“Quite. But none of those are what I regret the most.” I rest my forehead on hers and take a deep breath. “What I regret the most is not telling you how I felt about you. I should have told you when I was nineteen. Hell, I should have told you when I was nine.”
Her bottom lip wobbles, and I lift a hand to brush my thumb across her trembling mouth. Suddenly, there’s no fear. No terror. There’s only this moment. Late, but still perfect.
“I love you, Lucy.”
Okay, I may have been premature in my confidence, because saying it out loud is fucking terrifying.
Especially when she doesn’t say a word in response.
Lucy doesn’t even move, and her eyes are shiny with tears, and I can’t read them. I can’t tell what she’s thinking, or what she’s feeling, and I’m about to go to my plan B of get on your knees and beg, when she lets out a broken cry and wraps her arms around my neck.
I go perfectly still, before very slowly closing my arms around her in relief.
Then my eyes close. I am home. Even if this hug is all I get, it’s enough. I’ll make it be enough. At least until I can get better and braver, and demand that she give me more moments just like this one.
“I was coming to see you,” she says against my neck.
I rub a hand along her spine. “Oh yeah?” I touch her hair, my hand trembling a little as I order myself not to rush her. Not to beg her to say what I need to hear. “Must have been in quite the hurry.”
She pulls back and nods, her fingers touching my cheek. “Let’s just say it’s six years overdue.”
“Better late than never?”
Her smile is slow and tender as she goes on her toes to kiss me softly. “You know that you don’t need to take those classes, right? If you want to for you, by all means. But don’t do it for me.”
My heart sinks. This is what she wanted to tell me? I put my heart on the line, and she—
“I love you just as you are. I’ve always loved you.”
My heart starts beating again, but I’m still needy, and I clasp her to me roughly, giving her a little shake. “Again.”
Lucy laughs. “I love you. From the very start. And I never should have left that day. I should have had more faith in you, more faith in us. And the other night, I should have—”
“Let’s make a deal,” I say, cupping her face. “Let’s agree to let all that go. We can learn from those experiences and all that shit, but we deserve a fresh start. We’re more than our mistakes.”
She gives my chest a happy little pat. “I like that. A fresh start, hiccups forgotten.”
I snort. “?‘Hiccups.’ Is that what we’re calling them?”
“Nope.” Her arms are around my neck again, and she’s looking up at me. “We’re not calling them anything, remember? And I just realized why it was that I was coming after you.”
“It wasn’t to tell me that you loved me?”
“I was maybe going to mention that. But mostly, I was going to tell you that I need a roommate. And you need a roommate…the current one’s no good for you.”
My eyes narrow. “This place is a one-bedroom.”
She bites her lip. “I’m aware.”
My eyes narrow further. “Lucy Hawkins. Are you asking me to move in with you?”
“Well, it’s the only way we won’t have to worry about joint custody of Horny,” she says pragmatically.
I smile. “True. He needs to know that both his parents love him very much.”
“Do you think he knows that his parents love each other very much?”
“He should,” I say as I begin backing her toward the bedroom. “After all, he’s the one that watched us fall for each other all over again.”