Page 263 of Tell Me Something True

No, he didn’t have any pictures of his parents. He had other family photos scattered around. Verity’s senior pictures and Ian’s class photos and plenty of group shots of his family at different times; Binge’s opening night, and when Silas he earned his SEAL trident, and when they all flew to Miami to attend Eli’s first major league game.

Staring at the picture, he nodded. “I’m ready.”

Ready to start remembering his parents with joy instead of guilt. Ready to embrace their memories and keep them alive in his heart.

“That’s you,” Tabitha said, tapping his mother’s belly. “There was a date handwritten on the back of the original. It was just a few months before you were born.”

Eyes stinging, he blinked at her then slid his free hand behind her neck and pulled her to him for a long, lingering kiss. “Thank you,” he said, voice husky with gratitude. “Thank you for helping me get back to them.”

Setting the picture on the end table, he put the box on the floor, then lifted the lid on the second box, Tabitha tensing beside him.

It was another glossy black frame. Another photo of a young couple.

It was a picture of them in Pittsburgh, taken after they’d gone to a Pirates’ game.

He had on khaki shorts and a T-shirt, his hair—longer than it was now and curling at the ends—covered in a backward Pirates’ ball cap, sunglasses hiding his eyes. Tabitha’s hair was longer, too, lighter in color and pulled back in a ponytail. Jesus, but she looked like a baby, barely older than Verity in a pair of cut-offs and a tank top, her shoulders and nose pink from too much sun.

“You kept this?” he murmured, remembering asking a middle-aged mom to take their picture that day. “All these years?”

He’d kept nothing of that time, and he regretted it now. He’d gotten rid of the ring he’d bought her. Deleted any photos off his phone. Blocked her number. Threw away anything and everything that had reminded him of her.

“I almost didn’t,” she admitted, leaning her head on his arm to look at the photo with him, a small, sad smile on her face. “But no matter how many times I tried to delete it, I couldn’t. I couldn’t delete it but at the same time, I could barely look at it. And I couldn’t figure out why.” She laughed softly. Shook her head. “Now it’s so clear.”

“It is?” he asked, frowning as he looked at the photo again.

He’s got his arm around her waist, his hand on her hip, closer to her ass than it needed to be, and he’s smiling, big and bright at the camera. Beyond fucking cocky that the most beautiful girl in the world was with him.

Tabitha had her arm around his waist, her hand on his lower chest. But she wasn’t smiling. And she wasn’t looking at the camera.

She was looking at him.

She was looking at him, her expression a mix of fear and hope and joy.

She was looking at him like she loved him.

His heart thudded, hard and heavy, in his chest. His finger trembled as he traced it over her face in the photo. He’d doubted it, back then, her feelings for him because she’d never told him. Because she’d left him.

His gaze flew to hers, a million thoughts racing through his mind. A million questions.

“Every time I looked at this picture,” Tabitha said quietly, as if she saw his thoughts, heard those questions, “I saw how much I loved you. And it scared the hell out of me because I knew I was going to ruin it. And now, I love you even more,” she said, her voice growing thick with tears. “But I’m not afraid of it anymore.”

He put the picture back in the box and set them aside so he could pull her onto his lap. “Please let me tell you,” he begged, pressing his face against the side of her neck. He’d kept his promise to her all these months, but now the words were bubbling up inside of him, too big to contain. “Please.”

Her hands in his hair, she nodded.

His head jerked up and he met her gaze. “I love you,” he said in a rush, but after all these months of keeping them in, one time wasn’t enough. A million wouldn’t be. “I love you. I love you so fucking much. I love who you were, and I love who you’ve become and I’m going to love who you’ve still yet to be. I love you and I want to be with you always.”

Turning slightly, he reached behind him, feeling around until he found the small box. Brought it out from behind the cushion and handed it to her. “Here.”

She tore off the wrapping paper, gasping when she saw the small jeweler’s box. Looked at him with wide, shining eyes, her hands trembling as she lifted the lid.

She blinked at the contents, had tears spilling down her cheeks. Frowned, her teeth worrying her lower lip.

“You don’t like it,” he said, reading the disappointment on her face. “I can return it. We can exchange it for some—”

“No. No. I love it.” She rubbed her thumb over the diamond heart pendant nestled in the velvet box. Her voice dropping. “It’s beautiful.”

He tightened his arm around her waist. “It’s okay if you don’t like it.”

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