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How could he possibly believe I would ever have forgotten him?
We drive back to the motel in companionable silence as the sun sets. When he pulls his car into the lot, he turns to face me.
While I still can, I shuffle around and lean back against the door so I can enjoy the sight of him in front of me. Who knows when he’s going to disappear again? That thought brings me up short. I should fess up and tell him I remember everything about our time together.
He reaches for my hand and squeezes my fingers gently. “I suppose I should have asked if there’s someone special in your life right now before I stole you away for the day, huh?”
It becomes incredibly hard to swallow the moment he voices his question.
I never got over Tyler. Not enough to let anyone else in again. The closest I came was a guy in college I fooled around with a few times when I was drunk. But even then, I never let him go below my waist. Needless to say, that didn’t last very long after he realized I was never going to let him go there.
“Margo?” Tyler says softly, giving my fingers another squeeze.
Blinking at him, I shake my head. “No, nobody special.”
His lips quirk in a smile. “You have no idea how happy that makes me. But I need to know, why not? You’re gorgeous, how are you still single?”
A nervous laugh makes its way up my throat. “Umm, thank you, I think?”
“It was a compliment, but also an honest to God question.”
Licking my lips, I glance out the windshield. “I haven’t been in a relationship since I was a teenager,” I confess.
I feel Tyler stiffen, so I turn my eyes to him. He’s as still as a stone, his eyes boring into me with such intensity it makes it hard to breathe.
My teeth sink into my bottom lip as he remains frozen in place. “Please say something,” I murmur.
It takes him a few moments to finally speak. He blinks, grips the back of his neck, then asks, “You haven’t been with anyone, or you haven’t been in a relationship?”
His gaze burns a hole in my resolve, and I drop my head, severing the connection. “Both,” I whisper.
Holy-mother-fucking-shit.
She hasn’t been with anyone since we were together? My chest tightens, and I have to force myself to remain still and not drag her into my lap to show her what she’s been missing. What we’ve been missing.
I’ve hardly been a saint since we’ve been apart, it has been over a decade.
I don’t know what to say. She hasn’t had sex with anyone but me. And I practically whored myself out to numb the pain of leaving her.
Keeping our fingers laced, I reach for her with my free hand and tip her chin until she meets my eyes. Her cheeks are blazing and her crystal blue’s shine so brightly it makes my heart squeeze in my chest.
“Please don’t be embarrassed about that,” I plead, and she swallows hard. She still hasn’t admitted to knowing who I am, so I’m not sure how to play this. Do I go all in and tell her that despite sharing my body with others, my heart has always been hers? Or do I stick with my original plan?
Before I can decide, my phone rings, throwing a cold bucket of water over our intense moment.
“I should go,” Margo says, disentangling our fingers and turning to her door.
“Wait!” I blurt as she throws the door open and steps out of my car. “Meet me here tomorrow afternoon at five. Please.”
She looks at me over her shoulder, blonde hair spilling down her back. Uncertainty and hope shine in her eyes. “Okay.”
Relief washes over me, and I reach to pull my phone from my pocket as she walks away.
Leo should be here any minute now.
When he called last night and told me he was on his way, I didn’t understand why. I still don’t, but he said he’d explain when he arrived, which is why I’m pacing the sidewalk out the front of the motel under the blazing hot sun in the middle of the day.
I finally stop pacing when his yellow GTO glides down the street toward me. I wait for him to pull into the parking lot and get out, a duffle bag slung over his shoulder before I take him up to my room.
