A Cosmic Kind of Love(107)

    It’s a surprise. But you need it. And it’ll be there before you need to go through security. Promise.



What the hell?

Sighing, I checked in so I’d at least have my ticket ready to go, and I rolled my carry-on suitcase behind me as I found a spot to stand near the entrance. Playing Candy Crush on my phone, I glanced up now and then to check if my surprise package had arrived. I wondered who was bringing it.

Forty minutes passed, and I was really getting antsy about my flight. Candy Crush had long lost its luster, and I just stood there glaring at the doors every time more people walked in.

Then suddenly the doors parted and Chris jogged through them, his hair askew, his cheeks flushed, his eyes darting in every direction.

What. The. Hell?

My suitcase clattered to the ground as I let go of the handle in shock.

Chris’s eyes followed the sound, and our gazes locked.

He swallowed hard and crossed the distance between us.

Chris was here.

“Did Althea send you?”

His lips twitched as his eyes seemed to catalog every inch of my face, as if he was afraid he’d never see me again. “Yeah.”

“What are you doing here?”

Chris’s expression turned pained, and he said my name as if it the consonants and vowels had jagged edges.

“Chris?”

“I fucked up.” He took a step closer to me, invading my personal space.

I didn’t care.

“I was so distracted with this job offer and with the revelations about my father that I stopped seeing you clearly. You were right about him and Darcy. They were trying to manipulate me.”

“I wish I hadn’t been right, because I know how much you hoped your father was starting to change.”

“I know.” His eyes brightened with tears. “And that’s why I fucked up. Because even now, even after I hurt you, you still don’t want anything to hurt me.”

“I don’t. I never want that.”

He grasped my arms in his hands.

“Darcy is out of my life for good. No one gets to come between us. You’re my priority. You’re always my priority. I never want you to think your feelings don’t matter to me, and I’m so sorry that you felt that way. Hallie, that will never happen again. And I’m so sorry for waiting like an asshole for you to come to me this week. I should have chased after you as soon as you left.” Chris bowed his head to mine, his voice gravelly with fierceness. “I shouldn’t have let you leave in the first place. Because we will probably argue in the future, Hallie. Over things that don’t matter and things that do. That doesn’t mean we’re not meant for each other. It just means we’re human.”

“I know. I know that. I do.”

Hope lit his eyes. “Does this mean you can forgive me and give me a second chance?”

“What about everything else? About the job?”

Chris smoothed his hands up my arms, along my shoulders, to clasp my face in his hands. I shivered at his touch, at the adoration in his eyes. “I would like to take the job. But it has to be our decision because I want us to be together. I’ve been a student and a soldier, an astronaut, a scientist, and a writer. And I’ve never felt a hundred percent certain that any of those things were something I wanted or needed to be.” He touched his forehead to mine. “But being yours . . . that’s the only thing in my life I am one hundred percent certain I want and need to be.”

Tears slipped free as I wrapped my hands around his nape, holding on for dear life.

“So if you want me to drop everything right now and go on this sabbatical trip with you, I will do it. Because there is nowhere in the universe I’d rather be. I love you.”

For a moment, his beautiful vows of love and commitment were all I could hear.

“I love you too.” I reached for Chris’s mouth, needing his lips on mine.

We kissed like we hadn’t seen each other in years, hungry and desperate and so full of love we couldn’t contain it.

Neither of us cared we were in public.

I don’t think either of us were even really aware of anything but the other person.

Yet as his kisses slowed, growing softer, sweeter, his words penetrated.

I reluctantly released his mouth. “Uh . . . sabbatical trip?”

Chris brushed my hair off my face. “I understand, Hallie. You taking the trip without me.”

“What trip?”

“The backpacking trip.”

“I’m not going backpacking. Have you seen what I’m wearing?”

Glancing down at my pencil skirt, shirt, and heels, Chris frowned. “Okay. I’m confused. Althea told me you were at the airport because you were taking a three-month trip to get away from me.”

That sneaky . . . Attempting not to grin and failing, I said, “I’m so sorry, Chris. I think maybe she was just trying to push us together. I’m just going to Vermont for the weekend. A business trip.”

He let out a string of expletives that made me cover my mouth to hide my smile. Chris narrowed his gaze on me, though I saw the glitter of possible amusement in his eyes. “This isn’t funny. I nearly had a heart attack trying to get here in time.”

As if she were psychic, my phone rang and it was Althea. I waved my phone at Chris so he could see who was calling. He narrowed his eyes, and I saw the wheels turning in his mind. Poor Althea. I think a little revenge might be in her future.