"I think I can find a way to keep you warm without a sweatshirt on. Without anything on."
"It means we're going to survive the kiln, too. No matter how high the heat."
This text: You're probably asleep, but I just wanted to tell you I miss sleeping with you.
This note: All I want for my birthday is you.
"Je veux vos levres sur les miennes." (I want your lips on mine.) In class, when I stuck my tongue out at him, he grabbed it with his lips and pulled me into a very steamy kiss.
"Boots, I told you, you're the only girl I've kissed all semester. The only girl I ever want to kiss."
When he looks deep into my eyes, the playful mood turning serious with a single look. He doesn't say anything, just kisses me. And does this kiss ever speak. It's a kiss that's more emotional than it is sexual. It's a kiss that says all our fighting, all our misunderstandings, our lack of communication, all the hurt feelings, were worth it. But when his tongue gets involved in the kiss and he pulls me onto the bed with him, and onto his lap, it takes the kiss to a whole other level. It's emotion mixed with desire. And I decide that might be the most powerful combination of all. With every flick of his tongue, with every greedy touch of his lips, with every caress of my face, I know it's not just a silly love potion. It's what love is supposed to be. Scary, exhilarating-from the top of the world to the pits of hell-all-consuming love.
He rubs my face when I'm sick or don't feel good.
He told me to wear the boots my grandpa gave me because they are lucky and would make me feel better.
"I want a night alone with you in my room. No parties. No hanging out. Just you and me dancing before curfew, then you sneaking over to my room after curfew and spending the night. Sleeping with me."
How he dunked the ball during warm-ups, then blew me a kiss. How we danced under the twinkle lights to our playlist.
The way he looked when he pulled me into someone else's dorm room because he had a surprise. His entire body was bathed in the golden light that's streaming through the window, almost making him glow. They say some people can see the color of your aura, and I know without a doubt that Aiden's must be the purest of gold.
When he showed me a gorgeous gold and pink sunset and then his house project, the Eiffel Tower and asks me to winter formal.
"Keatyn Monroe, vous me faire l'honneur d'tre mon jour pour l'hiver formelle?"
A movie-ending, sweeping-epic-romance kiss.
He started making the Eiffel Tower when I was still seeing Dawson.
He's my control in the chaos.
"It's the jeans. I'm not sure I'll be able to keep my hands off you today."
"This has been the best birthday of my life." And he spent it with me.
This text, which cracked me up: I'm loving our conversation but I just dropped my phone on my face because I fell asleep.
"Gonna be kind of hard to forget you considering I'll be with you. Our ten year plan includes college, marriage, and at least a couple of those four kids we're destined to have."
When he wakes me up at three in the morning to show me the first snowfall.
Telling me I need to come to his room and wish him luck, but then he tells me it's an excuse to kiss me.
When he says, "I think what you need is a good screwing." Then puts my hand on his zipper, because he has golden screw earrings in a box in his pants.
The Titan.
"Every kiss. Every touch. Every single thing we do feels a hundred times better than anything I've ever done before. Because it's with you."
The kitchen counter and his fingers.
He hung the glow-in-the-dark moon above my bed at the loft.
He cooks for me.
"Naked and wearing cowboy boots. That is straight out of my dreams."
He bought me a Christmas tree and ornaments that all had meaning to us.
"This is our tree. The story of us."
"That you watch sunsets with me. That I even had the guts to tell you why they were special. I've never shared those parts of me with anyone. No one at school even knows my mom had cancer."
"Fine. I'll tell you. These are all about luck and fate. It was fate you kicked the soccer ball at my head and made me instantly fall for you. It's fate that I'll ask you to marry me someday. But it was luck that I found a four-leaf clover to give you, and every time we've given each other a clover, it's helped us both be lucky. And it was luck that we got to see the dolphins. You've made me lucky."
He bought us tickets to see The Nutcracker.
The pool table. All of it. The white t-shirt, designer motorcycle jacket, aviators, and scruff.
Strip pool.
"Panties. I win." Then him ripping them off me.
"You can have anything of mine you want."
"You and me against the world. Always."
"That's what people are going to fall in love with. That smile. It's, well, the only word that really accurately describes it is intoxicating. Everyone in the theater will instantly be love-drunk."
The sight of him making breakfast in my kitchen with a shirt that's too tight and sweats that are way too low on his hips for me to think straight.
"I want to spend New Year's with you. Wherever you are."
This text: ifly<3 "You kissed my neck and told me it was your favorite place. The rest of my body is jealous."
These texts: Me either, but I know once we do, we won't want to stop. I've wanted you since the first day I saw you. I seriously had never seen someone so beautifully perfect until that moment.
This text: What you should be prepared for is the fact that you're never going to want to be with anyone else ever again.
This text: In six and a half minutes, I'm going to kiss the hell out of you. Just saying.
He comes to the chapel when I say I need him after I found out about the girl from the club. He presses his lips into my temple and whispers, "It's okay, baby. Shhh. I'm here. It's okay."
When he pulls up his shirt and has a sticky note stuck to his stomach with a down arrow that says Kiss Me Here.
His panty melting smirk when I accidentally mention the Titan.
This text: Tonight is a big game, but I have to admit, my thoughts are on you wearing candy. Did I mention I have a sweet tooth? And tongue.
My parts touching his parts.
He bought me the Clash of the Titans movies.
"When you kissed me, I was done for. Ever since that first kiss on the Ferris wheel. Totally and completely your love slave."
When he tells me it's okay with him for me to dance on the bar.
"I definitely want to."
A classic Gucci tuxedo.
The husky, desire-filled sound in his voice.
The way he smells.
The way he looks.
Around us, other people are dancing, but it feels like the room, the dance floor, the whole night, was made just for us.
When he gives me a feather and tells me he was my naughty Santa.
"That's why I fucking love you, Keatyn Monroe."
The way he brushes a tear from my cheek and says, "Life hasn't been following your scripts. You told me that once."
"No, I would have said, Baby, I already knew."
"Because I wanted to be the kind of guy you could trust. It's why I backed off. Why I told Riley about Dawson. I didn't want to see you hurt anymore. It's why I've told you so many times that you can tell me anything. That you could trust me. What I didn't realize before was that I needed to earn that trust. We had to build a strong foundation. I'm really glad you were planning to tell me tonight."
"There's nothing you could tell me that would make me hate you. You need to have faith in us. We're going to survive the kiln."
"The heartbreaking part is never going to happen, Boots."
When I tell him nothing about us has ever followed a script and he tells me he doesn't want it to.
"I wished that someday you'd trust me enough to tell me the truth."
"Boots, pretty much everything you've ever said to me is permanently ingrained in my mind. It's all the story of us."
"I need to teach you how to live life unscripted, because we're going to be better than anything you ever imagined."
After reading my lie list, he smirks and says, "So, you did recognize me as the goalie that day in the cafeteria, huh?"
"I'm gonna go hop in the shower. Care to join me?"
"I've just recently learned the extent of all of that. And you're welcome, sir. She means a lot to me." (What he said when he met Tommy.) His ability to morph into any role. Deal with any social situation. Get along with anyone. He can be the sexy bad boy one minute and the sweetest boy ever the next.
The way he bends over the pool table and slowly, purposefully licks his lips while I'm trying to concentrate.
How he won't sleep with me unless the door is open because he doesn't want to offend Tommy. But then pins me on my chaise and tells me that the closet door can stay shut.
"You don't need beauty sleep. You're already beautiful."
"No way I'm letting you be alone on Christmas. Either you're coming to St. Croix with me, or I'm staying here with you."
Coming home to find him wearing nothing but a pair of shorts and a candy necklace.
His toast: "Here's to a sweet night."
When he tells me not to move my hands from the doorway then drops to his knees and counts how many pieces of candy are in his way to the "Sweet spot."
The way he looks when I say I love you. The surprise in his eyes. The emotions crossing his face. His lips forming a smile. His big hands holding my cheeks firmly in place as he looks into my eyes.
"I love you too, Boots."
When he tells Grandpa he's a big fan of the boots Grandpa sent me and that they are lucky.
How he used one of Grandpa's lines on me. "You're right, as usual."
When he shows off for my little sisters by walking on his hands. And then how he tells me he loves me in the grass after we all were tickling him.
How everything with him means so much more.
How when he takes my hand, it feels like it belongs in his forever.
How he has a piece of hay in his mouth, a grin on his face, and cowboy boots on his feet. How he reminds me of my dad. Perfect blond hair, amazing eyes, a beautiful wide smile, and an easy-going demeanor.
How adorable he is with my sisters.
When he takes my chin in his hand and looks deep into my eyes and says, "Player Aiden never talked about things like love, fate, or marriage. Just like the stars, all that is only for you. Want to know my favorite part of the song? It's the world can spin around us because, baby, now it's you and me." When I ask him why, he says, "Because that's what I want more than anything. To only have to worry about us."
"So can I woo you with my wood?"
How he put twinkle lights in the gazebo so we could dance.
"You just said I do. In a wedding gazebo. It gave me a glimpse of the future. Of our wedding."
A beautiful vintage ring with a green stone, surrounded by teeny diamonds. Radiating out from it are four silver filigree hearts forming a four-leaf clover, each leaf set with a marquis-shaped green stone. Around the edges of the hearts are more of the little diamonds and behind the clover is more silver, making it look like two clovers sitting on top of each other.
"This isn't your Christmas present. It's a ring from me to you. I love you, Keatyn. I know the future scares you. I know that you can't commit to anything, so I'm not asking you to. I just want you to always know, wherever you are, wherever we are, that I love you. And I want you to carry our luck with you."
When he tells me there doesn't have to be music for us to dance.
Our first time. Holy shit.
"Take me back to your room, Boots. I'm so not even close to being done with you tonight."