Page 103 of When We Were Young

“Do what?”

Startled, my eyes jolt open, and I yelp. Very manly.

“Hell, Lizette! I didn’t know you were there. You scared me.”

“You would have seen me if your eyes were open. Just sayin’.” The hint of a smile teases at the corners of her mouth, and it gives me hope that she’s ready to talk. “You’ve been pacing and staring at my place for almost half an hour.”

I grasp the back of my neck. It’s now or never.

“We need to talk, and you weren’t ready to do it the other night,” I remind her. “Then tonight at your practice cooking lesson and dinner, it felt like there was tension between us again. Like when you first got to Aron Falls.”

She looks to the side. “Yeah, I needed time to process. It isn’t every day you find out you traded your body and soul, sacrificed your heart, for a lie.”

Something pinches in my chest at the reminder of the price she paid, thinking she had no choice.

I rake a hand through my hair. I don’t know what to do that might help her.

“I’m nervous,” I say. She frowns. “I have things I need to say, and I’m worried about how you’ll feel about them. They still need to be said, though.”

She takes a deep breath and looks like she’s expecting the worst.

“All right. I’ll be quiet so you can speak. I’ll try really hard not to interrupt.”

I nod and swallow past the lump in my throat.

“Losing you a decade ago remains one of the worst experiences of my life. Back then, a lot of things came into play, and yes, we were young, but I knew you were it for me.”

She opens her mouth to say something. I lift my eyebrows as a gentle reminder that she was going to avoid cutting in, and she stops herself.

“What I did to hurt you was bad. It was horrible, and I’ll likely never forgive myself for it.”

A slight frown mars her beautiful face, but she remains quiet.

“I should have fought for you, and I didn’t. Not after the night we talked at that party, and you told me you chose him. After that, I gave up on us. Then, after the holiday break, I came back to school realizing what a fool I’d been. I missed you so damn much. But Landon had graduated, and you were gone. You changed your phone number. You disappeared, but I shouldn’t have left it there, and I did. I’ve regretted that for years.”

I swallow hard.

“The thing is, after you arrived in town, it didn’t take long at all for my heart to remember how I feel about you. How I’ve always felt about you. And I would be a fool not to tell you I want to be with you. I want more. I want you and Simon in my life. I want a second chance at what we lost, but this time, I want us both to be more open and willing to fight for us.”

I pause for a second, and she must assume I’m done.

“Is that all?” she asks.

I wish.

“Unfortunately, no.”

She breaks eye contact and looks off to the side. She closes her eyes, takes a deep breath in, then releases it and opens her eyes again.

“Truthfully, I’m afraid to hear what I think might come next. But I probably need to hear you out. I think I owe us at least that much.”

“Okay.” I look around. “Simon is still at his grandmother’s, right?” She nods.

“There’s a sidewalk that runs around the edge of the square. We could walk or sit on a bench. Or, if you want, there’s a small lake with public access about five minutes from here. We could go there.”

“That would be okay. The lake, I mean.”

We walk in silence to my car. I open the door for her, and when she’s seated, I make sure she’s buckled in, then I go around to the driver’s side and climb in myself.