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He’d hurt her.
What if she shared and Jeremy hurt her, too?
That would—
Well, she thought that Jeremy had the capacity to wound her more deeply than any other person.
“It’s okay, baby,” he murmured, rubbing his hand up and down her back. “There’ll be time.”
A bolt of annoyance.
Not at him.
God, he wasJeremy.He loved his sister, his brothers, his mother, his friends. He loved…her.
The thought wrapped around her middle, pulled tight, lashing her in place, forcing her to see, to accept, to understand that he’d shown her nothing but the fact that he lovedher.
Had loved her for years.
She’d been an idiot to miss it.
She’d been toonumbto acknowledge it.
But she wasn’t numb now. And she was looking at a man who had listened to her, had validated her feelings, had pulled back when she asked…and then he’d taken it a step further by looking into himself, by reflecting on what he was doing and how he was living and what he wanted the future to look like.
All of which had led him here.
With her.
And…how could she go back to being numb?
How could she retreat in the face of such courage?
How could shenotlove this man back?
Spoiler alert.
She couldn’t.
That love and affection for him was buried deep, sewn tight, and it wouldn’t be dug out, wouldn’t be cut loose.
She loved Jeremy Hutchins.
She wasn’t a coward, wouldn’t run from him.
So, she did what any self-respecting woman would do.
Teresa shifted in the circle of his arms, and—
Shegave.
* * *
His arms had tightened slightly around her when she mentioned Sam, probably thinking about her trampled heart—since that was how she’d phrased it when he’d asked her all those weeks ago.
But now she admitted what really bothered her.
“I thought there was something wrong with me,” she whispered. “I’d been with him long enough to feel something, that I should have felt something—”
