“Crazy?”
“Not even close. I was thinking more…heartbreaking. All of this is really, really heartbreaking. And it just gets more heartbreaking the deeper in I go. Like, I thought you smelled of my perfume for no reason at all, but now I’m thinking otherwise.”
She didn’t know how to feel when his expression turned sheepish.
Thrilled, that she was right.
Sad, that it had taken him so long to say.
“That was kind of an accident. Some girl sprayed it on me in a mall and I just thought it was nice and it gave me a good feeling so I bought some. Then I got close to you in the library and realized that I’m a fucking dumbass who basically has no clue why he does anything ever.”
“Would it help if I said that Ilikeyou being a fucking dumbass?”
“It definitely wouldn’t hurt.”
“I like you being a fucking dumbass. I like that you don’t know why you do things.”
“Even though it’s responsible for ninety percent of the fucked-up shit we’ve been through.”
“And the other ten percent?”
“Is me knowingly making terrible decisions, like asking Harrison to put us together. I mean, I knew why I did that. I get that it was terrible. It’s just that I went ahead and fucking did it anyway.”
“I think we’ve established that it wasn’t so terrible,” she said.
But he wouldn’t accept it. He sighed and looked down at their joined hands.
“Yeah, it was. I didn’t stick to the plan, which was to basically make sure you were happy. It wasn’tforce Letty into a partnership that makes her even more frightened than she already is. I should have just backed off and waited for my moment to help you. Beat up guys who were dogging you or—”
“Beating up guys who are dogging me sounds terrible, Tate. It was bad enough that you punched your buddy—who by the way is responsible for you not being killed by mobsters.”
“They weren’t going to kill me, Letty. People notice when mobsters murder wrestling stars who they just recently tried to draft into an illegal gambling ring.”
“Well even so, my point stands. Working with me on a project was a great idea. Itdidmake me happy, Tate. It made me happier than I’ve ever been.”
“Doesn’t change how selfish it was. I just…wanted to hang out with you.”
“If you’re waiting for me to fault you for that, you’re going to be here a long time, babe.”
He looked up at that, in a way that reminded her of something.
And then she remembered: it was what she used to do, to stop herself crying in front of him.
“I love you. Do you know that?”
“I don’t see how I could possibly not. You’ve told me in every conceivable way.”
“I’m gonna keep telling you, every day and all the time and always. And I have time now to do it. I got five hundred thousand dollars in my back pocket and nowhere else I need to be.”
Five hundred thousand dollars!her mind screamed.
But she couldn’t focus on that now. Nor on where it would lead—because by God she would make sure it wasn’t somewhere bad. No, all she could think about was the world now opening up before them, built on trust and truth and love. Oh, so much love.
“No more wrestling?”
“No more wrestling. No more of anything except all the things we should have done seven years ago, before I fucked it up. All the movie marathons we missed and the hand holding we didn’t do…the music we didn’t share while lying on your bed in a room I never saw…” he started, voice wavering so much by the end that she had to pick up the thread where he had put it down.
She just didn’t expect it to be so easy.
