“Did you mean what you wrote in the message?”
“Every single fucking letter.”
“Why?”
“Why what?”
“Why aren’t you running a hundred miles in the opposite direction? You can do so much better than me. You should find someone you can share a normal life with.”
“I don’t want anyone else, Jackson,” he says with such conviction that it smashes the last of my lingering doubts out ofthe ballpark. “There is no one else I want. No other type of life I want other than one with you in it.”
He takes a deep breath. “I’ve been drifting my whole life. Even getting sober and buying the sanctuary didn’t make much of a difference. Something was still missing. Something has always been missing. Until you came along. You’re not perfect. I’m not perfect either. But together, we are.”
The tears are back. I hang my head and listen as they patter onto my jeans. “I’ve tried so hard to push you away.”
“I’m well aware,” he says, and I imagine that sexy smirk on his lips that lights up his eyes making an appearance right about now.
“I’m down to the very end of my vision,” I tell him. “Clancy had to read out each letter for me because I could only see the glow of the colors.”
“He explained that might be the case. That’s why I enlisted his help tonight.”
“And what about after tonight? Have you really got more fireworks planned?”
“Planned and prepaid for the next thirty nights at 9:00 p.m.”
“The fine people of Silverstone won’t know what hit ’em.”
“I don’t care about anyone else, Jackson. I only care about you. And I don’t want you to give me a chance. Or even us a chance…I want you to give yourself a chance. Youareworthy of being loved. Condition or no condition. So let me in. Let me share your life with you. Let me help you. Let me annoy the living shit out of you. Let me fuck you senseless. I just…I just want to be with you.”
Raising my head, I reach out and find his cheeks, cupping them in my hands. “I want to be with you, too. And I’m so sorry for everything I did. But the thing I’m the most sorry about is not telling you about my condition after we made a deal to be completely honest with each other. I had my reasons, but that’snot an excuse. I’ll never do that again. If something is on my mind, you’ll know about it. I promise.”
“Thank you. I needed to hear that.”
I release him and start wringing my slightly trembling hands. “And in that spirit of honesty, I need to tell you something. There’s one more thing you need to know about me that I haven’t told you yet.”
“What is it?”
“It’s bad.”
“That’s okay, Jackson. You can tell me anything,” he says with a firm conviction.
“Like really bad. Possibly deal-breaker bad.”
“You’re not scaring me. Tell me.”
My chest sways up and down with labored breaths. “There’s a good chance that Ridge Duporth could be my half brother.”
“What?Are you serious?”
“Unfortunately, yes. He came over and broke the news right before we came here. I don’t want you hearing this from anyone else, but more than that, I want to be up-front with you, Maverick. Anyway…thoughts?”
“I’m in shock and have so many questions.”
“But you still want to be with me, right?” I say, half-jokingly, half-terrified. “Don’t forget I’m also hotheaded, stubborn, moody, and easily jealous. Real package deal over here.”
He chuckles. “Of course I do, baby. I mean, my therapist will definitely be hearing about this, but I’m all in, Jackson.”
“I just wanted to be completely honest with you. No more secrets.”
