It will never change

What he said knocked all air out of her lungs, and for a moment, she had no idea what to say; because she was happy, it wasn’t that. But it was also a feeling she had never thought she would feel again. She had briefly thought it would be possible to achieve it with Ace, but when things had gone down with Michelle, it had been so clear to her that they were too different ever to make it work. It had broken her because she knew that it had scared Ace in a way she had never wanted to do to anyone ever again. Not like she had hurt the man that stood here in front of her, telling her that he would take her to someone who could officiate them on the spot. How could he so easily forgive her for the hurt she had brought him? Tears started to well up in the corners of her eyes, and she tried to take in a shaky breath in the hopes that she could possibly control the flow of emotions raging through her body.
“I’ll never go anywhere again”, she whispered; at least she could promise him that; no matter what would come from here on out, she would never run as she had done the last time. Not when she knew what she would be running from.

He took a sharper breath watching the tears starting to glimpse in her eyes, not that he intended for her to cry. But he himself was overwhelmed with the intensity of the emotions that portrayed within him, it however didn't make them any less real. Jamie could feel the rock lift from his shoulder, as she whispered that she wouldn't go anywhere again, odd he hadn't even felt the weight till now. Not that he had blamed her for long, sure, the first moment he could have blamed her for leaving him in the sort of pain and belief that she was dead. Sure he could have. But in the end he also knew she had done what she thought had been the right call, and who knew, maybe things would have turned out bad if they had needed to get over that sort of grief while looking at each other everyday. They had left it to the unknown if it would have been ending good or bad. Jamie had grown in many ways since that day, he was possibly the best version of himself. This man could handle his past way better than the old him had ever done. "Sweet you think I would let you," he whispered back, giving her a little chuckle and a slight pull into a half smirk.

His words made a short burst of laughter explode from her lips, almost like a ripple in the water. It was gone as quickly as it had happened, even though it had the effect that the folds that her face had put itself in lessened, and she looked far more youthful than she had done in many months—years even. To think that she had believed for that brief second she had been with Ace, that she could ever be happy or that happiness was achievable almost made her feel foolish. But she also knew that Ace had helped her heal things that she hadn’t known that had been needed to heal, and if she hadn’t met him or Asa, she wouldn’t be able to stand here before Jamie and take in the love that he had for her and express the love that she had for him. Sometimes time did heal, but people also helped the process along. She had been alone with her grief and anger for so long that she hadn’t been able to see that it wasn’t helping her in the long run. She took a step closer, and even though she had just told him that he should focus on making dinner, she couldn’t help herself from letting her arms fold around his shoulders and then hooking her hands together behind his neck. “I love you, you foolish man”, she whispered before leaning in and kissing softly against his lips.