Page 53 of The Broken Keys

“Yeah, I get that.” A growl rumbles from his throat. “Fuck ’em, Lily. I’m not gonna let them win. If you don’t wanna be with me because I wanna fight back, then so be it, but you and I are soulmates. You’ve said it yourself.”

The pain of our history fills my core. For the first time in a long time, my skin itches like it used to.

I have a sudden urge to dig my nails into my wrists. “Stop, Callum. This is all too much to process.”

“You said once before that you thought we were meant to be together. I just want you to think about that when you go to sleep because the last few nights, when you let me hold you in my bed, let your perfume linger on my sheets so I could smell you when you weren’t with me, have meant the world to me.”

“Maybe I shouldn’t have done that…been so careless with your feelings.”

“If that’s the case, I don’t regret every extra second you’ve given me.” He shakes his head. “Don’t you get it, Lily?”

“What?”

“You’re my everything and have been since that first kiss in your parents’ kitchen. I just want you back so I can help you remember what we were before things got super fucked up.”

I take a long pause, trying to take calming breaths. “I need time to work this out in my head, Callum.”

“And I’ll honor that.”

“Thank you.”

“Don’t thank me. Just expect me to treat you like I should’ve been all these years.”

“Okay.” I turn and get out of the car.

Callum walks me to the door, his hand holding mine like he’s afraid I’ll disappear. Under the porch light, the exhaustion in every line of his face and the defeat in his rounded shoulders show the truth. I’m wearing him out.

“Lily.” He stops and faces me. The intensity in his blue eyes takes my breath away. “Everything I’ve ever done is because I love you. And you need to realize something.”

“What?”

“I’m not just falling for you again.” He cups my chin in his hand. “I’m desperately in love with you. It’s the kind of love that keeps me awake at night and makes me wanna be betterthan I’ve ever been. It’s the kind of love that terrifies me because losing you again would kill me.”

The confession hovers between us in the cool night air, raw, honest, and devastating. We stare at each other, and for a second, I’m seventeen again, lying in his bed after we made love.

I remember how gentle his hands were, how he worshiped me, planted kisses against my collarbone, and how he held me afterward like I was all he ever needed. I felt like I was floating, like I’d discovered something magical that belonged only to us.

Thinking about that night, I remember how I thought I would love him forever and that no one would ever touch my soul the way he did in that moment.

“Callum…” I whisper, his name catching in my throat.

“I know I fucked up tonight, and that frightens you. But I also know that what we had was the real thing. What we could have again would be just as powerful, if not more so. And I’m willing to spend the rest of my life proving to you I can be the man you deserve.”

My mind spins in a heavy fog. “I’m confused and tired.”

“Don’t give up on us.” His thumb brushes away a tear that’s fallen from my eyes. “Please.”

The words gut me because part of me wants to fall into his arms and pretend that love is enough to fix the torn fibers between us. But the other part of me, the part that’s been ripped apart by his promises, knows that wanting to change isn’t the same as actually changing.

“I have a lot to think about.”

“Then I’ll give you some space.”

“Goodnight, Callum.” I slip inside and lock the door behind me, leaning against it as his footsteps retreat down the walkway.

The ringing of that teenage memory lingers. He was the boy who held me as if I were his salvation and loved mewith such pure intensity that it rewrote the chemistry of my heart.

And no matter how much he loves me now, I don’t know if love alone can bridge the distance between who we were and who we’ve become.