AllFreeNovel
Share Us
The thought has my chest erupting with both joy and trepidation, because I don’t know if he’s here to chew me out or kiss me or something in between.
Boyd crosses the room and sets up his own mat, his eyes flitting to mine over and over again.
I lie flat on my back, wondering if he’s going to come up to me and say something. But he never does, instead getting settled in his own spot and lying down, too.
I return my eyes to the ceiling, wondering how the hell I’m going to focus or calm my inner self when Boyd is back there. Then class begins, and I go through the longest and least productive yoga session of my entire life.
Every stretch, every movement, every rotation of my hips or my neck or my back has me turning my body to look at Boyd, where he stands on his own mat two rows back and three spaces over. He’s slightly less clunky this time than he was during our first session and the one we did with his siblings, even though most of their time on the mats was spent teasing each other and trying to push each other over.
“Distracted today?” Katie asks me with a smile as we finish up at the end. Her eyes glance behind me, and I know she was fully aware of my inability to look away from our guest yogi. “I was distracted, too,” she jokes, lowering her voice and giving me a little chuckle before walking off to help with picking up some of the blocks left on the ground.
My eyes narrow, not liking the idea that someone else was eyeing my…
But I stop.
He’s not my anything, is he?
I don’t have any additional time to think that thought over, though, because suddenly, Boyd is there, standing in front of me, overwhelming me with his tall form and beautiful eyes and sexy, sweaty body.
“Hi,” he says.
“Hi.”
We stand there for a minute, just looking at each other.
“Can we talk?”
I nod without even having to consider it, knowing that whatever he has to say, I at least owe him a chance to talk.
I follow him through the lingering students and out the door. Boyd leads me over to where a fancy black car is parked a few businesses away, popping his trunk and dropping his stuff inside before closing it and turning back to me.
He leans up against the side of his car and crosses his arms, watching me. I’ve never felt so thankful to have a pair of eyes on me before. It’s amazing what just a few days away from him has made me miss.
“When you left, I thought maybe I had done something wrong to push you away,” he starts. “I thought maybe I did or said something that hurt your feelings, or thought maybe that wasn’t the right time to tell you I love you.”
My heart hurts as I watch him, because I can see him standing in front me, hurting. I did that. I made him feel that way. It’s the very thing I want to avoid, and yet I inflicted that pain on the man I supposedly love.
“But then I realized you pushing away from me, pushing away from how much I love you…that will be something I experience from you for a long time. The only mistake I made was believing that when you left, things between us were over.”
Confusion fills my face as I take in and process his words, the direction of this conversation shifting away from where I thought it was going.
“I’m in love with you,” he continues. “And you’re in love with me. But love scares you, because the men who were supposed to give love to you in the past let you down, made you believe it was something so much smaller than it really is. They made you believe it isn’t worth the trouble, and that is a lie.”
I shake my head, closing my eyes as I feel the first true welling of emotion in my chest.
“Boyd…”
“What you need is a man who loves you enough to never let you go, a man who will continue to show up, time after time, who will continue to fight for you, who will prove to you over and over again that love is absolutely worth the trouble.”
I don’t know what to say to that, don’t know how to communicate my fears to him. I don’t know how to handle any of this right now.
“Boyd, this is too much. It’s too fast.”
“Then I’ll slow down.”
“It’s too big.”
“I’ll start smaller.”
