“The rest?”
“That I didn’t deserve you. That you deserved a lot better than me.”
“That night, you didn’t come back.”
He huffed out a breath. “Hell, my face was pretty busted up. I didn’t want you to see. It’s why I stayed away so long. I waited until I was mostly healed up before I finally called you.” He shrugged. “That and I was puttin’ it off as long as I could. But, Cole, he wasn’t having any of it. So, I called you. And I did what he’d ordered me to do. I broke it off with you.”
“Why didn’t you just tell me the truth? Why did you make me think you were just tired of me?”
“Because if I had, I knew you would have fought it. You wouldn’t have let me end it.”
She looked away, knowing he was right.
“I know you, babe.” He swallowed then, as if he didn’t want to admit his next words. “You’re stronger than me. You would have broken me down.”
“And you didn’t want that,” she snapped.
“The club meant everything to me. That patch meant everything to me.”
“Yes, Shades. I found that out.”
“Until you walked out. And I realized what I’d done.”
“Right.”
“I went back for you. I did, Sky. Maybe it would have still been the end of us, but I wanted to apologize, to let you know it wasn’t your fault. I couldn’t handle how destroyed you looked. I’d done that to you. Me. And it was tearing me up.”
She didn’t say anything. She wasn’t sure what to believe.
“Where did you go?” he asked.
She shrugged. “It’s not important anymore.”
“Yeah, it is. It is to me. Tell me. Where have you been all these years?”
She looked up at him then. “Atlanta, Shades. I’ve been in Atlanta.”
His head pulled back an inch. “Atlanta?”
She nodded.
His brows rose in shock. “All this time…you’ve been just a couple hours ride from here?”
“Yes.”
“Fuck.”
She looked away and could feel her eyes filling. How she’d wanted him to come for her back then.
“Fuck. All these years. All these wasted years.” His head was bent, his eyes on the floor. And then he lifted his head, his eyes soft on hers, filled with what looked like regret. He shook his head. “I should have tracked you down. I should have come for you, Sky.”
“But you didn’t.”
“No, I didn’t. I can’t change that. But, you and me, Skylar, we’re not over.”
“We are.”
He shook his head. “Not by a long shot, honey. Now that I’ve got you back—”