I nodded without speaking, eased into an empty spot that was in front of a fire hydrant, and slipped the gear into “park.”

“Just like you, baby…marching to the beat of a different drum but just lately I’ve realized, baby the best is yet to come …someone like you makes it all worth while …”

We looked into each other’s eyes, each smiling, lost in the wonder of this special feeling that seemed to have dropped onto our laps and settled into our hearts, like pots of gold at the end of the rainbows we’d each been seeking to find.

“I haven’t told you anything, yet, about myself, but I wanted to tell you how sure I feel that you’ll be the one I can finally talk to,” she said, her eyes shining. The words sank deep somewhere into my heart.

“Well I told you my story, Aerin, so I obviously feel the same,” I answered softly.

“It’s harder for me, Harley,” she responded with a hint of vulnerability in her eyes. Then she allowed me to say the depth of her pain. “Harder than for most people, I guess. I’ve spent a year lost in the wilderness. And before that, I almost killed myself in grief.”

“Everyone I’ve ever loved, I’ve lost, Harley.”

I gripped the hand that continued to caress mine.

“The good thing is, after everything that’s happened over the past two years, I know where my bottom is. And I don’t fear it, Harley,” she continued softly, and lifted my hand to her lips, kissing it while looking at me with that openness and vulnerability we’d eased into ever since we’d sat in the beach.

“Well there are several things that I have to get through, too,” I admitted. “The thing is, I’m not as sure as you are, Aerin, about my limits.”

I cast my eyes down and looked away from the warmth of her big, brown eyes. “Unlike you, I don’t know where my bottom is.”

She pulled on my chin up gently, until we were looking at each other again. “Even after what you’d gone through seven years ago?” she asked. “You’ve persevered, worked, and triumphed over so much, Harley. You’re amazing …”

I teared-up, and admitted something that I’d never admitted to anyone, even to myself, “But I wasn’t brave enough to let myself fall apart, Aerin. Didn’t feel strong enough to face the darkness, and confront it. When it all started I just absorbed the news that my world had cratered, and then immediately focused on moving past it, without allowing myself to really experience the devastation ….”