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I don’t slow, bursting through the doors and scanning the place frantically. It’s packed, and I see several familiar faces.
Hayes is hitting on the barista. Another crew member is tapping his foot in line, waiting for his coffee. Over there is the teenager who works at the gas station. Next to me, at the front are the grumps.
“Hey, you looking for that rod still?” Ken chuckles.
I ignore the old men at their chess table.
I keep looking, searching through the crowd, until I spot her. Aubrey is still here, and at the first sight of her, I swear my heart skips a beat.
She’s as gorgeous as ever. Her long hair is pulled back in a ponytail, and the light-blue shirt she wears makes the brightness in her eyes pop, even from this distance separating us across the room. Her lips tip up in a smile, but it doesn’t fill her face. I hear her laughter, and I focus on that sound above all the din and chatter throughout the coffee shop. I zero in on her, then the man she’s sitting across from.
She continues to laugh, amused by whatever the man said. He’s still speaking animatedly, and all that registers is that it’s not me. I’m not the one seated across from her telling jokes. It’s not me she’s looking at and smiling with.
Someone else. My heart cracks all over again, but with the pain of losing her, I have to deal with the self-loathing that fills me. I shouldn’t have waited. I should have spoken up. I will always regret that I lost her when I could have just handled things differently.
Now, she’s with a new man, and the worst of it is how damn happy she looks.
My stomach tightens and my heart plummets further as I know what I need to do.
I don’t want to ruin her life. If she’s happy, then that’s it. All I wanted was to see that she’s happy, and if someone else can do that better than me, she deserves it.
I back out of the coffee shop. Despair trails after me, but I know I can’t get in the way of her happiness and success. It wouldn’t be right of me.
I pull out my phone to text Caleb and tell him I’m not in the mood to come to dinner at the B&B tonight. After seeing her moving on from me, a solo night of drinking sounds smarter. It’ll give me a day or two to come to terms that Aubrey and I won’t be together.
I scroll past my notifications, mildly curious about Claire’s texts and voicemails. I’ll tend to them later. I need to secure solitude so I can lick my wounds in privacy for the rest of the day.
“Dalton!”
I pause in my steps, wondering if I’m imagining it.
“Dalton!” she shouts it again, using that no-nonsense voice like I’m a dog—or child—she wants to heel.
I slowly spin around, watching as she walks in my direction. A couple of storefronts stand between us. She doesn’t stop, but she slows her approach as we stare each other down. So much hangs unsaid between us, and at the hint of emotion on her careful expression, I forget about my plan of not getting my hopes up. I do. Because the way she’s looking at me has me thinking one thing.
“I missed you,” I say as she tells me, “I was just thinking about you.”
I smile, finding it ironic that we struggled to communicate with each other before I left, and now that I’m back, we’re talking over each other.
I try again. “I wanted to see—”
“I was hoping you’d—” She stops when I do. We’re both cutting each other off and getting nowhere.
She smiles and rolls her eyes. When she gazes at me again, I see the hope there as she gets teary.
“I haven’t stopped thinking about you once, Aubrey,” I tell her carefully, glad that she’s letting me get this out. “And I couldn’t wait to come back.”
She chokes on a sob and runs. I hurry toward her, too, catching her as she reaches for me. I lift her in my arms, spinning her as she throws her arms around my neck. Once I’ve scooped her up and off her feet, I hold her tight, never wanting to let go again.
“I love you,” I say as I rest my forehead against hers. “No matter what.”
She sniffles and smiles as she leans back to stare in my eyes. “I love you, too.”
She said it. She took that step that had to be so hard for her. And I fall into the magic of her promise, lowering my lips to hers and finally feeling home with this sweet kiss I’ve dreamed of.
Chapter 35
Aubrey
