Chapter End...


Some things can't be denied


Here is where I stop and give thanks to everyone out there who has enjoyed this trilogy and let their words be heard. I am finally wrapping it up. Alec and Asha's story will be continued elsewhere but this will be the conclusion of Max and Logan's story. They will finally get their happy ending. This trilogy has spanned many months and is just a few months shy of a year. Looking back at that year it's amazing I stuck with it. Amazing that I'm still here to write it. And for those of you who stuck with it I can only hope it was an enjoyable experience. I honestly am gonna miss it now that it's finished.


Thank You Again.


Enjoy....



"I didn't think you'd be by so soon." Logan threw over his shoulder as he pulled a bottle of wine from the rack and grabbed the two glasses on the counter.


"You're getting to good at that." she complained as he spun around in time to catch her look of annoyance. Handing her a glass he set his back down on the counter in order to open the wine.


"Well I can't let you sneak up on me all the time." he smiled and filled her glass. "Dinner will be done in twenty minutes or so. How bout a game of chess?"


Max smiled and pulled him after her to the board that was already set up. She would kick his ass then have a nice dinner, then if things went as planned... She gulped down her wine, her throat, dry and constricting.


"So has Zack left town yet?" Logan asked as they sat, trying to start a conversation.


"Yeah. It's just you and me." She smiled.


After a good ten minutes, one move by Max and eight minutes of Logan figuring out his second move, as her hand tightened around it in her pocket, Max quietly began to recite the crumpled piece of paper she always carried, her voice barely above a whisper.


"You left today. I don't know when or if I'll ever see you again. I feel like such a fool. When you left I realized something. There were a million things I should have said to you. A million reasons to say them..." Logan paused and looked up at her as her voice grew in volume and the words she spoke began to sink in.


"I should have told you that you are the best friend anyone could ever dream to have. I should have told you that your lips taste like cherries and that your hair smells like honey. I should have told you that and so much more..." His face paled and he looked as if he'd run from the room but Max quickly deposited herself next to him on the couch, grabbing his hands to prevent him from leaving.


"I'm not good enough for you, and it looks as though I will always be just that much short of what you need. You'd tell me that I was being a blockheaded ass right now. You'd threaten to knock some sense into me. What I would give for that to happen..." he swallowed down the embarrassment of being caught. She smiled and leaned in closer to him, her forehead an inch from his.


" I know that the chair doesn't matter to you, but still I can't get over it. Maybe I never will. If I do I won't hesitate to tell you those million things..." she paused. "Logan?" smiling she purred in his ear. "There is no chair. And you're more then good enough for me."


She pulled back to catch his eyes.


"I love you Max. I probably always will. I've tried so hard to deny it. So you will probably never hear me say those words again. I've told you twice before. Once while you were sleeping in my arms and then before I was shot. I think them every time you walk in the room. I want to tell you so badly..." He cupped her face.


"Logan... I heard you." She smiled and he pulled her close, their foreheads resting against each other as spoke in a whisper.


"Want to know something though, ever since you left it, my bed just seems way too big for one person. My arms just seem empty without you in them..." He paused and kissed her nose.


"Logan..." her voice cracked on the lump rising in her throat.


"Max..." He smiled and pulled her into his lap. "I love you. I love you Max and only you. In a million and one ways, for a million and one reasons. You are the one person I have never been able to shake. The one person I want to be with every waking moment. I love you." he whispered as his lips brushed her forehead.


"That's good to know." She let out the breath she'd been holding and pulled away slightly, Logan's confusion written clearly on his face. "I wouldn't want to give everything I have to a man who didn't love me as much as I love him." She smiled and pulled his lips to hers for an earth-shattering minute.


"It defies all logic and every rule I've ever made for myself. But I love you Logan Cale."


"Are you sure? You're free now Max. You could have anyone. Anything you want could be yours." he questioned drawing his thumbs over her cheekbones.


"I carry your heart with me. I carry it in my heart. I am never without it...anywhere I go you go, my dear; and whatever is done by only me is your doing, my darling. I fear no fate. For you are my fate, my sweet. I want no world. For beautiful you are my world, my true. And it's you are whatever a moon has always meant and whatever a sun will always sing is you. Here is the deepest secret nobody knows. Here is the root of the root and the bud of the bud and the sky of the sky of a tree called life; which grows higher than soul can hope or mind can hide. And this is the wonder that's keeping the stars apart. I carry your heart. I carry it in my heart."* Max answered.


The two sat wrapped in each other's arms long passed the ding of the timer that signified dinner was ready. Passed the hours of the night and into the morning that for some reason only known to nature, decided to be bright and sunny.


The End


*e.e. cummings' I carry your heart






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