Dean tugged on my hand. “Come on. Stand up. We should dance.”
The jazz playlist had shifted into R&B. I was just tipsy enough to make me loose, but not so much he had to hold me up.
With my arms around his neck, his hands at my hips, we swayed and kissed lazily, no rush to be anywhere else. Like we’d never have to stop.
It was so, so perfect.
Then he dropped one of his hands and dug into his back pocket. “I bought you something else at the shop yesterday. Didn’t seem like the right time to give it to you until now.”
I unwrapped the tissue paper. A silver bracelet lay inside with a tiny charm of the letter K engraved on a heart.
It was pretty and delicate and my own heart was frozen in my chest. “This is why you made me go to the coffee shop? Lorraine talked you into perusing the jewelry, huh?”
“It was my idea. Do you like it?” He seemed nervous. The man who was never afraid of anything.
“I love it.”
Dean fastened the bracelet onto my wrist, and my body came to life again. Pulse thrumming and stomach fluttering.
A new song came on. Dean pulled me close and started swaying again. My mind was all over the place, wondering what this meant. A man didn’t buy jewelry like this for a woman who was just his friend or friend with benefits. Or a fake girlfriend, either.
The shopping trip and the date yesterday. The bracelet…
I wanted so badly for it to mean something.
Dean’s lips brushed over my temple. “I think a lot aboutthe night we danced at Jessi and Aiden’s wedding. How close I came to kissing you.”
I pulled back, frowning. “I wanted you to kiss me. More than anything. Why didn’t you?”
“You know why,” he said softly.
Because he’d already gotten that new job and decided to leave. Because he hadn’t wanted to hurt me. All those ridiculous reasons he’d told me before.
And nothing had changed in two years, not really.
Clarity hit me. Knocked me right upside the head. I almost laughed at how incredibly stupid I’d been. The exact same thing was happening as two years ago, and I hadn’t seen it.
I let go of Dean and stepped back. “You’re about to leave again, aren’t you?” I lifted my wrist, feeling the metal slide coldly against my skin.
“Keira, I was always going to leave. That was the plan.”
“Well, plans change! And I didn’t think you were going to leavenow. Not yet.”
“It’s not today or tomorrow, but…” He put his hands on his hips, looking at the floor. “Yesterday, when I took you into town, I wasn’t thinking about leaving. But now, Nox Woodson is dead. Ryan Garrett is the last loose end. I don’t care what Harris Medina says. Iwillmake Garrett pay for what he’s done, and then…there’s nothing else keeping me here.”
A tear streaked down my cheek. “Nothing?”
“You know what I mean. It would be selfish of me to stay. I’m not what you need.”
“Bullshit. Why do you get to decide what I need?”
Two years ago, I’d been afraid. I’d stood on that dance floor and let Dean walk away from me. I’d been a coward.
But I wasn’t that same girl anymore. So why was I making the same exact mistake?
The truth was racing at me, refusing to be denied. Another tear slipped free and left a trail down my face, but really? I’d never felt so damn strong.
“Dean, I’m in love with you.”
