Page 161 of Love Unspoken

She shook her head, letting out a soft, humorless laugh. "You make it sound so simple. But it's not. You can't just decide one day that you're over Kath and expect everything to be okay between us. It doesn't work like that."

"I was over Kath years ago," I confessed. "If I loved her at all, you think I'd have not immediately been with her after we ended?"

She licked her lips. "I thought you'd slept with her that weekend…you know, your grandma's birthday."

"No. There's been no one since you. And there won't be, even if you don't take me back, not for a long time. I…," I let out a long breath, trying to get my emotions under control, "I don't think I'm going to function very well without you in my life."

"I don't know what to do," she said in frustration, pulling her hand away from me. "I just don't know. I don't function well without you, either. But I worry that we'll get back and you'll hurt me again, and the worst part will be that I won't tell you and let it fester and rot, so when I get a chance, I'll run away. Isn't that what I did? Instead of telling you that your mother and sister were obnoxious to me, and I expect you to defend me and put them in their place, I kept saying everything was fine."

"That's on me. Not you. It wasn't fine, and I was an idiot."

She smiled. "You're not an idiot," then shrugged, "maybe a little bit." She looked at me tenderly. "I don't know how to move past this. How to forgive you? And get better myself."

I grabbed both her hands. "It's going to be work, but all relationships are work, and we're worth it."

She pulled her hands away again and picked up her coffee.

"I'm not expecting you to just forgive me and forget everything. I know I have to earn that, and I'm prepared to do it. But I need you to know that I'm serious about this—about us."

She sipped her coffee, her expression thoughtful. "I've already handed in my resignation, and I'm planning to leave Charleston. I need a fresh start, somewhere far away from all this…mess."

From me!

The words landed hard, but I forced myself to stay composed. Losing my shit wouldn't help my case. "If that's really what you want," I said hoarsely, "then I won't stop you. But I think you're running away because you're scared."

"I am absolutely horror-movie stuck in the basement frightened, Lucas," she shot back, her eyes flashing. "You put me through hell. You made me feel like I was never enough; like I was just some placeholder until Kath came back into your life. How am I supposed to trust you now?"

"I'm asking you to take a chance." I leaned forward, letting the desperation I was feeling creep into my voice. "I'm not perfect, Amara, but I want to be better. For you. With you."

I felt like I was standing on the edge of a cliff, looking down at everything I was about to lose.

She stared at me for a long moment, and I could see the internal battle she was waging. She wanted to believe me—I could see it in her eyes—but she was holding herself back, protecting herself from more hurt. "I'm not perfect either."

"Tesoro—"

She held up a hand to stop me from speaking. "Can we just…take it one day at a time?"

"Yes, as long as you don't fucking run every time a bad thing happens. Kath was a bitch at the gala. You knew that, and yet⁠—"

"I don't want things like that to keep happening," she cried out.

"Tesoro, I have news for you. In every relationship, shit is going to happen. How we deal with it determines our future."

She made a sound, and it looked like she deflated. "You're right. But don't we have too much baggage?"

I chuckled. "The longer a couple is in a relationship, the more suitcases of stuff they're going to have."

She laughed softly then. "I don't want to rush this."

"What does that mean besides you telling me you don't want to have sex with me?" I asked cheekily.

She pursed her lips and rolled her eyes. "Don't get cute."

"I'll give you what you need, but I'm going to prove to you that I'm worth a second chance."

"I already know you are," she breathed. "I'm worried that after all this, it will be⁠—"

"Shh, just leave it at believing I'm worth a second chance…that we are worth the work."