Open Heart One Shots

Soulmates (Part 1)

A/N: This event is set one year after the end of Book 3.

Ethan's POV

Ethan Ramsey never thought he would get married. Heck, he still remembered that day, over two years ago, when he made that damn Pictagram account. Evelyn had asked him if marriage was something he wanted to add to his interests. At the time, he had told her that it didn't rank highly in his interests. That there was no biological basis for soulmates. He wondered how someone was to know when they've met the right person? Evelyn said that you just feel it. Wasn't that biology? At that moment he looked into her eyes, and he felt something that he hadn't felt in a long time. Love. Vulnerability. Yet he couldn't bring himself to accept those feelings. He was her boss and she was an intern. She was already in the second year of her internship and after one more the world would be her oyster.

Yet here he was, two years later, standing on the balcony of The Gritti Palace in Venice, on his honeymoon.

His reminiscence is interrupted by a sleepy voice calling his name.

"Ethan, are you out there?" Evelyn called, wondering out to the balcony where he was standing, the breeze ruffling his hair.

"Morning, darling," he responds, kissing her forehead and pulling her close to his chest.

"You're up awfully early," she says, still rubbing her tired eyes.

"Force of habit I suppose." his deep chuckle echoing in the morning silence. "Do you want to get some breakfast? We can order room service, or if you want to go for a walk, we can go to Dolce Vita Coffee. It's about a sixteen-minute walk."

"Let's go for a walk. Just give me a few minutes to get ready," she kisses him sweetly before heading back inside.

How did he get so lucky? He wonders to himself, looking through the door to watch her brush her long, dark hair, singing into the hairbrush now and then.

He smiles, thinking about how her joy and optimism had shone such a radiant light in his life from the moment she stepped into it. She was unlike any woman he had ever met. She was so strong and independent on her own, yet she was always willing to go after him, to help him face his demons, to break down his walls no matter how high and thick he made them. She loved him long before he could even reciprocate it.

But now that he could, he promised himself that he would always make sure that she knew how much he loved and appreciated her. He would stay by her side no matter what, just like she'd always done for him.

"Are you ready, Ethan?" Evelyn asks, holding out her hand to him.

He gently takes her small hand in his and places a kiss on the back of it, "I am."

He was ready for breakfast. But he was also ready for an eternity with the woman he was now proud to call his soulmate.