Page 141 of Whispers and Wildfire
“You avoided me every time you came home to visit your family.”
“Yeah,” she said, her voice softening. “I did. I thought you hated me.”
“I guess I convinced myself that I did. Mostly because I thought you hated me. And because when we broke up, it gutted me.”
“Me too.”
I stepped closer. “You’ve always been the one who got away. You know that, right? I think I’ve spent my entire adult life comparing every other woman to you. And they all fell short.”
She laughed softly. “I have a hard time believing that. I’m a hot mess, Luke. I’m too much.”
“That’s what this is really about, isn’t it?” I moved in and brushed her hair back from her face. “We broke up back in the day. Your marriage fell apart. So deep down, you’re waiting for the other shoe to drop. And if you walk out now, maybe you’ll save yourself from having your heart broken again.”
When she lifted her eyes to meet mine, they glistened with unshed tears. “I’m afraid of this.”
Slipping my hands around her waist, I drew her against me and leaned my forehead down to touch hers. “Don’t be.”
She held my arms. “But what if we mess it up again?”
“We might. But messing it up in the short term doesn’t mean we fall apart. It doesn’t mean we give up.”
“So… we can be grown-ups and actually talk about our problems?”
My mouth lifted in a smile, and I kept my forehead touching hers. “Exactly.”
“That seems awfully reasonable. What’s the catch?”
“There’s no catch.”
“Are you sure? You know me, better than anyone. You know I’m a lot.”
“Baby, I don’t know who convinced you of that, but they’re wrong. You burn bright, and maybe that’s a lot for other people, but I love it. I love how I feel when I’m with you—like I’m alive.”
Her body softened and she draped her arms around my shoulders. “I love that you get me. That I can be myself with you, even when I feel messy. And how you stay so calm, even when things are hard.”
I brought my mouth to hers and kissed her softly.
“I love you,” she whispered when I pulled away. “I love you so much.”
Warmth spread through my chest. Hearing those words chased away any lingering doubts. “I love you, too.”
“Doesn’t it make you mad, though?”
“What?”
“That we could have been together all this time.”
“Believe me, it’s crossed my mind that if I hadn’t let you go, you wouldn’t have been in LA that night. You wouldn’t have married someone else and been through everything you’ve had to deal with in the last couple of years. But maybe this is how it was supposed to be. We both had a lot of growing up to do.”
“And maybe instead of worrying about the mistakes we made in the past, colossal as they might have been, we should focus on the future.”
“And be grateful we found our way back to each other.” Ikissed her again, deeply this time. “I’m ready to love you the way you should be loved.”
“And I’m ready to love you back.”
She lit me up, like a spark catching dry tinder. Heedless of the twinges of pain that still tightened my midsection, I picked her up and tossed her over my shoulder.
“What are you doing?” she asked with a laugh.
