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I hit the brake a little harder than necessary and killed the engine, throwing the door open and launching myself out, closing the distance between us in record time.
I hopped up the porch steps and bolted to her. The second I was close enough, I crouched down in front of her, placing my hands on either side of her neck. I used my thumbs beneath her jaw to lift her face to mine, slowing dragging the pads back and forth in a soothing motion. It wasn’t until I saw her, touched her, that I was able to pull in my first real breath since I spotted the fucking ring box on our bed.
Her eyes were rimmed red and swollen. Her smile was small and heartbroken. She looked so damn sad it was like a stab to my chest. “Hi,” she whispered, her eyes growing glassy with unshed tears.
“Baby,” I said on a pained grunt. “Talk to me, please,” I begged. “What happened?”
“I found the ring.”
I pulled in a fortifying breath, working hard to calm my nerves as I nodded. “I know. I saw it on the bed.” She sniffled and tried lowering her face, hiding behind the curtain of her hair, but I wouldn’t let her. “Wynn, tell me what’s going on in your head right now, because I can see from the sadness in your eyes that whatever it is, it’s very fucking wrong. Talk to me so I can fix it.”
“Do you still love her?”
I rocked back like she’d just punched me. Hell, an actual physical blow might have been less shocking than that question. “What?”
“Do you still love her?” she repeated.
“Jesus, no,” I exclaimed. “No fucking way.”
She reached up and wiped at a single tear with the back of her hand. “Your mom told me everything,” she confessed, her voice still quiet. “She told me about Vanessa and John. About you carrying that ring around as a good luck charm. How you were going to ask her to marry you.”
“I see.” I let out a gust of air and moved to sit on the swing beside her, understanding finally dawning. I suddenly felt mentally exhausted as I scrubbed a hand over my face. “So you heard a story from my mom, and instead of talking to me about it, you let it eat at you. Is that about right?”
Her head shot around in my direction, those pretty violet eyes narrowing in a glare. It relieved me to see the spark of fire in her eyes. She was still in there; I could still get to her.
“I wouldn’t put it like that, exactly,” she clipped, raising her chin haughtily.
I couldn’t stop the chuckle that rose from deep in my chest as I gave my head a shake and twisted on the swing to face her, draping one of my arms over the back of the seat. “Bits, I don’t still love her. There isn’t a single piece of me that still harbors any feelings for that woman, because every single part of me is madly in love with you.”
Christ, but it felt good to say that out loud for the first time. I loved her. I fuckingloved her, and now she knew, beyond a shadow of doubt.
Her lips parted, a tiny gust of air brushing past as her eyes dried up and widened. “You-you love me?”
I smiled. She was so goddamn adorable when she was flustered. “Baby, how could you not have figured that out by now?” I reached out, taking her left hand in mine and lifting it up. “Thisis the only ring I’ve ever had that’s meant anything, and that’s only because it rests on your finger.”
She shook her head like she was trying to shake her thoughts into place. “Then... why do you still have the other one, after all this time?”
“Truthfully?” She nodded. “Because I forgot it was there.” I held my hand up to stop her when I sensed she was about to argue. “Yes, there was a time in my life when that ring meant something, but that time ended before you came into my life. I put it in the back of the drawer and completely forgot about it because it stopped mattering a long time ago.”
I could see the doubt still lingering, so I gave her the rest of it. “Yeah, when Vanessa ended it, I was crushed. But when I look back on it now, I think it hurt so much because I lost two relationships that had meant something to me all at once. If you talked to my mom then you know how close John and I had been.”
She nodded, biting down on her plump bottom lip.
“I think maybe I hated losing him more than losing her.”
Wynn’s face pinched up with anger. “You shouldn’t,” she gritted. “He was a shitty friend for doing what he did.”
I let out a bark of laughter. “Agreed. But there’d been a time when I thought we were brothers. I was going to ask him to be my best man. Losing that friendship was harder than losing Vanessa. Looking back on it now, I can’t say I’d change anything, because it led me here. To this town full of our crazy-ass friends. But most importantly, it led me to you, Bits. I can’t possible love anyone else, because my heart belongs to you completely.”
She sniffled again, her eyes watering over as she gave me the first genuine smile I’d seen on her beautiful face since this morning. “You really do love me?”
“Of course I do. You’re the other half of me.” I looped my arm around her shoulders and pulled her into my side, burying my face in her hair and inhaling her intoxicating scent. “We’re a perfect team, remember?”
I felt her body melt as she inhaled deeply. “Gage?”
“Yeah, baby?”
“I love you too,” she whispered, but those four words ricocheted through my head like a pinball, echoing over and over again.
