Shattered Glass & Broken Hearts

Emily hadn’t been expecting dinner to go as well as it had. She had known that it would be a good date because of how close she and Ronnie had become again, but she had also expected a few awkward situations. She knew that sometimes, Ronnie didn’t have quite the right words to say. That meant that he was sometimes a little on the quiet side, which she knew would make a date a little hard to get through.

But this date wasn’t like that.

Tonight had been perfect by all accounts. Their food had been better than she was expecting, and no one came up to interrupt their time together. The walk back down the pier was a little on the nippy side because of the sea breeze, but it was overall a relaxing walk back to the beach. Once they got to his car, both of them realized that they weren’t ready to go home just yet.

“The beach closes in like, ten minutes, Ronnie,” she murmured as he led her out into the sand towards one of the empty lifeguard stands a few meters away from the pier. He just smiled and kissed her forehead.

“The patrol won’t come for forty-five minutes or so, and our car is parked where it won’t get towed or a ticket. We’re good for awhile, baby,” he soothed her concern.

Emily had no choice but to finally nod as he helped her up onto the lifeguard stand before he joined her. A smile formed on her face as he sat down, pulling her up against his chest between his legs before his arms wrapped tightly around her to keep her warm. All they could hear was the sound of the ocean waves crashing up against the shoreline. For several minutes, neither one of them said a word until Ronnie finally did.

“This is the kind of thing I wish I’d done more of back then,” he murmured into her ear, stroking her hip absentmindedly with his fingertips.

Emily arched her eyebrow. His words had come out of nowhere and she had no idea why he spent so much time wallowing in the past. She’d moved on from it all, and she wanted him to as well. The accident was just a distant painful memory now, and it was no longer painful for the wrong reasons. Ronnie had fixed all his wrongs. He’d come back to her, and he loved her. He was with her now, that was what mattered.

“Baby,” she murmured as she kissed his shoulder, turning her head so that she was looking up at him. “You can’t keep thinking about it. You’ve gotta let go of it. I have.”

He nodded, though she could see a deep remorse in his eyes that told her he wasn’t about to let go of the past any time soon. She sighed, resting her head on his shoulder as he held her. No one else had ever comforted her as much as he did. She felt so safe with him. No harm could come to her when she was with him, of that she was sure.

“I want to make sure you understand something, Em,” Ronnie told her quietly as he pressed his lips to her cheek. “I love you. I love you more than anything else, and I’m never going to stop loving you. I mean it, okay?”

She blinked, nodding before she put a small smile on her face.

“I know, Ronnie. You never stopped before,” she told him quietly.

A small smile of his own formed on his lips as he closed his eyes, leaning back against the wall of the lifeguard stand. This was the perfect moment to him. He had everything he needed in life right now, and he would never feel like he needed for anything else as long as she stayed right there in his arms.

In times like this, he wondered how he’d ever let go of her. How could he have been so stupid to let something like an accident scare him away from her? He’d known even then that her love for him would never change, so why had he been so scared? Maybe it had been because he’d nearly killed her. Maybe it was something a little more deep-seeded.

Maybe he had just not been ready for the kind of love she was willing to give. No one had ever opened their heart to Ronnie completely the way she did before Emily had walked into his life.

“Remember what I told you back then?” She asked suddenly, looking up at him. “And what you told me? It was right after the first time we had sex.”

He thought about it for a minute and then chuckled, opening his eyes as he looked down at her.

“Yeah, I remember.”

“What did I say?” She asked him, a teasing grin on her face as she sat up and turned so that she was facing him. Her eyes were shining brighter than they had for a long time, and he couldn’t help but find her absolutely stunning.

“You said…” He murmured as he grabbed her hands, threading their fingers together. “That you were scared of a future with me.”

She nodded, licking over her bottom lip as she kept her eyes focused straight on his.

“And what did you say?” She whispered.

He bit his lip, his eyes downcast for a moment before he looked back up at her again. He cleared his throat and then leaned in to brush his lips over hers before he spoke softly.

“I told you that I’d find a way to stop you from feeling afraid, even if I had to marry you to prove you weren’t like the other girls I dated in high school.”

She nodded, wrapping her arms around his neck and scooting closer to him before she kissed his neck. Her body was pressed up against his in all the right places and neither of them could help but feel a little turned on.

“You’ve done that, Ronnie,” she whispered into his ear as he held her. “I’m not afraid of the future anymore because I know you’re in it.”

He swallowed hard and looked up at her, his eyes searching hers. For a few moments, neither one of them moved. But then he laid her down so that she was laying on his back, his hands on her hips as he hovered above her.

“I love you,” he breathed out against her lips before he kissed down the column of her neck and then even further down. “I will always love you, Emily.”

She bit down on her bottom lip to stop herself from moaning, her eyes closing and body arching up against his fingertips as he slowly pushed her shirt up so that her stomach was exposed. This was the most intimate they had been in a very long time and she was sure she was supposed to feel a little nervous about that.

But she wasn’t. She knew that Ronnie wouldn’t judge her for the scars that lined her skin from the accident. She knew that he wouldn’t care about anything other than being with her; than showing her how much he loved her and how much she meant to him.

“You’re my entire world,” he whispered as his fingertips traced whimsical patterns into her skin, his eyes staying focused on her face to watch for any sign of discomfort.

Emily couldn’t get any words out. Everything he was doing was putting her on cloud nine. She had never felt as sure about anything in her life as she did about a relationship with Ronnie. She couldn’t remember why she’d hated him for awhile. She couldn’t remember anything but how he always made her feel; how he was always going to make her feel.

Her heart had always been his, even when he’d been gone. She just hadn’t known it.

“I love you too,” she whispered the words.

He felt a pang in his heart when he heard those words and leaned over to brush his lips across her stomach. She moaned quietly, unable to keep it inside as he nipped her skin gently before he soothed it with his tongue.

She knew that the beach was the wrong place to get carried away with Ronnie. But neither one of them could stop the ball that was in motion now. They had waited so long for each other, it needed to happen.

His fingertips had just slipped inside of her skirt when she heard people’s voices coming closer to the lifeguard stand. Her eyes widened and she couldn’t help but giggle as Ronnie quickly jerked his hand away, fumbling to stand up.

“Shit,” he grumbled. “They weren’t supposed to come by until later.”

“It’s okay,” she whispered as she grabbed his hand. “Let’s just get out of here before they know what we were up to.”

Ronnie smiled, kissing her forehead as they snuck around the side of the lifeguard stand before the beach patrol could see them. It reminded him of when they’d been in high school, when they’d needed to sneak around all the time. But this time, he knew that she was his for good. This time, there was no uncertainty in the future and that was why he couldn’t help but get back to his place with her.

Tonight, he wanted to show her just how much he loved her.