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“I just told Aurora I love her.” Remington almost tripped over the unfamiliar words, but he managed. “I saw the way you looked at her in the car on the way to Cain’s. Like you would die if she did.”
His words hit me hard, and I looked up at Stellan, wondering if that were true. Stellan’s face had gone tight.
Remington finished, “So just fucking tell her.”
“So romantic, Remington,” Stellan said drily.
I thought he was going to be an ass again—Stellan, always so hot and cold—and then he kicked off his shoes and joined us at the edge of the pool.
He looked at me seriously. “Aurora, if I tell you I love you…after everything I’ve done…can you really believe it?” He looked so weary.
“I don’t know,” I said. “Convince me.”
My voice came out sharp, and I wasn’t sorry.
“I’ll be back,” Remington said, getting up. He snatched the KA-bar from the side of the pool and gave me a mock-severe look. “And I’m taking this with me.”
Stellan watched him go, then turned to me. The moments seemed to stretch out between us for several heartbeats.
He cleared his throat. “I'm so sorry I hurt you, Aurora. My sister would be ashamed…” He trailed off, then shook his head. “She would be, but what matters now is… I'm ashamed. You deserved so much better from me.”
“I do,” I agreed. “Not drugging, kidnapping, or planning to use a knife on me. That’s a pretty low bar for a boyfriend, Stellan.”
He nodded. “You're the best thing that ever happened to me, and I wish I had seen that back in high school.”
The part of me deep inside that would forever be an uncertain sixteen-year-old girl squeezed. I could just imagine what it would have been like if Stellan had just…been mine. I’d spent so much time longing for him. Then he finally grabbed my hand in that hallway…and the next day I was gone. I’d never made it to his game.
“It kills me to think that if I had been more honest with you all…if I had been braver... then you might have known that I was on your side.” He swallowed hard, staring out beyond me at the night sky. “You might have come to me and we could have stood up against the Demon together.”
“And then maybe Sophia would still be alive,” I filled in.
His gaze snapped to mine, his eyes shining with unshed tears. The sight shocked me.
So did his words as he said forcefully, “No, it's not just about that. Yes, I wish I could go back in time and save my sister. But…I also wish for your sake I could just go back in time and be a better man.”
He blew out a long, shaky breath. “I wish I could go back just a week and be a better man.”
His eyes were filled with tears.
Look at that, the bastard was really sorry.
“I lost my mind to my grief, but that doesn't justify anything that happened. I promise you, Aurora, I will never hurt you like that again.”
He’d blinked them away, but tears glittered on his long, dark lashes. He wiped his face impatiently with his sleeve, the movement quick and boyish. God, we both missed her so much. And we both regretted the past so much.
“You know…” I found myself stumbling over my words like he had, feeling as if every honest word had to be forced out of my throat. “When that psycho tried to force me to marry him…and I thought I was going to die… all I kept thinking was that I deserved it. In a way. Because...I'm the reason Sophia got killed.”
The words hung between us. I studied his face, wondering if he could ever forgive me for being that reason. Because if I'd never come to their town, Sophia would never have been standing outside my window that night. She would never have been killed.
Stellan had called me poison, and it was bullshit, and at the same time, my existence had poisoned his life.
Stellan's face was etched with pain. “No. Aurora, promise me you won't think that. Even if you're done with me... You don't deserve to go through life feeling that way. You were the best thing in Sophia’s life for the little bit of time we had together. And… you were the best thing in mine.”
I studied his face, trying to tell if he really meant it or not.
“I wish we’d stopped the Demon together, and I wish I’d killed the man who hurt Sophia and then you,” he said. “But I don’t regretyou, Aurora. I don’t regret knowing you.”
His words were crisp and certain.
