Chapter 118: Still Here – Part 2

~ ELRETH ~

Then he sighed and pushed off the sleeping platform to kneel on the stone floor at her feet, looking up at her, his hands on her thighs, and his eyes bright and earnest. "But this is life now, El. This is us. This is our family. We'll be Dad and Mom now. And I know… I know the first thing they'd do is tell you not to let them hold you back from that."

Elreth nodded, because he was right. It was the very things she chastised herself about every day.

But it didn't change how she felt.

"El, I—"

"I love you, Aaryn," she whispered, taking his face and pulling him into a kiss.

He clutched at her, holding her to him in a kiss that lacked the heat of the night before, but was saturated in the love that held them together, and had held them together through everything so far.

When they both pulled away, Elreth made herself smile. "He's going to call you Dad and that's… that's going to be the hottest thing ever, Aaryn."