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“Oh, hi. Um. I’m looking for Riley, but it looks like I came at a bad time. I’ll come back…”
“Zoey?” Diesel says, standing and going to the door. I stand frozen, watching it all unfold, too shocked to move my damn feet. “What’re you doing here?”
“I came to talk to Riley…” Her sweet voice rings out, but I hear the devastation in her tone. Fuck, this looks really bad. “But never mind. You’re busy. I’ll go.”
Setting the bottles down, I rush through the room and push through Diesel and the girl. Zoey is already rushing down the stairs and back to her car.
“Zoey, wait…” I call out, following behind her. “It’s not what it looks like.”
She spins around and faces me, her expression unreadable as I approach her. “You don’t owe me an explanation, Riley.”
“You came back?” I ask on a breath.
“I’m sorry I showed up uninvited, but I wanted to give you these…” She hands me a manila folder. I watch as she chews on her lip—her nervous tic—as I open it and see it’s the annulment papers I first signed. Son of a bitch. “Hurting you will always be my biggest regret, Riley. I’m sorry for not telling you the whole truth sooner, but—”
“Do you still love me?” I interrupt, my heart throbs in my chest at seeing her and these fucking documents.
She blinks up at me and nods. “Yes, it’s why I—”
My jaw tightens, and I step closer. “Then why are you doing this?” I ask, shaking the folder in my hand.
“Riley, I’m trying—”
“Why are you walking away?” I take another step closer. “Don’t you feel how right this is?” I grab her hand. “How perfect we could be together?” I place her palm over my pounding heart and close the gap between us until she’s against the car door.
Our closeness causes her breath to hitch. With my eyes locked on hers, she whispers, “Yes, I do.”
“Then why did you sign the fucking papers, Zoey? Please tell me why,” I ask, squeezing her hand tighter.
She swallows, then looks up at me. “I didn’t.”
I lean back as if she’d just slapped me. “What? But you brought them here and gave them to me.” I drop her hand. “Or you wanted me to witness you signing them instead?”
She winces, and I immediately regret the words. “Guess I deserved that.”
“Shit, I’m sorry.” I shake my head, setting the folder on top of the car. “Then, please explain what it is you’re doing here because my mind is going fucking crazy.”
Zoey inhales a deep breath and smiles at me. Fuck, I’ve missed her smile. “I came here to say that I want you. Only you. I brought the papers so we could burn them together. I don’t want an annulment. On the chance that you still want to be married to me, that is.”
“Are you serious?” How could she even second-guess that she’s all I want?
Well, the two half naked girls in my house probably don’t help.
She nods. “I never had feelings for Benjamin or anything my parents pictured for me, but I tried for so long to make them happy that the lines began to blur between living my life and living for them. I decided life wasn’t worth living if you weren’t in it.”
I can’t help the smile on my face as I take in her words. “Really? You want to stay married then?” Caging her against the car, I lean forward, waiting for her to say the words.
“Yes, dummy!” She swats at my chest, laughing. “Had you not interrupted me a dozen times, I could’ve said that sooner.”
Wrapping a hand around her neck, I pull her mouth to mine and press our bodies together. Zoey immediately relaxes against me, looping her arms around my waist and pulling me tighter. I can’t believe she’s really here.
“You’re staying…” I whisper against her lips.
“Yes,” she replies.
“You’re mine.”
“Yes.” She slides her tongue between my lips. “Only yours.”
“Always.”
Zoey grins against me. “Yes.”
Hesitantly, I pull back as we both catch our breaths. “Tell me what happened,” I say, and she immediately knows what I’m referring to.
“I told my parents the truth, and that I refused to marry someone just to appease them. They weren’t happy about it, but once the initial shock wore off, they accepted that my happiness was more important. They apologized for making me feel pressured, and as soon as I was able to get things in order at my job and pack up, I grabbed a flight out here. Summer said she’d ship me the rest of my things, assuming you didn’t kick me out on my ass.”
I smirk. “I’m crazy in love with you, Zoey. I’d never kick you anywhere, except maybe into my bed.”
She brings our lips back together before pulling apart and grinning. “So you want to explain the two strippers in your house, or are we just going to ignore that?”
