His mouth formed the only words his brain could come up with. “I appreciate you telling me.”
Bronwyn gaped at him. “Youappreciateit? That’s ... that’s your response? I hunted you down, hopped on a plane, and walked three miles to be able to tell you in person—”
“None of which I asked for.” Mo lost the battle with his temper. “It’s always about you, isn’t it? Let me guess, you’re in a twelve-step program or whatever there is for someone like you?”
Her eyes widened and filled with tears. She dropped her gaze to the pavement.
But he wasn’t done.
“You’re on whichever step it is that has you making amends, and you decided today was the day you’d mark this one off your list. And to make it even more impressive, you jumped through a bunch of unnecessary hoops. I’m sure you could have found my phone number—”
“You would have hung up on me.”
He ignored her interruption and continued, “My parents still live in the same house, so you could have sent me a note. But you had to make a production out of your apology. Were you thinking I’d feel extra sorry for you, or was this some kind of penance for what you did?”
Bronwyn shook her head but didn’t speak.
“Look, you’ve done your part. You apologized. And I heard the words. I even believe that you think you mean them. But here’s the thing—I don’t care. You walked out of my life, and you stayedout of it. That was your choice. I had no way to contact you for months, and when we finally found an address, I sent you so many letters, my mom made me switch to postcards to save on postage.”
“I never got them.”
“Maybe you did, maybe you didn’t. But you know what I got? I got smart. I realized one day that even if you weren’t getting my letters, you had no excuse not to write to me. I’m not the one who left without saying goodbye. And that’s when I accepted that you cut me out of your life on purpose. That you didn’t want to hear from me. You didn’t want to see me. You didn’t want to know me.”
Tears streamed down her face, and her entire body shook.
“I have no idea whether you’re really sorry or not,” he went on, “but the truth is that it doesn’t matter one way or the other. We’re no longer part of each other’s lives. That’s what you wanted, and that’s what you got.”
“That isn’t what I wanted, Mo.”
He didn’t know what his face looked like, but when Bronwyn looked up at him, she immediately took a step back.
“Spare me the lies, okay?” He pointed to his chest. “Ididn’t go anywhere. You could have found me anytime youwantedto, but now you show up the day before I deploy so you can, what? Ease your conscience? Are you worried that I’ll die and you won’t have a chance to finish all your steps?”
“I wanted to ... explain.”
“You explained plenty. I have six years of empty mailboxes to prove it. I don’t need an explanation. You’re sorry? Good. You should be. Now go back to wherever you came from, and I’ll go on living my life the way I want to—without you in it.”
He turned on his heel and walked into the restaurant. Once inside, he paused and looked down the sidewalk. Bronwyn wiped her eyes and took a few steps in his direction. Then she dropped her head, turned, and walked away.
He watched her until she was out of sight, then he found his friends.
He needed the chaos of a night out to get his mind off what had just happened.
But what he needed most was to forget the pain in the eyes of the only woman he’d ever loved.
Five days later, Bronwyn grabbed her mail and walked upstairs to her third-floor apartment. She had an exam tomorrow and another on Friday. She needed to study. Her flight to see Mo had messed up her schedule and she ... oh, who was she kidding? The flight wasn’t the problem. The emotional atomic bomb that Mo had detonated was the problem.
She’d spent more time than was healthy over the past few days rehashing every second of their encounter. She’d been sure he would respect her for showing up in person rather than writing a letter.
She couldn’t have been more wrong.
She wasn’t sure what she’d expected him to say, but she hadn’t been prepared for the anger.
Which was stupid on her part. She should have been. Her mistake had been thinking he was still the gentle soul she’d left behind.
Mo had been her person. Her playmate, her confidante, her best friend, her crush, and her first and only love. And that’s how she still thought of him. She’d been unprepared for the reality that the boy who’d loved her had grown into a man who hated her—and had some serious anger issues.
She tossed her backpack into a chair and sorted through the mail.
