Page 182 of Under the Waves
“Jasper Easton Ridge, watch your language!”
Vienna’s widened eyes watched the two of us and slowly, the tension and fear melted away inside them. The way she looked at Jasper, so full of motherly love and affection as if he was the center of her universe…it made my heart ache, shattering just that little bit more.
“Gosh, you must be starving, Poppy,” she gasped, gently covering her lips with her hand. “Here, let me get you something to eat. I hope you like strawberry waffles and syrup!”
“I, uh, I love them, actually,” I whispered, a little unsteadily. Jasper seemed to notice that as his lips gently pressed against my forehead.
“Ah, so my son was right.” She smiled at Jasper then, giving him a little encouraging wink.
I paused. “You knew they were my favorite? How?”
“Wellsy, there is no inch of you that I do not know,” he said, those beautiful brown eyes gazing into mine. A blush as pink as roses settled across my cheeks as I dipped my head in an attemptto cover it. However, Jasper was having none of it as he slipped his finger beneath my chin, tilting it back up again.
“What did we say about hiding that beautiful smile of yours?”
His words just made me blush even harder.
The fool I was for you, Jasper Ridge.
“Hey, Wellsy?”
“Mm?” I hummed in response.
“Can I ask you something?”
My eyes shot up instantly, panic arising inside of me to the same beat of my pounding heart beneath my ribs.
“If you ever succumb to the foolishness that is love…” He sighed wistfully, squeezing our conjoined hands once, ever so gently. “Please…please let me be the one you so foolishly fall in love with.”
I stood there speechless, gaping at him.
“But I have so much baggage!” I rushed to say.
There was no way he was thinking straight, not after what he’d just witnessed—that broken glimpse into the reality of my life. Every part of it was just as fucked up as the last.
“I’m a strong man, Wellsy, I can carry it,” Jasper chuckled, completely unfazed by my frantic response.
“I’m not good at relationships, or-or feelings, or what if I screw everything up between us? Jasper, I can’t, we can’t—this is the only, and I meanonlygood thing in my life right now, and I can’t—”
“You don’t have to be,” he reassured me, pressing a feather-light kiss to the side of my neck, and then another, and another, until he whispered against my skin, “I can love us enough for the both of us until you’re ready.”
Right there and then, I was undone.
“What if I’m never ready?” I whispered quietly. It had slowly grown to be one of my biggest fears—if my parent’s love was anything to go by, I didn’t want any part of it. Not if it meant ending up like them. I would rather end my life all together.
“I’ll still love you, Poppy Wells. Even if you aren’t mine to love. For infinity, remember?”
Somehow, Jasper Ridge had managed to soothe every inch of crawling anxiety inside me with just one sentence.
“For infinity,” I breathed, letting myself fall into him. As his arms wrapped around my waist, pulling my body flush up againsthis, I let my arms rest around his neck, gently scratching and letting my fingers fiddle with little loose strands of his hair. He was my safe space, my everything, and I never wanted to be anywhere else than wrapped up inside his arms because in there, I was safe from the world.
There, inside his house and under his roof, I knew I was finallyloved.
After a moment, Jasper whispered ever so quietly I thought I’d imagined it, “You were never my infinity war, Wellsy. You were always going to be my endgame.” Pulling back slightly, his eyes searched mine as he said, “I think I need you for reals, Poppy Wells.”
I giggled, unable to stop myself. There was a strange sort of happiness coursing through my veins and like an addict, I never wanted to let that high go. “I think I’ve always needed you for reals, Jasper Ridge.”
“Yeah?” He grinned so widely it made my own cheeks hurt just looking at him.