AllFreeNovel
Share Us
She shakes her head. “You’re right.”
I feel defeat weighing down on my shoulders. “I know,” I say dejectedly. “I understand if you—”
“Iwouldhave dived in headfirst to fight this,” she interrupts, and I forget what I was about to say. “Not just for me, but foryoutoo.”
I feel stunned all over again. “What?”
“Noah,” she sighs, pinching the bridge of her nose. “You’re not as bad as you want people to believe. You’re a good doctor, and a good person, and you make me laugh... even if you don’t mean to. You’re not a boogeyman of anything. You’re just a big stupid genius with good intentions and bad execution.”
“I am?”
“Yeah,” she says wearily. “Yeah, that’s what I’m starting to realize.”
“I really thought I was doing the best thing for you,” I offer feebly.
She nods. “But you understand why it wasn’t now. Right?”
“Yes,” I answer softly. “I think I do.”
“You said you cared about me,” she says with an unreadable expression.
I suck in a breath. “I do.”
“Why?”
“Because...” I falter, not because I don’t know the answer, but because I am having trouble finding the right words. “Because when I’m with you... I don’t feel like I’m just going through the motions in life. When I’m with you... I feel like I’m actuallyliving.”
Her lip trembles, but that’s the only thing she gives me before she clears her throat. She nods her head slowly, and then she takes me completely by surprise when her lips curl ever so slightly. “That was dangerously close to poetry, Noah Taylor.”
I perk up, feeling hope spark in my chest. It’s an unfamiliar feeling. “It was pretty terrible.”
She taps her foot idly, still studying me. “You really did hurt me.”
“I know,” I tell her, feeling that pang of guilt tear through me. “I’m so sorry, Mackenzie.”
She’s not smiling anymore, her nose wrinkled in thought and her eyes moving over my face. I count ten seconds, and then twenty more—each one agonizing as I wait for her to either give me another chance or walk out of my life for good. I know for certain which option I deserve, in any case.
“Yeah, well,” she says finally, huffing out a breath and pressing her fists to her hips. “You’re definitely going to make it up to me.”
That tiny flame of hope is back, threatening to climb higher. “I am?”
“Obviously,” she snorts. “You’re going to be groveling for a very long time, Dr. Taylor.”
I can’t help it. My lips twitch. “A very long time?”
“Years, maybe,” she says in that same grumbling tone. “I’m talking about soup on demand. Chain orgasms. More of that terrible poetry. I haven’t decided.”
“I can manage that,” I say, feeling a blinding, happy feeling swelling inside. “I can grovel for the rest of my life.”
This makes her suck in a breath, her expression softening a fraction as she bites her lip. “I’m going to be a pain,” she tells me.
“It’s fine,” I assure her, taking a small, careful step to close the distance between us. “I’m an expert at being insufferable.”
“And I’m going to get scared sometimes,” she barrels on.
“I can be there to make sure it doesn’t last,” I promise, closing the gap another inch.
Her fists slide from her hips to let her arms hang at her sides, her eyes fixed on mine. “And you can’t ever leave.”
