Me-Before-You-by-Jojo-Moyes

the reason we were here. I kissed him, breathing in the scent of his skin, feeling
his soft hair under my fingertips, and when he kissed me back all of this
vanished and it was just Will and me, on an island in the middle of nowhere,
under a thousand twinkling stars.
And then he pulled back. ‘I … I’m sorry. No –’
My eyes opened. I lifted a hand to his face and let it trace his beautiful bones.
I felt the faint grit of salt under my fingertips. ‘Will … ’ I began. ‘You can. You
–’
‘No.’ It held a hint of metal, that word. ‘I can’t.’
‘I don’t understand.’
‘I don’t want to go into it.’
‘Um … I think you have to go into it.’
‘I can’t do this because I can’t … ’ he swallowed. ‘I can’t be the man I want to
be with you. And that means that this –’ he looked up into my face ‘– this just
becomes … another reminder of what I am not.’
I didn’t let go of his face. I tipped my forehead forward so that it touched his,
so that our breath mingled, and I said, quietly, so that only he could have heard
me, ‘I don’t care what you … what you think you can and can’t do. It’s not black
and white. Honestly … I’ve talked to other people in the same situation
and … and there are things that are possible. Ways that we can both be
happy … ’ I had begun to stammer a little. I felt weird even having this
conversation. I looked up and into his eyes. ‘Will Traynor,’ I said, softly. ‘Here’s
the thing. I think we can do –’
‘No, Clark –’ he began.
‘I think we can do all sorts of things. I know this isn’t a conventional love
story. I know there are all sorts of reasons I shouldn’t even be saying what I am.
But I love you. I do. I knew it when I left Patrick. And I think you might even
love me a little bit.’
He didn’t speak. His eyes searched my own, and there was this huge weight of
sadness within them. I stroked the hair away from his temples, as if I could
somehow lift his sorrow, and he tilted his head to meet the palm of my hand, so
that it rested there.
He swallowed. ‘I have to tell you something.’
‘I know,’ I whispered. ‘I know everything.’