“Anything.” His gaze roamed my face, searching for a clue as to where I was going with this.
“Are you sure you’re over Gwen?”
He barked out a startled laugh before his nose scrunched up at my unamused expression. “Wait, that’s really your question?”
I nodded as I stiffened in his arms, but he immediately pulled me in closer. Refusing to let me put any distance between us.
“Of course. I thought I explained when—”
“I know you said you technically broke up before the accident and you pushed her away afterward because you thought she was there out of a sense of obligation…but the way you looked at her at the diner…”
“At the diner?” His face was painted with confusion.
“You remember the day we were at the diner, and I saw the Everetts?”
He nodded, encouraging me to continue.
I shoved down my embarrassment and jealousy. If we were going to do this, we had to be straight with one another. “Before I came in, I watched you for a few minutes. When she sat down with you, you looked so conflicted. So filled with longing for something you couldn’t have.”
His eyes softened and his expression filled with understanding. “It was you.” He cupped my cheek with one hand and placed a soft kiss on my forehead.
“Me?”
“That look? It was all about you. I was in the middle of a bit of an existential crisis when Gwen sat down at my booth, because I’d just realized that I was in love with you, and I had no idea how to handle it.”
I pulled in a surprised breath. “You knew you loved me then?”
He ran his thumb along my jaw, his blue eyes never leaving mine. “I did. But then I mucked it all up with how I handled things when you saw the Everetts, and you kept dodging me until everything blew up with the articles.”
Feeling like an idiot, I dropped my forehead to his chest and let out a muffled curse before lifting back up to look at him. “If I move to Kelly Bay, will I be the town pariah after everything that happened with those articles and our blowup at the festival?”
His gorgeous mouth curved up at the corner. “That’s one of the best lessons you taught me about the people of my hometown. They’re a forgiving lot. If they can forgive me for acting like a moody asshole for five years, they’ll get over those articles. Especially after we explain what really happened.”
Could it actually be that easy? “You seem confident.”
“One hundred percent. Plus, there’s one thing the people of Kelly Bay love even more than gossip.”
“What’s that?” I asked.
He kissed me, then hit me with a megawatt smile that made my insides gooey. “A happy ending.”