Ever After Awaits

    bChapter /bb123/bb: /bbLa /bbPOV /b

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    The road hums beneath us, soft and steady, as Cade drives us away from thest glowing edges of the carnival. I can still taste spun sugar on my lips, and still feel the intoxicating press of his mouth against mine from the top of the Ferris wheel. My fingers toy absently with the hem of my jean shorts as the wind drifts through my open window, carrying thest scent of fried food and dusk.

    Neither of us talks for a while, because we don’t need to. My heart is still beating in that slow, gentle rhythm he set in motion with that kiss, and I don’t want to lose the quiet magic of it just yet.

    Eventually, I nce over at him. His left hand is gently controlling the steering wheel, while his right is casually resting on the center console as his thumb taps in time with the music that’s ying low from the speakers. The tune is something old and familiar. One of those indie love songs that feels likete summer and open roads. All while his signature smile lingers on his lips.

    “I

    “I thought we were heading home,” I say softly when I notice this isn’t our normal route home.

    He nces at me, his eyes twinkling, as he says, “We are. But I figured we’d take the long way.”

    Ten minutester, we pull into a field that’s tucked behind a line of old oak trees. It’s quiet out here -just a stretch of open, unkept grass that’s framed by tall floodlights that haven’t worked in years. I remember this ce. It used to be a baseball field. During high school, some of the boys in my ss

    used to sneak out here to blow off steam, y midnight rounds of football, or have sneaky make–out

    sessions with their girlfriends.

    “Cade…” I breathe as I step out of the truck. There are twinkling fairy lights strung up between two

    battered posts, and a fewnterns flicker nearby, giving the grass around them a warm, golden glow.

    He grins when he sees my awestruck reaction, but doesn’t say anything as he walks to the back of the truck, opens the tailgate, and reveals a folded nket and a small pic basket.

    “You nned this?b” /bI ask breathlessly as my heart skips a beat.

    He walks towards me, ces his hand at my lower back, then guides me to thenternlight–diffused portion of grass clearly meant for this moment, before saying, “Hey, if I’m going to kidnap you, I

    might as well do it right.”

    Iugh, but my chest tightens a little. No one’s ever done something like this for me.

    We settle onto the nket, and he hands me a bottle of iced tea from the basket. There are strawberries, chips, and those weird gummy worms I once admitted to liking during a shift at

    9:18 Frib, /bSep 12

    Chapter 123: La POV

    Beantree, but never actually bought.

    :

    b83 /b

    As a Spotify ylist on his phone drifts through the air around us, we slowly nibble on the snacks and leisurely talk about everything and nothing. He tells me about how he, Xavier, and Hunter once tried to turn this field into their own secret skate parkplete with plywood ramps and a very unfortunate encounter with a sprinkler system. Iugh so hard I nearly choke on a strawberry.

    He watches me with a look I can’t quite put a name to–one that makes my stomach do slow, fluttery flips.

    Eventually, the music shifts into something slow and nostalgic, at which he stands, brushes a few crumbs from his jeans, and extends a hand towards me, “Dance with me?”

    Without any hesitation, I take his hand, and he pulls me up and into his arms in one smooth motion that has me giggling like a love–sick schoolgirl.

    With his one hand wrapped around mine, and his other resting on my lower back, we move in slow, unpracticed circles, as our bare feet brush against the neglected grass. My head instinctively finds

    his shoulder, and his cheek then rests against my temple. All while the stars spin slowly above us,

    and I let myself sink into the rhythm of this. Of us.

    “This week’s been hell,” I whisper against his chest, my words barely audible above the hum of crickets and the faint rustle of wind moving through the tall grass.

    “Yeah,” Cade agrees, his voice low and steady. “But you got through it. Like you always do.”

    “With help.”

    “You ilet /ius help you,” he murmurs. “That’s what made the difference.”

    I pull back just enough to look up at him and catch the way the fairy lights flicker in his light blue eyes. They’re softer now with no mischief or teasing swimming in their depths. There’s just quiet sincerity that looks back at me. “Thank you, Cade. For tonight. For all of it.”

    His smile shifts, mellowing into something vulnerable. “La… I’ve wanted to tell you this for a

    while now. And after tonight, I don’t want to wait anymore.”

    My breath hitches, and the air suddenly thickens between us. He brushes his fingers along my cheek slowly and carefully, and then tucks a strand of my hair behind my ear. The motion is so gentle, so familiar, it unravels something inside me.

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    Chapter 123: La POV

    “I love you,” he says, the words low but unwavering as they fall from his lips.

    His confessionnds like a spark in my chest–small, bright, and steady. I don’t need to think about it. Because it’s already there, settled into the spaces between everything else I’ve felt for him.

    I smile tenderly up at him, the emotion swelling behind my ribs. “I love you, too, Cade,” I breathe, and I mean every damn syble of that sentence.

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    He lets out a quiet exhale, as if those three words were a weight around his chest he’s finally allowed himself to release. Then he pulls me even closer, his one hand firm at my back, as the other rests at the nape of my neck, grounding us both in this moment.

    Our foreheads meet, and our breaths mingle in the warm hush of night around us. The world outside the glow of our little circle feels imiles /iaway. It’s just us, as we sway gently beneath the string lights, while we’re surrounded by stillness and sky and something that feels a lot like home.

    And for the first time in days, everything feels exactly right.

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