The Plan | l.r.h

thirty-four

Ryan's POV

I woke up the next morning feeling happy. And then everything set in. The party, the police, Luke leaving, him coming back hours later, Samantha getting found. And Luke choosing me.

I'm still happy... how could I not be? I am living with the love of my life, in a beautiful house, and nothing could be more perfect. But my heart was still heavy because part of me feels like I'm living in someone's place. In Samantha's place. If she had never been kidnapped, it would be her laying next to this perfect man in this wonderful home. I would probably still be at home, sharing a bed with Calum, living Michael and my parents, and not believing in love.

No matter what I do, Samantha will always be Luke's first true love. She will always be the girl he envisioned spending the rest of his life with, before she went missing. Whether he knows it or not, Samantha was the first girl who had his heart and there will always be a part of his heart that belongs to her.

This made my chest feel suffocated. And I wondered if Luke felt the same.

Luke's POV

I woke up this morning and felt a warmth in my chest. I had my arms wrapped around Ryan's small waist and my head was in the crook of her neck. I couldn't see if her eyes were open or if she was awake because her hair was in her face. And yet, she was still perfect to me.

I felt amazing, although I couldn't help but think what my life would be like if Sam never went missing. Would this be her next to me? Probably. Would I have ever even met Ryan? Probably not.

But when I think back to the times I had with Sam, I don't even know if I was really in love with her. I loved her, of course, but was I in love with her? Did she give me butterflies when I looked at her, did she make my cheeks blush when we made eye contact? Did coming home from work and knowing she would be at there and I would get to see her make me feel like a kid on Christmas morning? Did I want to spend every minute of my day with her and it broke my heart a little bit every morning we had to get up to go to work and leave each other for the day? No.

When I think back, my relationship with Sam was a puppy love. It was a comfortable love. A familiar love. If anything, she was more of a friend to me whom I loved very deeply, which is why it left me so broken when she went missing. Just like if one of my brothers, or now my best friend Michael, would go missing. I would be devastated, depressed, and lost. But I wasn't in love with Sam like I thought I was.

If Sam had never gone missing, I probably would have married her because I had never known what real true love was. Hell, I thought my love for Sam was real true love. But being with Ryan, I know now what true love is and with Sam, it wasn't it. Sam was my first relationship and the first girl that I had love for, but she wasn't my first and true love. Sam was safe and enjoyable, but she wasn't passion and affection. That was Ryan.

Everything that happened at the police station was a shock and emotionally draining, but knowing that after it all I was coming home to Ryan made it all bearable and worth it. Ryan is my soulmate. She is the only girl I have ever been in love with, and seeing Sam yesterday made me realize it. If only Ryan knew this or there was a way for me to tell her.