“What’s in Berlin anyways?”
“A treatment center doing experimental trials on patients with lupus.”
My brows rise in shock. “Fuck, that’s hardcore. Is she going alone?”
“Yes, which only makes me more selfish for wanting her to stay. Here I am talking about my fears of her going but I can’t even imagine how petrified she is to do it alone.”
“One doesn’t cancel out the other. You can be afraid of the change to come along while also being hopeful for her. In some ways you’re both tackling heavy things head-on by yourselves.”
Bella looks at me out of the corner of her eye. “When did you get so wise?”
Turning to face her, I mock being wounded. “You never thought I was wise?”
“Must have been because of that first impression.”
I wince. “Don’t remind me. I’m just glad they haven’t tried to come back.”
“You and me both,” she mutters. “I like my hair and eyes exactly where they are.”
Me too.
“She’s so happy,” she suddenly breathes.
My smile mirrors Bella’s as Bambi runs in between all the trees, her nose to the ground, tail wagging. “I haven’t seen her this happy…ever.”
“You can’t take her back,” Bella whispers.
“I know.”
“I’ll figure out a way—wait, what?” She turns to me, eyes large and round. “What do you mean, you know?"
I shrug. “I knew the moment I agreed for her to come here that I could never give her back.”
“Then why take her? You said with your work?—”
“I’ll figure it out,” I say simply, my eyes still locked on Bambi. “She deserves a home, Bella, and I’m not going to be the one to give her that only to take it away when she’s just beginning to feel comfortable. That would be cruel.”
At the weighted silence, I finally turn to face her. The sun is setting over the mountains, the sky a pastel shade of pink, making her look angelic as her long brown hair flutters in the soft breeze, pushing the scent that is distinctlyhertoward me.
The way shock parts her lips has me licking my own and my hands twitching at my sides.
I’ve never had the desire to kiss someone as much as I do her.
“You really are a good guy, aren’t you?” she whispers softly.
I wasn’t expecting that. “And you don’t think I was before?” I can’t keep the hurt from my voice. I know I’ve made mistakes; I know Bella came into my life when I was at rock bottom.
But I turned my life around.
She doesn’t even know about Drew yet…
At the reminder of my brother, something goes cold in my heart.Maybe I’m not the good guy you think I am.
“No, it’s just…” She shakes her head before squaring her shoulders, and I know that gleam in her eye.
It makes me forget everything. It makes thoughts of myself fall away. Bella is gearing up, that stubborn streak in her flaring.
“It was you, wasn’t it?”
