“Since we’re moving my things…why don’t we just bring them here?” I said, searching his eyes for a reaction.

Jared’s eyebrows shot up in shock. “You want to move into the loft?”

I shrugged, unsure what his reaction meant. I wasn’t exactly confident that the offer was still open. “If it’s okay.”

“If it’s okay? Do you know how happy you just made me?” he said, scanning my face with unconditional devotion in his eyes.

“So that’s a yes?”

Jared laughed out loud, shook his head, and then kissed me enthusiastically. “That is a definite, without a doubt, absolutely yes.”

I giggled with excitement as Jared pulled me over to his lap, kissing me with every bit the joy that I felt. In the course of just twelve hours, the last six weeks dissolved as if they’d never happened. Before the nightmare had ended, we’d gotten our miracle. It had turned out that it was up to us all along.

We spent the rest of the weekend moving boxes and small pieces of furniture. Jared insisted on doing most of the lifting, and I hummed along with the stereo as I unpacked my things. We seemed to only get a few boxes unpacked at a time before we were celebrating my homecoming upstairs, only to come downstairs, unpack a few boxes and start the process over again.

After a heated weekend inside, Jared decided that we should get some fresh air. Monday morning I walked outside to perfect weather. The air smelled of freshly cut grass and sunshine. I lifted my head towards the cloudless sky, closing my eyes and smiling as the sun filtered through my eyelids.

Jared climbed onto his Vulcan and smiled. “Lillian wanted me to ask you to dinner. Before you say anything,” he hedged, seeing my shocked expression, “she suggested we meet in a restaurant. She doesn’t want you to feel obligated, but she would like to see you again. She misses you.”

I sighed. “How can she miss me? I assumed the undeserved partial treatment would end after she heard what happened.”

Jared tucked my hair affectionately behind my ear. “She knows what you’re going through, and you’re the only one that knows what she went through. You have a lot in common.”

“We don’t have to go to a restaurant. She can come to our place or we can go over there. I’m not afraid.”

Jared’s eyes poured over my face, wearing a perfectly content expression.

I raised an eyebrow. “What?”

His eyes turned soft. “Our place.”

He started the engine and I slipped on my sunglasses, climbing on behind him. The summer air whipped around us as Jared flew down the streets, and I pressed my cheek against his back, feeling happier than I ever had.