I’d given Harley another soft kiss as more tears had fallen on her cheeks while I’d told her about me and Chris.

“This is how I love, Harley,” I’d said quietly after a few minutes. “I go after my love with everything I have, because I know that everything is at stake. My life, my being, my purpose. I think you’re the same – I can see it in your eyes, I can feel it in your touch when you make love to me, and in your lips when you kiss me. You and I love in the same way….”

I’d swallowed, and continued, “But now I see this threat looming like a mountain, standing over you, and I want to destroy it. Before it destroys you, you understand?”

She’d hugged me closer in response; her body had trembled.

We’d fallen quiet as we’d held on to each other tightly, as if afraid to let go of the other.

At length, she’d released me, and told me to sit back while she headed down to fix us some cappuccino.

As she’d gracefully slipped her white kimono robe on, and before she’d left the room, she’d turned to blow me a kiss, with tears in her eyes, and then said softly, “I love you, Aerin Palmer.”

Now, as I held her away from me at arm’s length, eyes still shut, she blew a warm breath at my eyes.

I did as she implicitly commanded, and opened my eyes. “Remember that drive from the beach to the Italian restaurant?” she asked, apropos to nothing.

“When we had our first talk?” I was confused but responded to her gentle lead, nodding my head. “And I told you that I felt certain that you were the one I could open up to, again?”

“Yes, honey,” she answered with a smile.   She continued, “And do you remember I told you that, unlike you, I didn’t know where my bottom lay, since I hadn’t allowed myself to feel the depths of despair, the way you had?”

I caressed her cheek gently with the back of my hand, and then I asked, “And you’d admitted that you were afraid?”

She nodded, and then turned her head slightly so that she could kiss my hand. I traced a finger tip over her eyebrows, and felt my way down her nose, before rubbing my thumb lightly over her lips.