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“You’re a mess. Can’t even change a tire without her around, can you?”
Zach knew he should be thanking his brother for the new tire. Instead, he growled, “You’re not safe, ass**le. If this can happen to me—” This being falling in love, of course. “—it can happen to anyone.”
But the brother that was close enough in age for them to practically be twins didn’t look worried as he walked away. He should be, thought Zach. And when the day came that Ryan lost it over a girl, he was going to make sure to rub his brother’s guts in it.
Finally, with the new spare in hand, he started making headway. Five minutes and he’d be out of here and working out a way to make up his colossal screwup to Heather. There had to be some way to get her to accept his apology, he just wished he knew what it was...
Just then, something wet and sticky and overly warm moved over his cheek. He was so surprised, he banged his head on the side mirror. But even though his ears were ringing and it took his vision a couple of seconds to right itself, he could make out the huge paws.
Atlas’s huge paws.
Heather.
He jammed his shoulder against hard metal as he shot to his feet. The woman he hadn’t been able to stop thinking about for one single second stood on the sidewalk.
My God, she was beautiful. The most beautiful thing he’d ever seen.
His fingers itched with the need to grab her, to pull her into his arms, to thread his fingers into her hair and kiss her.
“Hi.”
The one short word, more breath than sound from her lips, rocketed through skin and bone, straight into Zach’s heart. A heart that had finally started beating again. Just because she was near.
“I’m sorry.” He’d never apologized for a damn thing in his life, but he would say the words over and over to her until she believed him. “I’m so damned sorry. I was just trying to get this tire on so I could come and tell you. I miss you. I love you. Please come back to me. And bring your mutt for Cuddles. I’m not going to hide anything from you anymore. I’m going to tell you everything, so many things that you’re going to wish I’d never opened the floodgates.”
She looked like she could hardly believe what he was saying, but then shock turned to movement and the next thing he knew she was flying into his arms.
He put his hands in her hair and had his mouth a breath from hers when she said, “Don’t kiss me yet.”
Knowing he was covered in grease and sweat, he asked, “Because I stink?”
“No,” she whispered against his mouth. “I love it when you have one of your rare imperfect moments. It’s because once you kiss me I’ll be too busy wanting you to hear what you have to say and I’ll definitely forget everything I need to say.”
Jesus. That almost pushed him over the edge, but he could see, could feel, how serious she was. “Who first?”
“Me.”
“Talk fast.”
Her mouth curved up into a quick little smile before she took a breath and said, “I’m the one who’s sorry. For leaving you that night.”
What was she apologizing for? “I made you go.”
“You didn’t make me. I could have stayed. I should have stayed and made you tell me what was wrong. I should have done whatever I needed to do to find out what happened to you out there in that burning race car.” She pulled back enough to lift her eyes to his. “What happened, Zach?”
“You were the only thing I thought about during the crash.”
“What about your family?”
“We’ve had my whole life together. But you and me,” he smiled at her, “we’d only had two weeks. It wasn’t enough. I wanted a lifetime of memories with you, not just the ones we’d crammed into fourteen days. It’s no excuse for the way I screwed up, but the thought of leaving you one day the way my father left my mother and all of us...I couldn’t stand it. I’m so much like him that I always thought I was going to die the way he did—too young, without any warning. I was so afraid of leaving you behind that I made you leave me first.” His chest felt tight as the old beliefs tried to take him over again. “I’ve never told anyone that before. Only you. Do you still want to be with me, even if I die the way my father did?”
“Oh, Zach.” Her hand moved to his jaw, her thumb stroking over the fading scratches on his cheek. “You can be such a fool. One I love so much. Of course I still want to be with you.”
That was when he knew for sure that she might actually take him back. Not just because she was in his arms, not just because she’d listened to his apology...but because she’d just called him out on his stupidity, the way she had so many times before.
“Can I kiss you now?”
Her gaze dropped from his eyes to his mouth and he could already taste her sweetness when she said, “Almost.”
He dropped his forehead against hers and groaned. “Would it speed things up if I mentioned how much I love you again?”
She grinned, her lips almost touching his—but not quite—as she said, “I fell in love with you so fast, so deep, I could hardly keep up with it. But even though I knew I loved you, I still didn’t think it was enough.”
“Because love never meant anything in your family.”
She nodded, sighing. “I’ve measured every man against my father since I was seventeen. You seemed so much like him at first. So charming, so confident, that I had to keep my guard up all the time. Only, it turned out that you aren’t like him at all. You’re sweet and kind and warm and honest...and the only man alive who could have torn through my control and made it possible for me to love.” She smiled at him, a smile so beautiful he lost his heart to her all over again. “But love is just one part of what I feel for you.”
