“That I’ll hurt you, and I don’t want to hurt you, Adley.”
She rests her hand on my cheek. “You would never hurt me.”
This girl is one in a million—honest, caring, funny, sexy, smart, and willing to throw her entire soul into something she believes in. And foolishly, she believes in me.
“You’re right. Physically I wouldn’t hurt you, but we want different things out of life. You want to fall in love and get married and have kids.”
“How do you know?” she interrupts. “We’ve never even talked about it.”
“Well, talk. Is that what you want?”
She blinks rapidly and shrugs her shoulders. “I don’t know.”
“What do you know?”
Her eyes land on something over my shoulder. With a finger under her chin, I turn her face back to mine.
“What do you know?” I ask again. “What do you want?”
“I know that you make me smile, and I hope I make you smile.”
“All the damn time,” I agree.
“I think about you every second you’re not around, even when I’m supposed to be studying. I enjoy coming home to you at the end of a long day. And I really like when we order takeout and watch those silly racing movies.”
“I like those things too, but you deserve more than cheap takeout and Netflix. You deserve fancy dinners and nights out on the town. You deserve beautiful gifts and trips around the world—”
She shakes her head. “I don’t need those things. When are you going to see what I see? When are you going to realize how amazing you are and how much you have to offer?”
“Adley—”
“You train and work harder than anyone I’ve ever known. You not only take care of your father, but you care for your sister—you put her through college, Lincoln.”
If only it were that simple.
“I work hard because I need all the damn money I can get, because my alcoholic father can’t hold a job long enough to make a paycheck, and my drug-addicted, abusive mother left him with a mountain of bills. I work because I don’t want Chloe to end up like the rest of us. I want her to be different. I want her to succeed and get out of this town.”
The words are out of me in a rush, and Adley wraps her arms around me, burying her face in my chest. I haven’t told her much about my family, but it feels good to get it off my chest.
“Don’t you get it, Adley? My life isn’t as perfect as yours. I’m broken, and I will eventually hurt you whether I mean to or not.” It’s in my blood.
Looking up, Adley rests her chin on my chest. “You’re not broken, just bent. We’re all bent, Lincoln. Some of us worse than others, but being bent isn’t a bad thing.”
“I don’t need to be fixed, Adley.”
She kisses the center of my chest and then puts her lips over my heart. “Good, because I like you the way you are.”
“Is this really what you want? A relationship with someone like me?”
“You mean someone who’s kind and supportive and a great listener? Someone who makes me laugh and treats others with respect? Yes. The answer is yes. But it’s not all about me. What do you want?”
“You, Adley. I just want you.”
Her smile is bright enough to light up the darkest night. “Does this mean I can hold your hand in public and kiss you in front of our friends?”
“Yes. But it also means we’ve got to find a way to tell your brother without him wanting to murder me.”
She laughs. “We don’t have to tell him right away. We can take things slow. One day at a time.”