“If this is all to make me realize you and Rima are this lifetime’s OTP,” she snarled under her breath, “I swear I’m going to kill you.”
“You’re my OTP.”
Her cheeks turned the lightest shade of pink. “Ha!” But her voice was so weak, almost giddy, and Nathan blinked while Alyx jerked.
Oh my God, she was supposed to be convincing him he had no chance – NO CHANCE – with her, and here she was, showing in every way that she was his for the taking!
Alyx cleared her throat, and then she said very firmly this time, “Ha!”
Nathan only stared at her in amazement. Did she just try to redo the last five seconds?
Alyx flipped the pages, and it was on the sixth page that the photos changed, and it was of Nathan and her this time.
All of the photos were of them together, and---
She snapped the book shut. “I’ve seen enough.” Her voice shook.
“No,” he said steadily. “You haven’t.” And he forcibly opened the album for her again. “Finish it.”
“No. I don’t see any point. It’s---”
“Finish it.”
It was the first time for Alyx to hear something akin to a shout from Nathan, and when she allowed herself to look at him---
Her lip started to tremble. “W-why are you looking at me like that?”
“How,” he asked hoarsely, “am I looking at you?”
She shook her head.
“How, sweetheart?” he pressed. “Tell me how.”
“Like…” Her voice faltered, and she bit her lip hard.
“Say it---”
“Like I’m your tomorrow.” The words spilled out of her in a sob.
A ghost of a smile touched his lips. “Because you are.”
Another sob escaped her. “I’m so tired, Nathan. And scared. I don’t know---” Her body shuddered in an effort to control her pain. “I don’t know if I can do this one more time.”
“You can.” And because he couldn’t take it anymore, he shoved away the table between them, and even as it crashed against the wooden wall, she didn’t look up.
She was crying so hard, all the noise was drowned out by her tears.
He hauled her to his lap, saying hoarsely, “Just one more time, sweetheart.” He cupped her cheeks and kissed her tears away. “I need you to forgive me just this one time, to fall in love just one more time – and I swear. I swear on my life you’ll never have any reason to doubt me.”
He guided her fingers back to the album, flipping it open to where their photos started. “You see it, don’t you?”
He felt her inhale sharply, her body trembling so hard he knew how much it was costing her not to break apart.
He pressed his lips to her forehead. I’m sorry. He placed his hand over hers, gripping her fingers tightly. Trust me one last time.
And he heard her say, “I see us.”
Ah.
“I see you and---”
He met her eyes, asking rawly, “And what, sweetheart?”
“And you’re smiling.” And she tried to give him a smile of her own. “You’re smiling in every photo…”
“Like I never had in the past,” he said emphatically.
“Like you never had in the past,” she echoed in a whisper.
“My mind might not have known it then, but the rest of me – my heart, my body, even my lips knew, Alyx. The rest of me knew I belonged to you.”
She jerked.
“I held back from loving you out of fear. Out of shame. I didn’t want to end up a loser again, I didn’t want to risk another rejection – a part of me couldn’t take the possibility that you’d choose Nik Alexandropoulos over me.”
“Oh, Nathan.”
“And though many years had already passed, there had never been closure between Rima and me, and I didn’t want to risk hurting you until I was absolutely certain nothing in me would want to get her back.”
He cupped her face. “That’s why I had to go, sweetheart. I wanted to be whole for you. I wanted to be completely yours.”
“Oh, Nathan.”
But this time they came out nearly incoherent because she was kissing him, and he was kissing her, and all the while she was crying because she knew.
These things didn’t have to be said.
They were felt.
But even so, Nathan gave her the words anyway.
“I love you, Alyx Marshall, and my love will always be yours.”
Epilogue
ALYX AND NATHAN
Nathan knocked on the bathroom door, asking in a puzzled tone, “What are you doing in there?”
“What do you think?” But Alyx was just hedging. Whatever guess he came up with, it was unlikely to be correct, and that was that---
SHE WAS FREAKING OUT!
But in a good way, of course.
Her gaze flew to the mirror. This is the look of an engaged woman. But even as she repeated the words to herself, the truth just had a hard time sinking in. So many things had happened ever since they had gotten back together, and although a year had already passed, there were times – like now – Alyx just wanted to be alone with herself and try to wrap her head around things.