Tucking hair behind her ear, she took the box from him. Removing the lid, she saw the abundance of letters and photographs.
“Wow,” she said, shocked by the amount of stuff people had sent him. “I always wanted to write to you. I didn’t have the first clue what to say.” She looked up at him. “I’d start a letter then feel stupid. I didn’t think you’d want to hear from me.”
Dorothy had told her to simply write. Kaley never had, being too much of a coward.
“I didn’t mind. Dorothy told me you struggled on what to write. I knew then I’d make sure there was never this distance between us.”
She picked up a photo taken on Dorothy’s twenty-first birthday. Dorothy looked so happy, and Kaley did as well. “You didn’t make it for her birthday.”
“I sent you chocolates and roses.”
“I remember. They were the roses I kept until they started to smell really bad.”
He chuckled. Just looking through the stuff he’d kept let her know this had been a long time in coming.
“You’re going to make me the happiest man in the world.”
“I sure hope so.”
Quinn cupped her cheek. Putting all of the pictures back in the box, she placed the memories on the floor. “We don’t need those,” she said. “We’re going to make new ones.”
Climbing out of the bed, she straddled his lap, cupping his face and kissing him. She made a vow to never hide from him. Quinn would be the one and only man she ever gave herself to. She’d be open and honest with him from the start. For the next fifty years, they were going to be the happiest couple in the world. They would have children together, make love, enjoy each other, making every second count.
Staring into his hazel eyes, she saw the whole of their world mapped out before them. She wasn’t scared but excited. There was nothing she wanted more than to be Quinn’s woman and to give him a wonderful life.
And she did, with four children of their own.
The End