“Lucy, my Lucy, what the hell were you doing?”
My head jerks up and I’m met with Fisher’s worried, tear-filled eyes as he stares down at me and begins smoothing my wet hair off of my face before running both of his palms over the top of my head, and cupping the back of it in his hands.
“I didn’t think I would get to you in time. Oh, my God, I almost lost you,” he whispers in fear. “That wave went over top of you and I almost lost you.”
I throw myself against him, wrapping my arms around his shoulders, my sobs echoing around the room when I feel his strong arms encircle my waist and pull me as close to him as possible. He’s so warm and real and alive that I can’t stop crying. I pull back a little, just enough to be able to see his face. His beautiful, wonderful face that I can’t imagine never seeing again, never touching again or never kissing again.
“I love you, I love you so much,” I tell him with a raspy voice as the tears fall down my face, mixing with salt water.
He lets out a shaky gasp, sliding his hands to my cheeks and holding my face in his palms. “You have no idea how much I love you, Lucy. No fucking idea.”
I nod against his hands, my lips quivering with the tears that continue to fall. “I do. I know, I’ve always known, I just didn’t want to see it. I see it now and I’m so sorry. I should have believed you, I should have trusted you. I love you, Fisher. With everything I have and everything I am.”
His sobs join my own and he pulls me roughly back to him. I’m seated in his lap, cradled in his arms as he rocks us back and forth on the floor of the lighthouse. He only lets go of me long enough to wrap the large blanket around both of our shoulders, before pulling me back to the warmth of his chest.
“You’re my light, Lucy,” he tells me as I run my hands over his face, his shoulders and his chest, still trying to convince myself that he’s real and he’s here and I didn’t lose him. “You are always the light in my darkness. You’re the reason I’m alive, you’re the reason I’m here and you’re the reason I breathe, every day.”
He kisses my nose, my cheeks and my forehead before pressing a gentle kiss to my lips.
“I kept my promise. I found my way back to you and I will ALWAYS find my way back to you, no matter where I go, forever,” he vows.
“Please, don’t leave me, ever again,” I beg him. “I love you. You are everything to me. I don’t care about Melanie, I don’t care about the inn, I don’t care about anything but being with you and loving you for the rest of my life.”
He wipes the tears from my eyes before closing his own, resting his forehead against mine.
“There never has been, nor will there ever be anyone but you, Lucy. How could anyone possibly compete with you?” he asks me. “You’ve been in my heart since I was eleven years old. You are the calm to my storm and I never should’ve pushed you away. I should’ve recognized how fucking strong you are, how strong you’ve always been. Walking away from you was the worst mistake I ever made. I can’t live without you, Lucy, I can’t. Please, come back to me. Marry me. Love me. Grow old with me. I can’t do this without you.”
I kiss his lips, lingering against his mouth.
“I can’t come back, because I never left. I never left,” I whisper against his lips. “I’ve always been here, waiting for you to come back to me.”
Fisher leans our bodies sideways, reaching for his wetsuit. He drags it across the floor with one hand, refusing to let go of me with the other. He unzips a small pocket on the chest of the suit and pulls something out of it. Bringing his hand between us, I look down and find my engagement and wedding rings resting in his palm.
My eyes grow blurry with tears all over again when I see them sitting there.
“I’ve carried these with me every day since you sent them back to me. I don’t want to hold onto them anymore,” he tells me as he grabs my left hand and slides them on my ring finger.
He brings my hand up to his mouth and presses a kiss over top of the rings.
“I love you for being so strong.”
He flips my hand over and kisses my palm.
“I love you for waiting for me to come back to you.”
He wraps his hand around my wrist and pulls me against him, kissing me with love and passion and promise.
“I love you for meeting me at this lighthouse, even though you took ten years off my life,” he tells me with a grin.
He leans his head to the side and kisses my cheek, moving his lips to my ear.
“Most of all, I love you because you’re Lucy,” he whispers against my ear. “MY Lucy.”
As the storm rages around us, nestled on the floor of the lighthouse on top of the pile of blankets, Fisher slowly removes the wet clothes from my body. He touches and kisses and runs his hands over every inch of my body, whispering words of love after each kiss. He holds himself above me and I wrap my legs around his waist, pulling him down on top of me, wanting to feel his weight and his strength. I will never get used to the sensation of him entering me for the first time, how full and loved and wanted he makes me feel. Our love spans so many years and is filled with so many memories, I could never imagine another day without him and I say a silent prayer that I will never have to.
Fisher and I move together slowly, holding each other tightly with the wind and the rain beating against the lighthouse.
The same lighthouse that brought us together when we were children.