Authors: Juliet Chatham

Tags: #adult contemporary romance, #love and romance, #dating and sex, #love and marriage

Had To Be You (50 page)

BOOK: Had To Be You

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After circling just once, she was lucky to find a spot down the block and around the corner from her apartment. She would return the trusty little rental car in the morning. Rory didn’t have the strength to say goodbye to one more thing tonight.

Her body bowed slightly to the weight of her travel bag as she slung it over her shoulder to trudge up the street. Briefly, she thought about a late dinner, maybe see if Sarah was around, but then dismissed it. The only thing she wanted to do right now was crawl into bed.

It was odd not to be surrounded any longer by that wide expanse of sea and sky, the lull of the surf or the way the wind ruffled the trees. Instead of rambling thickets of sea spray roses and wild bursts of blue hydrangeas, behind tight wrought iron fences, short square front lawns and miniature shrubberies were neatly kept and contained. Instead of stars, one by one the uniform steel floodlights outside each building turned on to lead the way.

Rory cast her eyes down, measuring the stains, cracks, and grooves in the sidewalk. It was only when she was almost at her building that she finally lifted her head.

And saw Matt sitting on the front steps.

He was watching her approach and stood somewhat unsteadily as their eyes met. Wearing a white button-down shirt, sleeves rolled, over baggy cargo shorts, his lean, muscular arms and legs were practically brown with a summer tan. His dark hair looked tousled by an ocean breeze, his eyes as blue as the sea and sky combined, like he’d just stepped off the deck of a boat.

Rory had rented her apartment on this city street for over a year now, yet suddenly he was the only familiar thing in sight.

“Hey.”

She stopped short, too dumbfounded to even respond.

Blinking rapidly, she fought the immediate well of tears building. To have the rug pulled out from under her, her hopes dashed, only to have him appear here and bring possibility back was almost too much to handle. Her emotions were all over the map, the echoes of heartache and disappointment still lingering inside her chest.

“What are you doing here?” she asked, the rush of words tumbling out in a single breath.

His smile warmed his eyes. “I wanted to be here when you got home.”

A single, unexpected tear slipped past her lashes to splash against her cheek.

“I’ve done my share of thinking, soul-searching, whatever you want to call it, and it turns out the only thing I know for certain is that I still want to be that person,” he continued, taking a few steps towards her. “The one you come home to, wherever that place may be.”

She could only stare at him, speechless, as he gradually closed the distance between them.

“I mean it—if it’s going to be New York or Massachusetts, you want to travel through Europe, get a villa in Italy or sail the seven seas…well, then that’s where I plan to be. Because you’re the person who makes me happy. And what you said, about home? You’re it for me, too.”

He slowed to a stop only when he was standing directly in front of her, and gazed down into her face.

“You’ve been the only one for me for a very long time now—even longer than I might like to admit. As it turns out? You are
irreplaceable
to me, Rory Finn. So, did you really think I was going to let you just walk away?” His hand came up to touch her hair, just the tips of his fingers grazing a silky strand. “Besides, after everything? I think I should
at least
get to have the grand romantic gesture in the end. You can’t deny me that much.”

“So, that’s what you were waiting for, then? Simply to upstage me?” She shook her head, trying to joke even as the tears leaked through. “I should have known.”

“Yeah,” his voice softened more intimately as he bowed his head to kiss her, “you should have.”

He broke away from her lips, gently caressing her damp cheek with the pad of his thumb.

“I love you, Rory,” he said. “I always have, and I always will. And I realized the thing I was most afraid of…was never getting to tell you that again.”

She wiped away her last tear, wet eyes sparkling. So this was what it felt like, to free her heart from its safe hiding place, and embrace that great big possibility of what could be. It was still scary, but in the best possible way.

There is a risk in trusting someone else with your heart; it’s a fact. And finding the person you want to give it away to completely isn’t always easy. Rory was lucky enough to find it on her first try, in her best friend, but that still didn’t mean she was ready for it back then.

She wanted so badly to reach this place, but realized now, as she stood here before him, that the journey was always hers to make. After all these years, growing up, going back, moving on and moving away, through laughter, tears, heartbreak and happiness, fights and friendship, this one thing remained. It had been right there, all along.

It was always Matt. It had to be. This was love, unconditionally. “You keep saying things like that?” she said, her voice whispery with emotion. “I may just have to spend the rest of my life with you.”

Matt smiled slowly as he leaned down to kiss her again.

“I’ll consider myself forewarned.”

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

I’d like to thank everyone at Swoon Romance, most especially Georgia McBride and Mandy Schoen, for giving my little book a home, and a chance. And to everyone out there who believed in me, and helped me to finally believe in myself. (You know who you are.)

JULIET CHATHAM

A lifelong New Englander, Juliet divides her time between the North Shore and Cape Cod. Her favorite things are beaches, boats, books, bars, the Boston Red Sox and boys, but not necessarily in that order. Consequently, you’ll probably find that these are the things she writes about, too.

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