Always immediately.
And finally?—
finally—
I told him the truth that had lived inside me since I was nineteen years old.
“I was going to marry you too.”
Silence.
Absolute silence.
The storm outside disappeared.
The room disappeared.
Everything disappearedexcept his face.
Because Hersh McDougal looked like I’d just reached into his chest and stopped his heart with my bare hands.
His breathing actually faltered.
“You were?”
The broken hope in his voice nearly broke me.
I nodded through tears.
“I already picked my dress.”
The sound that left him after that wasn’t even a laugh.
It was grief.
Pure grief.
He grabbed me fast then.
Both arms wrapping around me like he physically couldn’t stand any distance between us anymore.
I held him just as tightly.
And downstairs?—
Eric Vaughn finally started screaming.
24
BLAZE
The scream downstairs ripped straight through the tavern.
Raw.
Panicked.
Pain-filled.
