Page 109 of Hard to Lose

“I don’t know yet, but I plan on giving it a damn good try.”

CHAPTER FORTY-FIVE

Chase

“I have no problem going to lunch with you, Dekker, but if you order some off-the-wall pregnancy craving again, I’m walking out.”

“What’s wrong with liking French fries with sweet and sour sauce?” she asks, as I do a mock gagging motion in my mouth.

“For that alone, I’m picking where we’re going,” I say and stop in the middle of our office building’s lobby to search on my phone for somewhere to go.

“Who the hell is that hot hunk of a man?” Dekker mumbles and nudges me with her elbow.

“You’re married and pregnant. Shouldn’t you be satisfied with your own husband?”

“I’m not talking about me. I’m talking about for you. Perfect rebound material at that.”

“I’m not interested.”

“But he’s walking this way.”

“Great. Good for him. He can keep on walking for all I care,” I finish, just as his shoes come into view. I keep my eyes focused on my phone and Dekker sucks in a breath. “Thanks, but I don’t want any,” I say without ever looking his way.

“Not even a dance in the rain?”

My breath hitches at the sound of his voice.

“Gunner.” My voice is a whisper as I look up to meet his eyes. God, I missed those eyes. The deep brown of them and the compassion and spark in them. “You’re here.”

He nods and his Adam’s apple bobs. “I don’t know what is up or down anymore since you picked up my world and tilted it off its axis. All I know is it’s not the same without you in it.”

A shuddered sense of hope begins to flutter.

“I’ve spent days, weeks, trying to understand what you did and how you did it. I don’t think I’ll ever understand the why behind it, but last night I came to realize the why doesn’t matter as much as I thought it did. The why is what brought you into my life. The why made me feel in ways I’d never felt before. You made me feel in ways I’ve never felt before.”

“I feel the same way,” I whisper. My heart beats so hard I feel like it’s going to fall out of my chest. “But before you say anything else, I have to tell you that you were right. I was there for the things you said—the dog and pony show and all that. For that, I’m ashamed and sorry because I never saw the other side of it. I never thought about how you’d see it. So you were right and I’m sorry. I’m not that person anymore—”

“Hey.” He steps into me and frames my face with his hands, and it takes everything I have not to sag into his touch. Words escape me as that fluttering hope morphs into full-blown anticipation. Please still love me.

“Gunner.”

He presses his lips to mine and kisses me with the same longing I’ve felt.

Things I never thought were possible—emotions, feelings, love—surge inside of me from the simple touch of his lips.

“Neither of us are the same. We changed each other.” He wipes a tear off my cheek with his thumb.

“But how do we do this? You live in Destiny—”

“We figure it out, because the only thing that matters is this. Us. We’re the only ones who can write our own story. Chase, the only person I want to write my happily ever after with is you.” He presses his lips to mine again, and then whispers, “You broke my heart. You shattered it into a million tiny pieces, but you know what? When you left, when I was left in a world without you, I realized that was never your intention. I believe you. I believe that you would never have deliberately tried to hurt me. And you’re one of the few people in my life who I can say that about.”

“It’s true. I didn’t mean to—”

“I still love you, Chase Kincade. I can’t let you go. I won’t let you go. No regrets?”

Tears spring to my eyes as Gunner wraps his arms around me and pulls me in against him.

“No regrets.”