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Yeah, but you love me anyway…

As the thought flicks through my mind, I realize that we haven’t actually said those words to each other yet even though there is no doubt in my mind we both feel the same and it reminds me of the talk we need to have. Setting my muffin down, I grab her hand and look down at it, scowling when I see her bare ring finger. I rub my thumb over the spot where her rings used to be.

“Hey, do you still have your rings?”

Three months before we graduated from high school, I realized that I wanted to ask her to marry me so I started picking up more shifts at the garage where I worked part-time and putting away every cent that I could spare. I started telling Piper that we couldn’t go out as much because I was saving for college but I’m pretty sure she thought I was getting ready to end things with her. A week before graduation, I finally saved enough money to go to the jewelry store in the mall and buy her solitaire diamond ring with a braided gold band as well as the matching wedding band.

Smiling, I shake my head.

God, I was such a cocky little shit but it never even occurred to me that she might say no. We were Wyatt and Piper and everyone knew we were going to end up together. There was no other option.

“Yeah, they’re in my jewelry box at home,” she says, glancing down at my thumb as I stroke over her finger again and I nod.

“You gonna put it back on?” My stomach flips as the question leaves my lips and my heart pounds as I wait for her answer. She sighs and meets my eyes as her teeth sink into her bottom lip.

Oh, fuck…

“I don’t know, Wyatt. I don’t want to rush into this… or make the same mistakes that I did last time.”

Punching me in the gut would have been kinder and I struggle to swallow down the lump in my throat as I nod, my chest aching. It makes sense why she would want to be cautious after what happened the last time we were together but that doesn’t make the pain fade away.

“Right.”

“Please don’t be upset, baby,” she whispers, pulling her hand from my grasp and turning to me to cup my face between her hands. I meet her eyes and they beg me to understand and as much as my mind gets where she’s coming from, I can’t help but feel like I just got rejected. “The way I feel about you hasn’t changed, at all. I just don’t want to go back to that place where I can’t stand on my own two feet.”

“How do you feel about me? Because you haven’t said the words.”

Jesus Christ.

I sound like a goddamn girl right now.

She scowls and shakes her head, staring up at me like I’ve lost my mind. Then again, maybe I have.

“Well, you haven’t said it either.”

She’s got a point.

“Besides, you and I… it’s always been more than three little words could sum up. You know that but if you need to hear me say it, I will.”

I shake my head and blow out a breath as I drop my gaze to my lap. She’s right. Our connection has always been something special and if the fact that we’re back together again after ten years apart doesn’t tell me how she feels then I don’t know what will. She sighs and I lift my gaze to hers as she reaches down and grabs my hand, pressing it against her chest.

“You feel that?”

I nod.

“It’s always been yours, Wyatt. Always. Even when we were apart and trying to move on with our lives without each other, my heart still belonged to you.”

Slipping my other hand into her hair, I claim her lips, desperate to feel her and she moans as she climbs off of her chair and straddles my lap, never once breaking our connection and when she finally does pull away, she smiles down at me. The sun shines around her, illuminating her like an angel and I brush my thumb over her cheek, wondering how I got lucky enough to not only get her once but twice.

“I love you,” I tell her and her eyes shine as she leans down and steals another kiss, something between a sigh and a moan slipping between us and I wrap my arms around her body, pulling her closer. When she pulls away this time, her smile is brighter.

“I love you, too.” She cuddles into me, tucking her face into my neck and I take a deep breath as I stare out at the ocean and rub my hand down her back.

“You think we could talk about something else?”

She jerks up and meets my gaze again. “It’s about when I left, isn’t it?”

I nod and she chews on her bottom lip for a second before repeating the gesture. The last thing I want is to put that apprehensive look in her eyes and I understand why she hates talking about this stuff but we need to in order to move forward.