She snapped her head up and stared at me, her green eyes wide.
“What? H-How?—”
“I know you,” I said gently. “I know what you look like when you’re in love.”
Her cheeks flushed pink at my words.
“Do your guys know?”
“Yes,” she said softly. “Cole doesn’t. Please… Don’t tell him.”
“Rosalie,” I murmured. “He needs to know.”
“I know. I just… I don’t know how he’d react.”
“He’d probably be understanding. He loves you. He wants you. I’m pretty sure he’d eat shit if you asked him to. His world revolves around you and Ellis. And now the baby.”
She nodded, looking back at her hands.
“It’s new, Enzo. Ryder and I. I don’t want anything to mess it up. Cole is already irritated with Ani. I know he doesn’t like Ry. I only want to try to get everyone accustomed to one another. Am I wrong for it?”
“You are for keeping it from Cole,” I said. “You need to tell him. Even us. We should talk to him.”
“I know.” She looked sad as she stared at her lap.
“Hey, look at me,” I said, reaching out and tilting her chin up. “I’m not going to tell if that’s what you’re worried about. I’m your secret keeper, remember?”
“Are you?” she whispered.
“I am.” I rested my forehead against hers. “I want to be if you’ll let me.”
“I want you to be.”
“Then I am,” I replied softly. I took her hands in mine and held them. Instead of my ring on her finger, she wore three other men’s rings. Married. She was married.
“I miss you,” I whispered. “I have missed you every day of my life for over five years.”
“Really?” She pulled away and stared at me with those big green eyes.
I nodded. “Yes, Sunshine. It’s been killing me. I drink too much. I smoke too much. I work too much.” I shook my head and looked away from her. “If I had another aspect of my life, like women in it, I’d fuck too much. I’m not living. I’m simply existing, hoping that someday something finally breaks my way.”
“Enzo, you have to make the break happen. If you want me, you know what you need to do.”
“I know, but it’s not so easy to walk away. I suffered for this kingdom. I bled for it. People I loved died for it. It would all be in vain. It’s hard for me to let it all go so that it means nothing.” I looked down at her hands in mine.
Fuck, her hands looked good in mine.
“What do I do, Rosalie? How do I…?Fuck.How do I do this? Any of it? I thought I could get through this life without you and find you in the next, but I can’t. I fucking can’t. I need you like air. You are everything, and I am the nothing that broke your heart. I don’t want to benothinganymore. I want to fix us. I want to prove to you that I’m not that piece of shit who broke your heart. Fuck, it wrecked me to walk away. It’s still wrecking me. It’s so much shit in my head and heart… I’m just lost. I’m so fucking lost.”
She leaned in and hugged me.
I let out a whoosh of air and clung to her. I’d felt so empty the last few years, and I knew it was because she was the piece I needed to feel whole.
I’d been burying it all down, ignoring it, pretending it didn’t exist, but once I let it in, it flooded everything within me.
There was no going back, but I had no idea how to go forward.
“Tell me what to do,” I whispered.
