Suddenly the air changes, thickening between us. I set the photo on the table with deliberate care, like any sudden movement might shatter us all over again.
“You don’t have to be embarrassed,” I reassure, noticing how she shifts her weight, how her fingers fidget with the edge of her sleeve. I guide her chin up with the side of my finger so I can see her eyes when I tell her, “Not about having feelings, then or now. I just froze when Connor cornered me. That’s all. I didn’t know what to say.”
She nods, her lashes fluttering, and then she bites her lip. “What did you say?”
“Well, he saw the one of us kissing and asked if we were boyfriend and girlfriend back then and I told him the truth. I told him we knew each other a long time ago and told him that you were very special to me.”
“I’m sorry, H.”
My pulse thuds in my throat. “And then he asked me if I still liked you.” I move closer, close enough to feel the warmth coming off her skin.
“He…he did?” she asks, her voice trembling, her chest rising.
“Yeah. He did.”
Her lips part. “And um, do you?”
My voice drops to a rumble. “Do I what?”
She pauses for a beat, as if she doesn’t want to ask the question I’m forcing her to ask.
“Do you um, like me?”
Even though I was braced for it, her question hits me like a shot straight to the ribs. I lift my hand slowly, giving her time to pull away, but she doesn’t. My fingers brush her jaw, the softest touch, and she closes her eyes like she’s been waiting for it. Like she’s welcoming it. Like she’s waiting for me to lean down and press my lips to hers. When I don’t, she whispers, “I swear I didn’t mean to leave the photos out, H. I didn’t mean for Connor to find them. I was just…reminiscing.”
“A time when you truly felt happy,” I remind her.
She breathes against me, eyes still closed. “Yes.”
“A time when you were truly happy…with me.”
Her eyes open and she meets my gaze, dark and urgent. “Yes.”
I drop my head so my lips graze the shell of her ear. “Then I’ll ask the real question,” I tell her, my thumb brushing the corner of her mouth. “Do you still want me,” I murmur, “or just the memory of me?”
She sucks in a breath, sharp and unsteady, and then she steps into me, close enough that her chest grazes mine. Close enough that I can feel every word she doesn’t say. “I don’t lock memories away in drawers,” she whispers. “I keep them because I’m not done with them yet.”
Fuck me.
She still wants me.
She’s here for me.
The idea that I could potentially find my forever with Harper sends a jolt of electric anticipation through my body and my control snaps a little. It’s not a complete break, but just enough to let her in. To give her a taste of what I’m feeling. I might not be one hundred percent ready to give her my whole heart but fuck, knowing she might just take it back if I offer it to her makes this a thousand times easier.
I lean down, mouth hovering a breath from hers. I’m damn well sure I could kiss her if I wanted to and I don’t think she would stop me.
God, how badly I want to.
To feel her.
To taste her.
To see if the memory of our lips together is just as I remember it.
“Good,” I breathe, my voice a low, hungry rumble. “Because neither am I.”
CHAPTER TEN
