is wrapped around my shoulder, pulling me close to his side.

The walk is pleasant; the air is fresh and cool and the crickets are chirping. It’s a beautiful night made even more beautiful because of the man beside me. When we finally make it to his house, Nate pushes open the back gate, locking it behind us. He puts his hand on the small of my back as he leads me up the stairs to the back porch. The rickety old slats creak as we walk across them.

“I’m going to replace this in the spring,” he says.

“The wood?”

“The whole thing. I’m going to build it out a bit, so there’s room for a grill and a table, a place to have a little get together.”

“I think that’ll be nice,” I say as he reaches for the screen door’s handle.

I step over the threshold and into the kitchen. Even though I knew that Nate has been fixing the place up, I’m surprised by how nice it is in here. I’m not sure why I half-expected him to have questionable taste, just because he’s a single guy. There are pristine cherry cabinets, stainless steel appliances, beautiful granite countertops. It’s nice but kind of sterile, and not very Nate. The place doesn’t have any personal touches; it doesn’t look lived in.

This house smells like him though, like his arms are wrapped around me and my face is buried in his neck. I close my eyes and take a deep, deep breath.

“You did all this?” I ask, turning to my right and splaying my hands out on top of the granite.

Nate walks up behind me, pressing his chest against my back. I gasp, not really expecting that from him, but I relax into him seconds later. He pushes my hair to the side—over my shoulder—giving him access to my neck, where he kisses and licks his way across my skin. I’ve missed this feeling so much. And he’s hard already, I can feel it. Unfortunately for him I’m in the mood to tease him tonight.

“Mmm-hmm,” he hums, the vibration tickling my ear, making me shiver.

He lifts his shirt off of me and throws it onto the floor; then he wraps his arms around my waist, slipping his hand beneath the waistband of my pants. I don’t have any underwear on; I’d taken them off to dry by the fire. I suck in a deep breath at the ticklish sensation his fingers leave in their wake, then he slides them down, down between my legs until I gasp.

“You need some-” my breath hitches, “accessories in here,” I manage to say, kind of panting. This is moving a little faster than I intended it to, which…I don’t know what I expected because we haven’t seen each other in three weeks. Nate reaches around and gently rolls my nipple between his fingers as he simultaneously pulls me back against him, my ass grinding into his erection. I give it a little shake for retribution.