God, I missed her.
My gaze drops to her mouth.
Christ.
Her lips are pink and soft, the kind of soft that makes a guy think bad ideas. Then she licks them, slow, and I have to bite back a groan.
Her voice snaps me out of it.
"I want to believe you. I really do." She inhales sharply, her chest rising before she lets out a long, shaky sigh. "But the last time I did that? I ended up with a broken heart and spent three years trying to fix what you broke."
My gaze drags up from her mouth until it collides with hers, and the look in her eyes nearly knocks the air out of me.
Pain — pain I put there.
And she's fighting it. Fighting the part of her that wants to forgive me.
And damn, if that doesn't hurt like hell.
Not because I expected her to forgive me right away — hell, I'd be shocked if she did — but because I'm the reason she's like this now. I'm the reason she second-guesses me, second-guessesus.
I told her once that she should only ever believe me — not the girls whispering behind her back, not the jerks calling her names.Me. I told her she was perfect the way she was.
And then I went and proved myself a liar.
So yeah, I can see it now, as clear as the day I ruined everything — the way that hurt still bleeds through her, even when she's trying so hard to hide it.
And it kills me.
Before I even think about it, I'm holding her hands, gripping them tighter than I should.
"I told you it was a mistake. A misunderstanding." My words come out rough, rushed, like I'm scared she'll cut me off before I can get them all out.
"I know how bad it was — hell, I think about it every damn day — but I need you to hear me when I say I didn't mean it. Any of it. You have to—"
"I hear you, Zach. I do."
Her voice is quiet, but it lands like a stone in my chest.
She exhales hard, slipping her hands free of mine. The loss of her touch is instant, sharp, and I stay frozen where I am — still crouched in front of the sofa — as I watch her stand.
She puts distance between us, crossing the room until her back is to me. My gaze follows every step like a magnet.
"I listened," she says finally, her tone softer now. "And I heard you. Maybe I don't understand all of it but I get that you weren't trying to hurt me. That you never expected me to hear it."
She lets out a dry little laugh. "People do stupid, messy things when they love someone, right? That was your thing. Making up lies to keep Jacob from asking me out because you were scared he might actually win me over."
Her shoulders rise and fall. "And maybe it even worked, because he never did ask me out. Your plan worked — you just didn't count on me overhearing it."
A breath leaves her like she's been holding it for years. "And if there's anyone who'd understand that," she says, this time with a softer, almost bittersweet chuckle, "it'd be me."
She glances over her shoulder, giving me a small, embarrassed smile.
"If you only knew how many ridiculous things I did just to get you to notice me. How many nights I spent imagining us together — like full-on rom-com level delusion. Every time you did something nice for me, I convinced myself it was a sign thatyou liked me too. And then the next day, I'd catch you flirting with someone else and, poof, delusion gone."
Her smile falters as she turns fully to face me, that thread of vulnerability still hanging in the air.
"But just because I get why you did it," she says quietly, "doesn't mean it didn't break me, Zach."
