It was the photograph Theo took.
Emotion warped my face, but I schooled it, crossing my arms over my chest as I slowly made my way to read the plaque next to it.
Aspen Dawn, photographer of all the pieces included in this special Dawn of the Med exhibit. Taken by Theo Whitman, exhibit sponsor and philanthropist. Sunset in Positano, Italy.
I rolled my lips together, shaking my head as tears flooded my eyes.
The gentleman who had held the door open for me earlier quietly came up to stand beside me, his eyes flicking from me to the photograph Theo had taken. He smiled widely, gesturing to the photograph and saying, “You?”
I nodded, laughing and swiping away the fat teardrops that slipped over my cheeks with the smile.
The man looked back to the photograph, then at me, and his hands reached forward to take mine in his own. He bowed a little, kissing my knuckles, and said something that sounded like panemorfi.
I made a mental note to look up what it meant later.
With another sweet smile, he dropped my hands, glancing at the photograph of me one last time before he left me. And I stared at the happiness reflected in my eyes in that photo for a long time before I turned, too, and promptly lost my next breath.
Standing there in the center of the aisle was a devastatingly handsome Theo Whitman.
He wore a cream tailored suit with a simple, thin black tie that somehow made him look like he was part of the exhibit, himself. His hands rested easily in his pockets, his hair gelled into a perfect swoop, and he watched me with bent brows as I slowly made my way toward him. I stopped with a few feet between us, clasping my hands in front of me and searching his gaze.
Theo looked like he hadn’t slept any more than I had, and the wrinkle between his brows told me he didn’t know what to say, or what to do, but that he was anguished. We watched each other for a long time, the music and background noise of chatter fading out more and more, as if we were the only two people who existed at all.
“You did this?” I asked after a long pause.
He nodded, closing the space between us. His hands reached out tentatively at first, but when I didn’t pull away, he slipped his hands to hold me at the small of my back, his piercing eyes watching me over the bridge of his nose.
“I wanted you to know the truth.”
“What truth is that?” I whispered.
Theo swallowed, his Adam’s apple bobbing hard in his throat. “That I love you.”
I choked on a soft sob, covering my mouth with trembling hands as my eyes flooded again.
“That I believe in you this much,” he said, looking around at all my photographs hanging in the gallery as he stepped into me even more. When his eyes found mine again, they seemed to peer into the very depths of who I was. “And that I believe in us even more.”
I closed my eyes, releasing the tears that had been building. Theo thumbed them away, pressing his lips to my forehead and holding me tight.
“I don’t care about your past. I don’t care about mine. Nothing else matters to me, other than the future you and I can make together. And I know what I said about my lifestyle the other night,” he said, pulling back to look me in the eyes. “But we will find a way. We will make it work. Because if I’ve learned one thing this summer, it’s that now that I know you exist in this world, I cannot live without you existing in mine, too.”
I shook my head, leaning into where his palm framed my face. “I can’t believe you did all this…”
“I did it to prove to you that I’m not going anywhere, and that what we have is real. You don’t have to be scared of it disappearing.” He paused, thumbing my jaw. “Do you believe me now?”
I laughed, swiping away the tears that were let loose with the notion. “I believe you are crazy, and impulsive,” I said, but then I locked my arms around his neck and brought his lips down to mine. “And the most brilliant, thoughtful, incredible man I have ever known.”
“Anything else?”
I nodded, swallowing down the knot in my throat before I whispered, “And I think I love you back.”
Theo smiled against my kiss before deepening it, his arms wrapping me up tighter, and just as we both groaned at the way it felt to be connected, I pressed my hands into his chest.
“Wait,” I breathed, looking around the gallery. “I don’t understand… how did you do all this?”
Theo shrugged. “I have my ways.”
“Ways you can’t tell me, huh?”
“A magician never reveals his secrets,” he said. “But let’s just say I made a sizable donation to the gallery in exchange for a little help with tonight’s event.”
I chuckled, looking behind him at all the guests admiring my work. “I can’t believe all these people are looking at my photographs.”
“Not just looking at them. Falling in love with them,” Theo said, and he turned so that we were both facing the gallery, tucking me under his arm. “You know, we’ve already had thirteen offers to buy.”
My eyes must have popped out of my head because Theo laughed and kissed my cheek, squeezing my hip gently.
“Don’t look so surprised.”
“I… I just never considered…” My gut did a full-on somersault, and I swallowed down the sudden rush of nausea that I couldn’t pinpoint the source of. “Did you sell them?”
“No,” Theo answered quickly. “That wasn’t the purpose of tonight. But I can sell them. If you’d
