Mouth agape, my hand reaches for his face, fingers hovering just above the bruises. I hate myself for caring. Hate that even here, at their graves, I can't stop needing to protect him. “Your dad—”
“Knight.” He smirks, but it falters immediately. “And Kai.”
I blink, pulling my hands back. “What? Why?”
He snorts. “You left. I flipped out. Grabbed Merci. Zach lost it. Figured Kai might know where you were. But when I told him about what happened with your scholarship, he fucked me up more. I didn't care, just needed to find you.”
“So, he told you where I was?”
He shakes his head. “No.”
“Then how?”
“You really don’t want to know.” His gaze drifts past me to the three headstones. “Is this them? Your family?”
I can only nod, my throat too tight for words.
He reaches under his sweatshirt and pulls out my bear. “You left this. Thought you might need it.”
My hands shake as I reach out and take it. He . . . he brought it to me. Again. I swallow hard, clutching my bear to my chest. “Why’d you do it?”
“Baby, it wasn't me. I swear. My mother . . . they went after you to get back at me.”
Not surprised. Not really.
If my head wasn’t already a wreck, maybe I would’ve considered it was his parents pulling the strings.
I turn back to the graves, my shoulders slumping. “You don’t have to stay.”
“I’m not going anywhere.”
After walking back over, I sink back to the ground and pull my knees to my chest, hugging my bear tight. “It’s not fair. Why did they have to die while I got to live?”
“Because if you hadn't, I never would've found you. Never would've . . .” He pauses for a second. “You changed everything. Made me want things I didn't know I could want.”
“You don't mean that.”
“I do.” He places a hand on my shoulder. “I know I fucked everything up. I know I hurt you. But Ryan . . . I'm in love with you.” His voice drops, barely audible over the storm. “Been trying not to be. But I can't stop.”
I twist to look at him. “W-what?”
Rain drips from his hair, his battered face serious. “You heard me. I’m in love with you.”
One minute, I feeleverything. The next, nothing at all. I want to tell him he’s wrong, that he can’t love someone this broken. That I’m nothing.
But I can’t because I’ve seen his broken parts too, the ugliest and darkest pieces of who he is, and as I stare straight into those hazel eyes, I just know. “I . . . I love you too.”
He sits next to me, neither of us says anything more, but we don’t have to. Not sure how many minutes pass, but eventually Connor bumps my shoulder. “Fixed the tuition issue. You don’t have to worry about a scholarship anymore.”
“How?”
“Paid the next three years for you.”
“No. Connor—”
“Stop. It’s done. Think of it as a belated wedding gift.” He gestures toward the headstones. “Tell me about them.”
So, I do. I tell him how my mom won the bear at the county fair by cheating at a ring toss game, and then charmed the guy into giving it to her anyway.
