It Ends with Us by Colleen Hoover (z-lib.org).epub

“You should have tried one when they were hot,” he said. “That’s when they’re
the best.”
“I didn’t want to eat them without you,” I said. We sat on the bed with our backs
against the wall and proceeded to eat half the bowl of cookies. I told him they were
delicious, but failed to tell him they were by far the greatest cookies I’d ever eaten. I
didn’t want to inflate his ego. I kind of liked how humble he was.
I tried to grab at another one, but he pulled the bowl away and put the lid back
on it. “If you eat too many you’ll make yourself sick and you won’t like my cookies
anymore.”
I laughed. “Impossible.”
He took a drink of water and then stood up, facing the bed. “I made you
something,” he said, reaching into his pocket.
“More cookies?” I asked.
He smiled and shook his head, then held out a fist. I lifted my hand and he
dropped something hard in the palm of my hand. It was a small, flat outline of a
heart, about two inches long, carved out of wood.
I rubbed my thumb over it, trying not to smile too big. It wasn’t an anatomically
correct heart, but it also didn’t look like the hand-drawn hearts. It was uneven and
hollow in the middle.
“You made this?” I asked, looking up at him.
He nodded. “I carved it with an old whittling knife I found at the house.”
The ends of the heart weren’t connected. They just curved in a little, leaving a
little space at the top of the heart. I didn’t even know what to say. I felt him sit back
down on the bed but I couldn’t stop looking at it long enough to even thank him.
“I carved it out of a branch,” he said, whispering. “From the oak tree in your
backyard.”
I swear, Ellen. I never thought I could love something so much. Or maybe what I
was feeling wasn’t for the gift, but for him. I closed my fist around the heart and
then leaned over and kissed him so hard, he fell back onto the bed. I threw my leg
over him and straddled him and he grabbed my waist and grinned against my
mouth.
“I’m gonna carve you a damn house out of that oak tree if this is the reward I
get,” he whispered.
I laughed. “You have to stop being so perfect,” I told him. “You’re already my
favorite person but now you’re making it really unfair to all the other humans
because no one will ever be able to catch up to you.”