Page 83 of Pick Me This Time

“Sterling? I⁠—”

“Why didn’t you ever tell anyone?” As he asked the question, he opened his arms and closed the distance between us, wrapping me up in a giant, tight embrace that made me feel safer and more protected than I ever had.

For the moment, I ignored the question, simply allowing the comfort of his gesture to finally warm me back up. I’d never noticed it before, but I fit perfectly against him, my head sliding neatly under his chin and my body slotting in between his arms like it’d been made for his.

As if we were two pieces of a puzzle that had finally been snapped into place.

I rested my head against his chest, sliding my arms around his waist and suddenly feeling my lungs expanding properly for the first time since I’d run into Peter. “I needed this, Sterling. Thank you.”

He grunted, resting his head on top of mine and holding me closer, but his heart was pounding so hard that I could feel it. I sighed, still not quite understanding where this was coming from but somehow feeling exactly how on edge he was.

“I never told anyone,” I finally murmured. “Rachel eventually deduced what happened from the bits and pieces I shared with her after I left him, but it was no one else’s business.”

Tensing against me, he huffed out a breath, and when I felt his head shaking above my own, I frowned, releasing him so I could step back and see his face. The level of incredulity and the anger on his features surprised me, but before I could ask about it, he scoffed.

“No one else’s business?” he repeated disbelievingly. “Tell me you don’t actually think that’s true. You could’ve pressed charges, Daphne. You should’ve pressed charges. He assaulted you. He belongs in prison.”

My frown deepened, my eyebrows creeping up. “I think you’re the one who should be telling me that you don’t actually believe that’s true. First, I didn’t have any proof, and second, you don’t honestly think men go to prison for roughing up their girlfriends a little bit, do you? I agree with you that they should, but the system just doesn’t work that way.”

“Fine, maybe it doesn’t, but you wouldn’t know if it would’ve worked that way for you because you never even went to the cops. You didn’t tell Eric either. There are people who love you, Daph. They would’ve helped you.”

“The people who love me did help me,” I said, so completely confused but also getting a little annoyed by the direction this conversation was going. “Look, I don’t know how you think this is any of your business or how you found out, but whose blood is that and where did it come from?”

“It’s Peter’s,” he said, shrugging as he folded his arms in front of his chest. “We ran into him at Maverick’s and things kind of escalated from there. How is this not my business, Daph? It’s about you, and you’re my business.”

I scoffed, taking another big step back and dropping the wet cloth he wasn’t interested in on the counter with a plop. Those dark eyes were still burning with hurt, indignation, and anger, and while my head was spinning about the fact that he’d apparently beaten up my ex, I couldn’t focus on that right then.

“I’m not your business, Sterling. Why do you even care about any of this? About me? You’re going back to your life in New York next week and Peter will go back to whatever hole he crawled out of, and then what? Everyone in town is going to know that you went a few rounds with your old teammate, but Eric? He’s going to know what it was about, but you’ll be gone and I’ll be the one who has to clean up this mess you’ve made.”

“Why do I care about you?” He blinked hard, like he couldn’t even believe I’d asked the question. Then he dropped his arms back to his sides and stared into my eyes like he was trying to see into my soul. “You are the only thing that has ever felt real to me, Daphne LaSalle. Ever. I’ve felt that way since the night I walked you home from that party, and if I’d stayed here instead of running off to college chasing my parents’ dreams, you and I would be together. We’d be married by now and we might’ve even had a couple kids running around.”

Today had been long and really freaking hard. After working double-time at the bakery, going to Rachel’s, and then seeing Peter, I wondered if I’d fallen asleep on the couch. If Sterling being here at all was just a dream.

But the longer I stared at him, the more certain I became that it wasn’t. I was awake. His knuckles really were bloody and his dark hair was tousled, his shirt half hanging out of his pants, and that look in his eyes?

The one that was so intense that there could be no doubt that he truly believed everything he’d just said? That was real too.

I didn’t know what to say, but I slowly drifted back to him, step by slow step, those eyes were drawing me closer like they were magnets.

So many questions spun through my mind, but none of the answers seemed important right then. I already knew that he’d meant what he’d said, and really, that was the only thing that mattered. All this time, he’d felt the exact same way I had.

Like that party had been the start of something that could’ve been great, and now? We finally had the chance to make it happen.

As I reached him, I looped my arms around his neck and pulled him closer, pushing my fingers into his hair and tipping my head back. His lips touched mine in a gentle kiss, but it was one that made my world ignite.

What he and I had might be complicated, but it was so, so real. We belonged together, and after tonight, I didn’t think there could be any getting away from it anymore.