5 Months Later 

I stood at the airport with all my bags packed. My mom, dad and sister were all there to see me off. This was it. I was about to go traveling by myself around the world.

Things had been so different the last six months. Connor had left for, and for the first time in a decade, I didn't have him by my side. We'd messaged each other often in the beginning, but after few months, the messages had become less and less and less.

And I learned, that I could live without him. I could be my own person in the world without Connor Matthews by my side. And I liked who I was, and I really liked who Mckenzie and I were together. We'd grown so close these last six months that I was now so afraid to leave her for a year, in case things went back to the way they'd been before. But she'd assured me that would never happen, and the little matching sister tattoos we'd gotten together- that freaked our mother out so much- meant that no matter where I was in the world, she would always be with me.

I'd messaged Connor about a week ago, telling him that I was going, but hadn't heard back. A part of me wondered if he still felt the same way about me, or if, like me, he'd learned to live without me and learned that life wasn't as bad as I thought it would be when we were apart. Maybe he'd moved on?

Had I moved on? Was I still so madly in love with Connor Matthews... honestly, all this time apart was making me wonder about that. I loved him, but I hadn't seen him or spoken to him in so long, that I wasn't sure what was going on between us anymore.

"Okay," I turned to my sister and looked at her.

"Don't fucking cry!" She pointed a finger at me.

"Language!" My mother said from the side and we both smiled at each other.

"Please don't cry," McKenzie repeated.

I shook my head and bit my lip. Truth was, I was on the verge of tears right now. I had wanted to do this for so long, and yet, I was scared shitless. I was going to be traveling... alone!

"Don't be scared," McKenzie said, reading my mind. "if anyone can travel alone, it's you."

"But don't speak to strangers," my mom added, "Especially the French."

"Huh?" I looked at her. Talk about stereotyping here. 

"French men can be very... uh... friendly. Trust me." I looked at my mom blankly for a moment or two and suddenly, her cheeks flushed. Mmmm, I wondered what French man had been friendly to her in her youth. I could see my dad looking at her sideways and wondering the exact same thing. 

"Let's not drag this out," McKenzie said quickly, knowing that I didn't want a massive emotional farewell at the airport. It would just make things much, much harder.

"I'm going to miss you," My mother threw her arms around me and hugged me. It was weird hearing her say she'd miss me, but nice. 

I looked over at my dad, he was fighting back a tear. "Please don't cry dad," I walked over to him and wrapped my arms around him.

"Ok. Ok," he said, I could hear he was trying to push them back. "You phone us the second you need to," he said, "At least three times a week so we know you're ok."

"Promise!" I said, as he wrapped a large arm around me.

"Use the credit card I gave you whenever you need to. I don't want my daughter sleeping in dirty backpackers lodges," he added.

"Dad, it's all booked. I'm sleeping where I'm sleeping."

"Then food. Clothes, whatever. You have my permission to use it as much as you need to."

"Hey!" I heard McKenzie say from the side-lines. "That's not what you tell mom and I." She laughed.

"Well, it's not like you and mom are walking through a jungle every day."

"Dad, you clearly haven't been at the mall latterly," she said, and we all laughed together as a family. We'd laughed a lot these last six months.

I pulled away from my dads hug and looked at them all.

"Seriously though, Sadie. If at any point you want to come home, you just call. I'll book you in the next flight home," my dad said, and I could se he was being serious. So I promised I would.

"Ok. I'm ready," I said, nodding my head, more to psyche myself up than actually convince them.

They all nodded back at me, and then, as if perfectly timed, we all fell into a massive family hug together.

"Don't get lost." My mom said into my ear. "Phone all the time," She added.

"I will." We all pulled away from the hug and stared at each other. No one didn't have a tear in their eye.

"Ok. That's enough!" I said quickly. This was getting far too hard and emotional and if I stayed a second longer, I was sure I was going to chicken out. "Go! Go guys." I waved at them all and turned.

"Love you," McKenzie shouted to me.

I turned and smiled at her. "Love you more!" I yelled across the airport at her and waved one last time before turning around and walking away. I walked all the way up to international departures and then allowed myself one last look back at them as they all walked away together, arm-in-arm.

"Fuck!" I said out loud. This was it! I pulled my ticket out and got into the queue nervously. The queue was slow and the slower it went, the more my heart beat in my chest from sheer nerves. And then, cutting through all the noise in the airport, I heard it.

Him.

"Sadie!" It was Connor, I couldn't see him. But I could hear him.

"Sadie?" He called again, people were turning and looking now.

"Here!" I shouted at the top of my lungs leaving the queue.

"Where?" The voice replied.

"HERE!" I screamed it as loudly as I could, and now everyone was looking. I ran, following the sound of his voice. Where was it coming from?

"Sadie." The voice was so close now. And then, we ran into each other.

"Oh my God, you're here," I said, a massive smile sweeping across my face as I looked at him. Wow. He looked different. Good. So good. He was tanned and even more muscular than he had been six months ago. I blushed and all those familiar feelings that had been dormant for the last few months, were back. With a vengeance.

"Sadie." He smiled at me, I could see his cheeks were also flushed.

"Connor," I repeated stupidly.

"Sadie." He was smiling so much that he could hardly say my name.

"You're here." I stated the obvious.

"I am," he said, and then he did something very, very strange and shocking. He started going down on one knee.

I gasped. "What the hell are you doing?" I looked at him and then looked around, people were watching us. "Get up, get up." I was panicked. "You can't propose to me. We can't get married. What are you doing, get off the floor."

Connor burst out laughing. "I'm not proposing marriage to you, but I am about to propose something else."

"What?" I looked down at him as he pulled something out of his pocket.

I gasped again, it was a ring box. "Connor! What the hell are you doing?"

"Take it," he said, pushing the box towards me.

I reached out, hands trembling and took the box from him. But when I opened it, there wasn't a ring inside. Instead, it was an old compass. On the compass, there was a marking that had been made on the glass.

"What's this?" I asked, taking it out.

"So you can find your way back to me in three hundred and sixty five day's time."

My throat tightened as he stood up and then placed his hands on my shoulders. "It's you," he said. "It's you and it will always be you, and I'm waiting."

"You are?" I asked.

He nodded. "I'll wait as long as I have to for you to come back to me. When you're ready." He smiled and I fucking melted. What had I asked myself earlier; did I still feel the same way about him?

YES! Yes I did. I was still as in love with Connor as I had been six months ago. But the love felt different now. I didn't need him. I wasn't pinning for him every minute of every day. I just loved him.

"I believe in second chances in love, Sadie. Look at my mom and dad. And I believe in a second chance for us too," he said. "You don't have to say anything back to me now. But I just want you to know that I still love you and that I'm here when you get back."

"I love you too," I said and then reached for his face and pulled it towards me. We kissed. It was so soft and gentle and warm. I'd missed his lips, even though I hadn't gotten to kiss them very often. But it was the perfect kiss. Connor Matthews loved me, and I loved him. And it was real love. The kiss ended and we looked at each other. Stared deeply into each other's eyes. I could feel myself falling deeper and deeper into them.

"You're going to miss your flight," he said, stroking me cheek and then pushing a strand of hair behind my ear. This time the strand stayed there.

"Longer. I like it," he ran his hand through my hair and his fingers traced the nape of my neck.

"More muscles. I like them," I placed my hand on his chest and his muscles immediately tightened under my fingers. Connor had definitely changed in these last five months, he looked more like a man now, and less like the boy next door.

"You have to go." He let me go and took a step backwards. "You have the world to explore, and I have tennis matches to win. And then... then..."

"Then what?" I asked, utterly transfixed by him standing in front on me like that.

"Then you take out that compass and you come straight back to me, and we pick up where we left off," his eyes darkened and this time his smile was slow, and sexy and, God...

I looked down at the compass in my hand and wrapped my fingers around it tightly. I would hold onto this as if it were the most precious thing in the world. I looked up at Connor again.

"So this isn't goodbye then?" I asked.

He shook his head. "No. This is 'see you later'."

I smiled again. "Okay. See you later Connor."

"I'll be waiting. I'll be right here when you get off the plane." He pointed at the ground and I looked down for some reason. I noticed a strange shaped crack in the floor,  it almost looked like an X. 

"That's a deal then," I said, lifting my face to him again.

"Should we shake on it?" he asked.

I stuck my hand out and Connor immediately slipped his fingers through mine. We both stared down at our hands, they fitted together so perfectly, and I knew that this would not be the last time I would hold his hand like this. I could feel that, as clearly as I could hear the final boarding call for my flight.

I pulled him hard towards me and kissed him one last time. I closed my eyes, plunging myself into darkness, just like our first kiss. But unlike that kiss, I knew that this wouldn't be the end of our kisses. We had a lifetime of kisses stretching out in front of us. But not right now. We would have to wait. I still had things to do, and so did he.

I pulled away and then turned and ran. If I stayed there much longer I was worried I would deliberately miss my flight and I didn't want to.

"I love you!" I heard him call as I made it to the gate just in time to hand my ticket in. "I'll be waiting," was the last thing I heard as I disappeared through the gate and headed for my plane.