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Max shifted toward her and leaned in close. “I wantyou back. I wantusagain. If you can forgive me for... what I did.”
She held his gaze and put her hand over his on his thigh. “Max, there is nothing to forgive. You and I broke up. You were free to see whoever you wanted to see. I knew that. I didn’t like it, but I didn’t blame you for moving on, even though I couldn’t.”
Max turned his hand and took hers in his. “That’s just it. I never got over you. I couldn’t stop thinking about you. I wanted you back, but I didn’t know how we could get there if you, the one person who knew me best, thought I was the kind of person who’d cheat and lie and break your heart that way.”
“You were angry, and I was caught up in a lie that made me think you were angry you got caught. I second-guessed myself and what I thought I knew was true about you. I didn’t trust myself to know the truth when everything looked one way, but I knew you to be something else.”
“Hillary planted the idea in your head, and then she reinforced it with her taunts. I’m surprised she ever came clean about the lie.”
“I’m sure, like me, after a year it was clear to Hillary and everyone else you had no intention of ever speaking to me again.”
Max’s head fell back and he stared up at the ceiling. “Fuck.”
She really couldn’t blame him for the other women.
He was a good, kind, decent, and smokin’ hot man. Women were always flirting with him and trying tocatch his eye. She’d bet he didn’t even have to try to get them into bed.
But when he’d been with her, she’d been his everything. And that’s what made it so hard to believe she didn’t see the lie. “I should have believed you. I’m sorry I didn’t. Then you wouldn’t feel the way you do right now. That’s my fault. Not yours.”
Max brought her hand up to his lips and softly kissed the back of it. The warm brush of his lips, the electricity that shot through her, made the longing deep inside her explode. He pressed his cheek to her hand, turned, and stared at her. “We both did things we regret. We both let the other go. So if we both still want to be together, why don’t we fix this?” Max implored her with the earnest look in his eyes. “Please, Kenna, give us another chance. My heart has always been yours. Claim it again and come back to me.”
Her heart overflowed with all the love she still had for him. Tears spilled down her cheeks. “I’ve wished for this to happen for so long.”
“Then say yes, and it’s you and me again. And this time we’ll get it right.”
She pulled Max close, pressed her forehead to his, looked him in the eye, and said, “Yes.”
The kiss they shared was soft and sweet and filled with promise.
“This feels like the first time I kissed you. I was so excited and nervous and desperate for more.”
She grinned and brushed her nose against his. “That was a long time ago.”
“We were at school. At lunch.”
She glanced at the spread he’d laid out for her. “You made me lunch that day.” She remembered it so well now.
“I wanted you to know I wanted to be more than friends. Boyfriends do things for their girlfriends, like bring them lunch.”
“You surprised me with it and when I said, ‘Thank you,’ you said, ‘You’re welcome,’ and you kissed me.”
“Right in the middle of the cafeteria, where everyone would see. They’d all know you were mine.”
She put her hand on his face. “They already knew that because we did practically everything together already.”
He leaned into her touch. “I’d like it to be that way again.”
She sucked in a breath and held it for a second before she smiled. “Is this real?”
“One hundred percent.” To prove it to her, he turned, slipped his hand over her shoulders and pulled her a little closer.
Her hands came up to rest on his chest.
The contact had them both going still.
“I’ve wanted this for so long,” she admitted. “I thought you’d hate me forever.”
“I could never hate you.” He brushed the back of his knuckles across her cheek with his free hand. “You’re not the only one who’s happy about us clearing the air and getting back together. It’s time we put all that aside and focus on us.”
