From the shadows of the house, I round the hedge from Olivia’s driveway, and our eyes lock. For a moment, neither of us moves with Pete stuck between us just feet from the first step to the porch. The wind shifts, cold and clean.
At first, when I arrived from walking to the nearby grocery store, I’d meant to make my presence known, to clear my throat or maybe call her name. But as she started talking to Pete, I couldn’t do it.
I couldn’t interrupt. I needed to hear her. And what I heard silenced every damn doubt that’s haunted me since that afternoon in her driveway when I’d nearly drove myself mad, wondering where the hell she was.
Her words—calm, certain, final—wash through me like a balm, easing the raw ache I didn’t even realize I’d been carrying.
She’s over him. Truly over him.
Even though she’d left Pete, demanded the divorce, first his text months ago and then the whole mess with Erin had cracked something in me. I’d wondered if maybe she’d filed for thewrong reasons—out of anger, out of hope that it would wake him up, that maybe he’d fight for her.
But listening to her now, I know. She’s done.
Pete spins on his heel, readying to leave, and stops short. His eyes are glassy, his shoulders slumped. For a second, we just stand there, two men bound by the same truth.
We both love Olivia.
He looks at me then, really looks. The pain scored into his features is unmistakable, yet there’s something else—acceptance.
“Sam, take care of her.” His words hang heavy in the cold air. There’s no bitterness in them, no fight left, just honesty. “Olivia is the best person I’ve ever met—the most amazing woman on the face of this earth. I fucked up. Don’t make my mistake.”
The raw vulnerability in his voice, the quiet resignation, cuts through me. For a long moment, I just nod. He’s not wrong. The weight of what he’s saying sinks deep.
“I won’t. And I couldn’t agree with you more. She is the best. Something rare. Something I don’t ever intend to lose. I’ll take care of her, every day.”
He studies me, his jaw tight, then gives a small nod, an unspoken truce between two men who have both loved and lost her in their own ways.
As he turns to go, I spin away from the porch to watch him leave. His faint footsteps echo down the drive until his engine starts and he’s gone.
I exhale slowly, gripping the grocery bags tighter, grounding myself in the simplicity of the act. Then I turn toward the house, toward her, still standing just in front of the door.
The porch light catches in her hair, and when she meets my gaze, everything in me settles. The chaos, the worry, the fucking insecurity. All of it.
She’s standing there waiting.
For me.
And this time, I don’t hesitate.
I go to her.
Olivia’s hands are clasped tight in front of her, and her teeth worry her bottom lip. She gives me a small, uncertain smile, soft and trembling at the edges, the kind that makes my chest ache.
As I climb the porch steps toward her, her gaze never leaves mine. Each tread closes the distance, and by the time I stop, two steps below, level with her, my pulse is hammering.
God, she’s beautiful.
Raw. Real. Mine.
Last night feels like a lifetime ago. Holding her while she slept, her body curved into mine, I should’ve said everything then, but I couldn’t.
We weren’t alone. Alec and Paige were there and the moment wasn’t right. Maybe I was afraid too. Afraid she still hadn’t figured out what she wanted. Afraid to push her and lose what we had.
But listening to her tell Pete she’d moved on, that she’d found someone else she loved…
I don’t need to question it anymore. I know. She’s here. With me.
I set the grocery bags down on the porch, my hands suddenly too restless to hold anything but her.
