Page 59 of Wynter

“Can we go somewhere to talk?” Ghost asks, searching for an escape route. Typical Ghost.

I cross my arms over my chest. “I think we’re fine right here.”

“You tell him,” Sapphire—the same Sapphire who got into a snarling match with Snowball—shouts.

“Saph,” Bob, who owns my favorite diner, and is sitting next to her, says. “Don’t you want love to win? They could be happy together.”

“Love can eat a bag of sugar dicks.”

Bob’s expression drops into a frown.

“Except love with you,” she adds. “Your love can eat… ummm… ice cream! And waffles!”

“With real maple syrup?”

“All the time, Bob, all the time.”

And to be fair, the maple syrup at the Yes, Now Bob diner is that good.

“What can I do to win you back? Anything. You name it. It’s yours,” Ghost says. “All I want is you.”

“Poppycock,” a man dressed for a renaissance fair shouts. I ignore him.

“You had me,” I tell Ghost. “But I wasn’t good enough.”

“Is that what you think?” Ghost cups my cheeks—with magic—so I can’t pull away, and a hush falls over the crowd. “Wyn, you were more than good enough. You were everything. Do you think I would have left if you weren’t?”

“If you love someone, you don’t just leave.” I swallow hard.

“I thought being with me would put you in danger.” His voice cracks. “All I ever wanted was to keep you safe, but you didn’t need me to protect you. I know that now. You’re so strong. So powerful. You don’t need me. But I need you.”

“Oh my goddess, I wish a man would say that to me,” someone in the crowd shouts, but I don’t have eyes for anyone but Ghost.

“I’m not strong,” I tell him softly. “I can get hurt too. And this right here? It hurts. So if you care about me at all, you’d go.”

“Not without you.”

“No.” I lift my chin and cross my arms in front of my chest. “I mean, did you seriously think you could just waltz into Silver Springs and I’d take you back?”

“It wasn’t like that.”

“Then how was it? Never mind, I don’t want to know! You left me, Ghost. You moved on. And so did I.”

Ghost looks like he’d been slapped. He takes a step back, and my heart sinks. Watching him leave, again, is going to hurt. More than hurt. It’ll break my heart all over again. Because what I just said is a complete and utter lie.

I never moved on. Never got over Terentius White, no matter how hard I tried. And being this close to him, knowing that if I took him back, he could be mine, makes my lungs constrict. Because as much as I want him, I can’t risk my heart. Not again. Not after how easy it was for him to walk away.

“I never moved on,” Ghost says, unzipping his coat.

“What are you doing?” I demand as he throws it to the ground.

“Proving I never stopped loving you.” And with that, he pulls off his sweater in front of the entire crowd.

Someone wolf whistles. A few people gasp. And then people start to cheer. Because shirtless Ghost? Hot. Beyond hot.

Strong, sculpted arms. Hard pecs. Six-pack abs. And tattoos. Oh my goddess, he’s completely covered in tattoos.

“See this?” he pounds his chest with his fist, and hell if it’s not one of the hottest things I’ve ever seen. “This is how many times I’ve thought of you, Zoelle Wynter. This is how much I love you.”