With extreme gentleness, he eased her into it, his hand clasping one of her ankles, and he tugged off her shoe, repeating the process with her other foot. Then, grasping both ankles and carefully lifting them, he turned her as he did so that she was sitting with her legs up. Finally, he tucked the blanket in around her and disappeared into the kitchen.
Returning with an icepack, he placed it on her lap, took her hand, and settled her arm so that the bruises on her forearm rested on the cold. It was pretty much a guarantee that she would wind up with some bruises, but they weren't the life-threatening injury Micah was treating them as.
“Second, I need to do this.” His dark eyes were tormented as he stood before her for a moment before he dropped to his knees.
Her mouth fell open in shock, and she was about to ask him what he was doing when he leaned in and wrapped his arms around her waist, burying his face against her neck.
Were those … tears … she felt on her skin?
“I am so sorry for leaving you, pretty girl,” he whispered, his voice hoarse.
The thing was, she actually believed him.
Not something Teresa ever thought would happen. But Micah seemed completely sincere in his apologies. Plus, he had no reason to keep offering them. Sure, he’d messed up, but a lot of time had passed, and he could have just said sorry, then packed his bags and gone back home.
He was sticking around for her.
Because he really did want a second chance.
Never would she have thought she would get to this place, but it felt right. Actually, it felt like a weight was lifting off her shoulders. It wasn't until right this very second that Teresa even realized she’d given herself a second burden to bear. Instead of forgiving Micah a long time ago, for her own sake, not his, and allowing herself the freedom to move forward, she’d clung to her righteous anger because she absolutely did have reason to hate him for his abandonment.
But she didn't want to.
It was time.
“I forgive you,” she whispered, feeling her throat begin to clog with emotion.
Micah’s head whipped up, his eyes and mouth wide with shock. “Wh-what did you just say?”
“I forgive you for leaving. That doesn’t mean what you did didn't devastate me, and it doesn’t mean that it doesn’t still hurt. It also doesn’t mean that I know where to go after this. Did you mean it?”
“When I said I loved you?”
Her nod was shaky as she waited for his answer. Whatever it was she knew forgiving him was the right thing to do for herself.
“I meant it with every fiber of my being. For a long time, I hated you for betraying me, I tried to get you out of my head, but I could never let another woman get close to me. I told myself it was because you ruined my ability to trust, but I was wrong. It was because my heart was already yours, and I could never take it back. It kills me knowing the truth now, knowing what I did to you, how badly I?—”
“Shh,” she murmured, touching a finger to his lips. “You apologized a million times already, and I said I accept.”
His lips moved so he could touch a kiss to her fingertip. “Pretty girl, I’m telling you here and now if you let me stay in your life in any sort of capacity, I will be telling you every dayfor the rest of my life how sorry I am. Scratch that, I have your phone number, I’ll text you an apology even if you don’t let me stay in your life. And if you change your number, I’ll apologize through Nathaniel for as long as I live.”
“That’s really what you want? To be part of my life again?”
“More than anything.”
“Even if it’s only as friends?” Forgiving and dating again were not the same thing, and she honestly couldn’t say she knew what she wanted right now. Too much had happened these last few days with seeing Micah again, then the abduction, the surgery, and now with her brother. It was a lot, and she couldn’t process it quickly enough to make lifelong decisions.
“I won't lie, I want you back, I want to make all our teenage dreams a reality, but I truly understand that ship might have sailed. I’ll take back in your life any way I can get.”
“You said you haven’t let women get close to you, but according to Nathaniel, you're a bit of a player.” That might be a problem given that sex for her was not a fun experience. Pretty standard, she thought, given that her first experience had been horrific.
If she’d had Micah by her side, she might have been able to work through those issues, but she hadn't so she’d had to stumble her way through them on her own. She could make herself come on her own, but when she was with a guy, she usually wound up panicking and getting out of the moment. Which was why there hadn't been many guys.
“Much as I’d like to tell you there were none, there were quite a few. I was a stupid nineteen-year-old kid who panicked and took the coward’s way out when he thought his girl cheated on him. Then I was stubborn and held onto that anger and pain instead of doing the mature, grown-up thing and confronting you. A million wishes—and believe me, I have them—can't change that. Have there …” Micah trailed off and audibly swallowed. “Have there been many men for you?”
“Well, you already know that back then, unlike you, I was still a virgin, and I was waiting for my eighteenth birthday for us to sleep together for the first time. I was trying to be all responsible, not risk a pregnancy when I already had a lot on my plate. Those first few months, I wished so hard I had thrown caution to the wind for once in my life and done it. Since then, there have been a couple of guys but no relationships.”
Did she leave it there or tell him everything?
