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His thumb brushes my side.
“I spent four days trying to figure out whether staying here meant forgiving my dad.”
He shakes his head. “It doesn’t.”
I wait.
“Then I thought maybe it meant fixing things with everybody in town.”
His gaze moves briefly across the square.
“It doesn’t mean that either.”
“What does it mean?”
His eyes come back to mine.
“You.”
One word.
No joke this time.
“I don’t need Devil’s Peak to forgive me. I don’t need them to decide I’m a good guy now. And I don’t need my dad’s ghost to tell me I can come home.”
My fingers curl into his shirt.
“I spent eighteen years letting this place decide I didn’t belong here.”
He pulls me closer.
“I’m done.”
“Because of me?”
“Because of me.”
My heart squeezes.
Then his grin returns.
“But you’re a pretty fucking strong incentive.”
I laugh. “There he is.”
“Miss me?”
“No.”
“Liar.”
“Terribly.”
Something changes in his face.
“I love you too.”
He exhales. “Thank fuck.”
