Page 47 of Worth of Waste

Karen smirked. “Things are different this time around.”

“Not that different, sweetheart.”

“I was going to make you grovel a little more,” she admitted. “Maybe I thought you deserved it after everything.”

“But?”

“I don’t really want you to.”

Fair enough.

Dino clicked the television off, and stood from the couch as he grabbed his full cup of coffee from the side table. He set the cup on the kitchen table as he passed by it, and then rounded the circular stairs, taking them two at a time until he reached the loft.

Karen was only one step behind, never saying a thing, even when they were both facing one another in the loft, stoic and waiting on the other to do something.

He’d settled himself on this—they were all up to her.

Whatever she wanted.

Dino was not going to manipulate or sway Karen with his own feelings. If she wanted him back in her life—if she wanted him at all—then she had to make that call, not him.

It had never been up to him to begin with.

“I never really asked you to leave,” Karen said quietly.

Dino blinked, taking in those words. “No, I guess you didn’t.”

“You still left, Dino.”

“I’m still sorry, Karen.”

Truer words had never been spoken from him before, other than how much he adored and loved her. That was true, too, and it wasn’t about to change anytime soon.

“I don’t want promises you can’t keep,” she said.

“Then don’t ask me for them.”

Karen sucked in a quick breath at that, like it wasn’t what she expected, but it didn’t seem like she was all that hurt by it, either.

He wanted to give her honesty if he could.

Sometimes it might hurt.

“Okay.”

Dino took that statement in, digesting it slowly. “Just okay?”

Karen nodded. “I fell in love with who you were, and for a while, I wondered if that man was someone different, if maybe he was a beautiful lie I’d told myself. I’m only starting to realize that man isn’t all that different from the one standing in front of me, I just know a bit more about him, now.”

“And?”

“And what?”

Dino pointed at his chest, right over the spot where his heart beat. “And what do you think of this man, Karen?”

“I think he loves me, and he might not be perfect, but he does love me.”

He did.