Free ALoveSoDeep by Lili Valente

feeling like the luckiest woman in the world, as I watch my gorgeous man walk naked across the roof to toss the used condom in a trashcan near the grill, and turn back to me with a smile on his face that assures me there is nowhere he’d rather be than here with me.
    After we’re snuggled up again, I tell him about Aunt Sarah and the will, about flying out with the kids. I tell him about Danny’s girlfriend, Sam, and how well he’s been doing in school. I tell him about the friends I’ve made at the community pool, and the way Emmie took to swimming like she was born in the water. I tell him about my courses at the U of H, Maui campus, and my night runs, and how sometimes the sadness was so strong nothing could make me feel better except running down to the shore and watching the waves pound against the rocks.
    And then, finally, I tell him about the baby. How, at first, knowing I was having our child was all that kept me going, and how losing that sweet little life almost killed me. I can’t keep from crying as I confess it all, but it’s okay, because Gabe cries, too. He pulls me into his arms and wraps himself around me and my tears wet his chest and his tears dampen my hair, but for the first time, the grief is bearable, because Gabe is here to share it with me.
    By the time we’re finished talking and crying and talking some more, the sun has long set and the first stars are flickering to life in the dark blue sky, but we still don’t move for a long time. We stay entwined on the lounge chair, quiet in the darkness, giving everything we’ve shared time to settle and harden, cementing us to each other even tighter than we were before, so tight I know nothing will ever come between us again.
    “We’re going to take care of the things that need to be taken care of, and then we’re getting out of here,” Gabe says, proving he feels it, too, that he and I have become us again. “I’m coming to Hawaii with you. I’m not going back to my old school. I’ll finish up what I can on Maui, and then take things from there.”
    “I think the campus on Oahu has a law school,” I say. “We could rent out the Maui house, and move islands when you get in.”
    He hugs me closer. “You’ve got a lot of faith in me.”
    “Absolutely,” I say, pressing a kiss to his bare chest.
    “I can’t believe I left to go have the surgery without at least trying to contact you,” he says, confirming my suspicion that this is the part of our story that troubles him the most. “Something must have happened. Something with my parents.” He curses. “I wish I could fucking remember.”
    “You will,” I say, believing it with my entire heart. “So much has come back to you, just today. Give it time.”
    “It’s already taken too much time,” he says. “I hate that I wasn’t there for you. I hate that I don’t know why my parents did what they did.”
    “Then let’s go see what we can find,” I say, standing and stretching my arms over my head, feeling more satisfied than I’ve felt in ages. “I’ll take Charlene’s computer, and you see what you can find on your father’s.”
    “Sounds perfect,” he says, smacking my bare bottom, making me laugh as I turn to retaliate, chasing him naked across the roof to smack his ass before we declare a truce and walk hand in hand back to reclaim our clothes.
    Minutes later, we’re dressed and headed back down the fire escape to Aaron Alexander’s office, ready to hunt for the answers we need to put the past to rest and get started on forever.

CHAPTER NINE

Gabe “Come what sorrow can,
It cannot countervail the exchange of joy,
That one short minute gives me in her sight.” -Shakespeare
    Every minute with her is more perfect than the last. It doesn’t matter if we’re talking, making love, goofing off, or hacking into computers on opposite sides of a quiet law office, every second with Caitlin confirms that this is where I’m supposed to be.
    I understand now why,