CHAPTER EIGHTY SIX

As his words continued to wrap around my chest like a warm blanket, all the anger, all the hurt that I had been feeling melted away like snow under warm sunlight. And all I could feel now was love….. and I felt eighteen again, just like back then when the only thing that sang in my head and heart was Darrell.

My mind drifted back to earlier, to the moment when my tears threatened to slipped down after those tender, heart-stirring words:

"You said you'd never make me cry again. But look at what you're doing right now." I said, my voice breaking as tears threatened to fall.

"Oh no!" Darrell moved his forehead away from mine and then cupped my face right into his hands as his eyes searched desperately for a way to make me stop crying.

I could see the panic in his eyes as if that if those tears fell, the world would collapse.

"I can't let these fall."

But the tears were already sliding down my face as I watched his worried expression, seeing him struggle to think of how to make them st