Page 26 of Louder Than Words

They’ll never witness the heartbreak we’ve already gone through. Gareth and Nora see this beautiful life they’ve created as an inconvenience, when there are people out there begging and praying for just achanceto love someone like that. And it fucking disgusts me, if I’m being honest. But it’s not my place to say anything. This istheirlife.

I could say a million times that they need to be happy with what they have, to stop looking at it from a negative angle, but that would never change a thing. So I bite it all back. Every word.

Gareth keeps looking at me, like he’s waiting for me to argue. To push back.

Instead, I clap him on the back and slowly stand from my seat.

I can feel his eyes on me the whole walk back to the table, while mine are locked on the one person I need right now. The one person on this earth who gets me. Who understands everything I feel, even before I do.

I wrap my arms around her from behind, burying my face in the crook of her neck and just breathe her in.

She laughs against me, the sound sending goosebumps down my arms as she twirls around. But the second she sees my face, hers softens. Because I can’t hide anything from her. No matter how hard I try.

Her hands find my cheeks, cupping them gently. “You wanna get out of here?”

The sincerity in her eyes—that’s something I could get lost in forever. Where I’m always accepted. Always understood.

The love she radiates without even saying a word? It’s addicting.

I slowly nod and sigh out, “Yeah.”

It’s almost funny how watching someone else’s chaos unfold, makes you stop and realize just how lucky you are.

I know I would be lost without Allie now.

And Gareth? He’ll figure it out. Sooner or later, he’ll know whether Nora is his person the way Allie is mine.

Because she is.

She’s it. Allie is my person. My forever. She’s everything. And I’ll never take any of it—anyof her—for granted.

That’s for bloody sure.

13

Jax

“Talk to me,” Allie says, breaking the silence.

I’m sprawled across the hotel bed with one arm flung over my eyes to block out the moonlight spilling through the windows. I didn’t even drink that much, but the migraine is already settling deep in my skull, pulsing perfectly with every beat of my heart.

I drop my arm and shrug. “I’ll just never understand how someone can have everything and still manage to find every ounce of negative in it,” I mutter, more baffled than anything.

She glances over her shoulder and gives me a soft smile, her fingers still drifting lazily across my stomach. “Sometimes people have to lose the chance to have something before they can see how beautiful it is.”

My eyes snap to hers, and before I realize it, I’m sitting up—comfortingherinstead. My hand traces gently along the small ofher back, like we’re quietly passing the responsibility of keeping each other steady.

In seconds, I watch the light in her eyes flicker and fade. And that tells me she knows exactly what I’m talking about. Which means Nora is probably pulling the same bullshit, only making this about ten times worse.

I press a soft kiss to her bare shoulder. “I’m sorry, Al.”

She doesn’t say anything, but she doesn’t have to. We both know there’s nothing that can really be done about any of it. This is just the hand we were dealt. We’re doing what we can with what we’ve got, and we still know our lives are beautiful.

Unlike some people.

Although, I can admit our lives would be at least a little easier if Trevor would just back the hell up.

We sit in the quiet for a few minutes. Then she finally turns toward me, and I reach out to sweep the hair that’s fallen across her face.