Page 106 of Love Is…?

Tessa scooted forward so her legs threaded between Jayde’s. She held their joined hands to her lips. “You are someone I’d like to give my heart to if you’ll carry it.” Jayde inhaled quickly, then held her breath as Tessa kissed her knuckles. “Jayde Ferguson, I love you. Theyouyou.”

There was a silence.

Then Jayde’s mind exploded. Tessa loved her. Jayde hadn’t sent out her heart hoping Tessa would bring it back with her own. Tessa was giving hers freely. Jayde’s brain poked her as if to say, “See?” as her heart lurched with joy.

“I…”

Tessa swallowed, and looked down. “It’s okay. I’m just letting you know that I love you. That I love us. I love how real it all is. Just… I love you.”

Jayde blinked, then leaned forward, lifted Tessa’s chin with two fingers and softly kissed her lips. “Tess, sweetheart, I want to say something,” she whispered.

Tessa suddenly looked appalled, and Jayde squeezed her hand. “It’s a good something.”

In Jayde’s experience, declarations of big things felt much easier when moving, so she sprang up and then, following the same pattern as Tessa, allowed all her thoughts, her feelings to ride a wave of vulnerability. She took two steps sideways then back to stand in front of Tessa whose face was pale, her teeth holding her bottom lip like the threat of a building falling on her was very real.

“While I was writing this profile, it always felt like I was waiting for the other shoe to drop. Like, love is blah blah blah what’s the catch? But.” She clutched at her hands, fingers entwined. “What if there aren’t any shoes?” Jayde had worked out the shoeless situation a while ago, but shoes dropping and years of hiding her heart were strong forces to overcome.

“My heart has been locked away in a castle on purpose, Tess. On purpose.” Jayde shook out her hands. “It’s like you said. I was protecting it. But now…” Jayde swallowed. “Now my heart can look over its walls. It… It can open the gate. My heart is looking at a person who sees its vulnerability, who hears its voice and…” Jayde clenched her fist to her chest. “This is a big deal.” She pointed to Tessa. “You’re a big deal.”

Then her shoulders bunched, and she plonked herself on the ottoman again, reaching for Tessa’s hands. “You’re a big deal,” she repeated.

“Tell me why,” Tessa whispered.

“Because… because I know what love is. I’ve heard so many interpretations of its meaning for weeks that I now finally believe that love isn’t a tarnished, unwanted pot in the corner of an antiques shop.”

Tessa’s lips quirked, Jayde’s shoulders relaxed, and she released Tessa’s hands. “Love is everything.” She thrust her arms out wide, then brought her hands to Tessa’s cheeks, softlysmoothing the skin. “Love is morning coffee, and the trees in the botanic gardens, it’s… I know what love is.”

They stared at each other, and Tessa’s lips parted. “What is it?” she whispered.

The goosebumps appeared first—the joyful kind where your skin sizzles with happiness—then Jayde grinned in wonder, taking in the beautiful woman right in front of her. She twined her fingers in between Tessa’s.

“You,” she said quietly. “Love is you.”

Tessa’s eyes filled with tears. “Oh!” she exclaimed softly.

“It’s so much you. I love you and it’s the type of love that’s real where I give you my heart and you sail to the sea of unconditional and then you travel back on the tide with your heart next to mine because you said?—”

“I love you,” Tessa said, then untangled their fingers so she could dash away the stray tears that had fallen.

“Yes.”

They grinned at each other.

Tessa caressed Jayde’s hair. “Come here,” she murmured, and Jayde brought her lips to Tessa’s, shuffling forward on the ottoman without breaking the kiss. There wasn’t a space between them. It was a slow kiss, one that promised days, and months, and the times after that.

Jayde pulled away slightly, so that their noses touched, their foreheads rested.

Then she brought her eyes to Tessa’s. “This feels so right."

Tessa smiled. “The kind of right where your lips are supposed to be attached to mine?”

Jayde nodded seriously. “Yes. Exactly that.” Then she ran her finger over Tessa’s eyebrow. “You have the kindest eyes and the sweetest smile and I want to wake up to those kind eyes and that sweet smile all of the mornings?—”

“That start all of the days,” Tessa finished.

Jayde felt tears prick at the back of her eyes. “That’s what love is,” she said, her words following a sigh.

“Waking up with your person?” Tessa raised her eyebrows.