Invisible String

Chapter 41 - Mine

"I don't need to see the others," he said, kissing me on the neck. I looked over at him.

"I shouldn't have started with the best one."

"It's the perfect one."

"Yeah." I smiled. "It is."

"So, what's left?"

"Nothing. I sent them the new edits, answered his questions. Chose a cover. They wanted to release it this summer. If everything goes as planned, they are hoping for it to be released by the end of this month."

"Holy crap! Isn't that really quickly? They just got you."

"Apparently they've had their best editors go over it. There are no problems with it. Aside from the small things I fixed. They're happy with it. So, yeah, it's quick, but they're ready."

"Are you?" He asked, putting his arm around me. "I know this must be crazy for you, Babe."

"It is. But I am happy. So it's good. If they want to release it that quickly, that's fine by me."

"Alright." He kissed me, stood up, and then pulled me up to my feet.

"What are we doing now?" I asked, setting the laptop on the couch.

"I need a shower." He leaned over and kissed my neck. "And I was hoping you might want to join me."

And I did join him. We took our shower, fooled around, then got out and got dressed.

"I have to run out for a quick minute, but I'll be right back," Jaiden said, facing away from me, naked, drying off his hair with his towel.

I held on to the towel around my waist tightly, holding on to it like my life depended on it. "Okay... so does that mean I can't go with?"

He turned around and looked me in the eyes. "I know I need to earn back that trust that I lost. But..." he brushed back the hair hanging in my eyes and said, "I need you to trust me this once, okay? I swear I'll be right back. And I'm not going to do anything I shouldn't."

"And by that, you mean...?"

"I'm not going to go find drugs, Hannah. I promise." He took my hands in his and kissed the tops of them. He let go, then moved his lips to mine and kissed me passionately.

When he pulled back, he was looking into my eyes again. "Okay. Go," I said hesitantly.

He smiled, kissed me on the cheek, and then got dressed. I did the same, just slower. He left while I was pulling on my pants. I sat on the bed, my hands on my knees. It had been a little over a month since he quit everything. He'd been doing so well, but we hadn't been apart since then either. Anything he had to do, I went with him. If I had stuff to do, he went with me.

James and I hadn't spoken in a while. He'd been pretty disappointed in my decision to stay with Jaiden, and I was mad at him for not having the same values I did. Even though I knew he had every right to have his own life motto.

I went back into the living room and opened up my laptop. While sorting through my emails, I saw another headline about Alex. This time, though, I wasn't afraid of what it said. I had too much going on with Jaiden to care about Alex's life choices these days.

When I finished up with my emails, I went around the apartment cleaning up our messes and the board game we hadn't finished. Neither of us were very cleanly, so I was still sorting through papers when Jaiden came back. He had a broad smile spread across his face as he came over to me at the dining table. His hands were behind his back.

"You look especially happy..." I said, eyeing him carefully. "All-natural, I hope?"

He laughed and pulled a massive bouquet of flowers from behind his back. They were white roses, like the ones he'd sent to me back when he'd first thanked me for lying for him. It wasn't the first time he'd gotten me them, but every time it managed to make me happy. They'd quickly become my favorite.

He also had a big box of my favorite chocolates in town and a small robin-egg blue box.

A smile crept across my face. "Tiffany's?" I smiled like an idiot and shook my head.

"Yeah, I thought it was about time I started buying you jewelry."

I got up from my side of the table and walked around to him. "You don't ever have to buy me anything."

"I know," he said, smiling, setting down the roses. He wrapped his arms around me and pulled me close. "I just like to see that look on your face."

"What look?"

He turned his head, analyzing it. "I'm not sure, that little smile spread across your face, your eyes wide, you even bite your lip when you're pleased." I hadn't noticed that before, but he was right. A tiny bit of my lip was between my front teeth. "And you look genuinely happy and surprised. And I love that look."

I kissed him on the lips. "This was what you went out for?"

"Yes," he grabbed the box off the table and held it out in front of me. "I put in the order for this a week or so ago."

My eyebrows raised, and I was still smiling like an idiot as I opened the small box. Inside was a ring. I looked up at him, my heart racing, in complete shock. I almost dropped the box, but he caught it.

"Don't," he said, holding onto my hands tightly. "I'm not proposing. Don't worry, okay?"

I nodded, looked back down at the beautiful ring, then at him. "You're not?" I shook my head.

"No, not yet. Certainly not like this," he said, looking around the house. "It'd be much more beautiful than this."

"It wouldn't have to be," I said, without thinking. "I mean if you were ever going to. It wouldn't have to be anything fancy. I don't need that," I said, looking down. He leaned forward and kissed me gingerly.

"I know." He brushed back my hair and said, "But look at the ring."

It was medium-sized, with a heart-shaped sapphire stone in the middle and around it were tiny little diamonds, outlining the heart shape. Besides those, on either side of the heart were white gold hands, and sitting atop the heart were diamonds that came together in the form of a crown. A laugh escaped my lips, and tears of happiness filled my eyes. "It's beautiful."

"I'm glad you like it." He pulled the ring out of the box and grabbed my right hand and slid it onto my ring finger on that hand. "It's a Claddagh ring. The heart point facing you means you are in a relationship. The heart represents love, the hands represent friendship, and the crown represents loyalty." He lifted my chin up and pulled my gaze away from the ring and to his eyes again. "I got it because I love you, you are my best friend, and I'd do anything for you, Hannah."

I wrapped my arms around him tightly and kissed him like I never had before. Tears streamed down my face, and I smiled, kissing him again and again.

"I love it." I pulled his head away and looked him in the eyes, "And I love you so much."

He kissed me back passionately, putting me up onto the table. We made love right there, shoving everything aside. Whatever problems we had were behind us. We knew that we'd have to fight to keep it that way, but we'd already pushed through the hardest, now we just had to stick together and keep moving forward. And both of us were willing to do that.