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Seven years without him was hard. When the feelings didn’t go away, I knew he was my person. The person I was meant to spend the rest of my life with. I was so sure he moved on to another girl. A girl who was in Bleak. I am so beyond blessed that he was just as hung up on me as I was him.
“I’m so sorry I dumped all that on you, Troy. It wasn’t fair of me,” I say when we break the kiss. God, I could live on just his kisses. His kisses make me feel alive again.
“Think nothing of it, Lissi. I asked. I needed to know. I know you didn’t leave me. We can just move forward from here.”
“How can we?” I ask. “It seems impossible. Too impossible to get over.”
“We can. You have to know that if I’d known what was happening with you, I would have been there in an instant,” he says adamantly.
“Would you have?”
“In a fucking heartbeat. I loved you more than life itself,” he says, and I deflate again. As in past tense. He used to love me.
“Loved?” I ask hesitantly.
“Who am I kidding? I never stopped loving you,” he admits.
“Me either,” I say.
“I want you and Kari to move in here with me,” he says it so earnestly that everything in my cold heart starts thawing out. I believe him when he says he would have come for me. I would have gone with him too. He made me so happy all those years ago and I know he will again.
“Okay. If you think that’s best,” I say agreeing with him. “I have to get back to Kari. I don’t want to leave her with my mom for so long.” I have mega anxiety when I can’t see her. I know it’s crazy, I know she’s with my mom, but that place wore me down in a way that I didn’t think was possible.
“Alright. We’ll go and get her together. This weekend we’ll decorate the guest room for her. For now, there is a bed though.”
“Trust me, she’ll be happy with that. We shared a bed at my aunt’s.”
“Fuck, Lissi. The more you tell me, the angrier I get and there’s not a damn thing I can do about it now.”
“I don’t mean for that to happen,” I say getting out of bed. I’m still naked. I watch him put his clothes and shoes back on and then we go out into the living room. I pull my dress back on and we leave.
In the car, it dawns on me that I don’t know anything about the grown ass man sitting next to me.
“What have you been up to since I’ve been gone?” I ask staring out the windshield.
“What do you mean. Are you asking if I have been with anyone else? Because I am telling you right here and now I haven’t.”
“I know,” I say placing my hand on his thigh. “Did you go to college? The military? Do you work with your brothers?”
“I went to the University of Minnesota. I have a four-year degree in Business Management. I do work with my brothers. I take care of billing and dealing with the clients, since those ass hats aren’t really good at peopling.” I burst out laughing. Wow, I haven’t done that in so long.
“Are you good at peopling?” I ask, raising an eyebrow at him.
“I pretend to be. Someone has to be,” he chuckles and grabs my hand that is on his thigh and brings it to his lips.
“Is it what you want to be doing?”
“It is.”
“Good, I am glad.”
“But I feel like I should mention that I also occasionally take care of unsavory business.”
“Unsavory?”
“I kill people, Lissi.”
“You kill people?” I ask not alarmed per se but concerned. For him.
“If I have to, and they always deserve it.”
“As long as they deserve it,” I say. I could freak the fuck out, but I know him and his brother’s. They protect people. They fight for the little guy and I am more than okay with that.
The drive is quick, since his house is only a few miles away from my childhood home. I almost don’t want to go in, but my baby girl is in there. Troy kisses my hand again. There are many happy memories in this house, but my last memory of it is so terrible I am having a hard time getting over it. Every time I close my eyes, I see my father coming at me, fist raised. I should have kicked his ass. I should have protected my baby. I should have done a lot of things, but I was paralyzed by fear.
“Ready to go in?" he asks. Despite not being together for the last seven years he still gets me, and I love that.
