Her jaw worked and her eyes brightened.
“When are you going to believe that I’m sincere about how taken with and invested in you I am? There is no one else for me, Kylee. No one.”
She studied him, but then she gave an oddly nonchalant shrug.
Chandler’s frustration grew. He understood she struggled with self-confidence because of her grandmother, but how could he convince her he was genuine? How could he get her to trust him?
He wasn’t close to ready to give up. She was the one for him. “Kylee, please believe that I will not give up on us.”
“Excuse me?” Fire flashed in her eyes. “You gave up on us before.”
“What are you talking about?”
“You’re just going to go back to your celebrity lifestyle after this is over.”
“No, I won’t.” He threw his hands in the air and straightened. “When will you finally believe that you’re the one I want? You and only you.”
“How about if you actually text me? One single time. Give me some piece of evidence that I really am special to you. Not just another girl to flirt with, kiss, then break my heart when you ghost me.”
“What are you talking about?”
Her jaw hardened, and she glared at him. “I fell head over heels for you that summer visit. I know it was dumb and my parents and grandparents said I was too young to know I was in love, but I was. On the car ride to the Denver airport, I idealistically told them all that I loved you and was going to marry you someday.”
He couldn’t hide his smile. “You did? I love that.” He gently touched her shoulder.
She flinched away from him, and he startled. “
You love that you broke my heart?” she demanded, folding her arms across her chest.
“I broke your heart?” He was completely confused. She was the one who’d written him off.
“You ghosted me. Never had the courtesy to even text me like you promised.”
“What?” He was stunned and confused and angry. He was trying to forgive and forget the heartbreak of that summer and now she was claiming he was the one who ghosted her?
“I was heartbroken, Chandler. Completely heartbroken. Then my parents died, and I spent the next two years of high school living with Mimi and Grandpa and listening to Mimi belittle me nonstop.” She looked up at him and a tear trickled from the corner of her eye and ran down her face. “I know I was just a fling for you back then and I’m terrified that’s all I am now.”
“Kylee.” He tried to gather her close, but she leaned away from him. He tamped down the frustration. When he admitted that he’d never stopped loving her last night, she hadn’t responded and now she was claiming it was he that had never texted? “I don’t know what you’re talking about. I never ghosted you. You were never a fling for me. I thought you were the one back then, and I feel it even more deeply now.” He gazed down at her. “Do you believe me?”
She pulled away and wiped off the tear. “I don’t know what to believe. How do I know you won’t just ghost me again?”
His jaw hardened and he pushed a hand at his hair. “Kylee, I didn’t ghost you. I texted you and you were the one that called it a ‘fling’ and then told me you had a boyfriend and to not text you again.”
“Excuse me?” Her eyes flashed at him. “Now you’re lying to me about it?”
He blinked down at her. “Lying? One of us definitely remembers this wrong.”
“Do you have the text?” she challenged him.
He shook his head. “I was so mad and hurt that I deleted it and deleted your contact.”
“Hmm. Convenient.”
His jaw dropped. “You really think I’m lying to you?”
“Sei un bugiardo,” she hurled at him.
Chandler loved when she spoke in foreign tongues, but right now it frustrated him. “What does that mean?”