Page 93 of Love You Truly

“You installed a peephole.”

“Someone very smart told me it was a good idea.”

He exhales. I take him in, and my heart fills. I reach for him, but he’s stiff at first. Then he relents, coming closer so I can circle my arms around his back. The flowers get smushed between us, so he backs away and puts them on the porch swing next to me.

Then he holds up our marriage certificate. “Why would I tear this up?”

“Because we don’t need it, and I want you to be free.”

I steel myself for whatever happens after I tell him we don’t need to be married. Then I unfold the whole story about the lawyer and the contract and thorn-in-my-side Felix.

“Wow, okay.”

“Yeah. I intended to tell you everything that day when you took me on that sunrise hike. But then we got into that fight, and after that, I didn’t tell you because I love you. I know it doesn’t make a lot of sense, but I’m not good at love. I was worried you might be done with me if you knew.”

“Done? How could I be done?” His brow creases in confusion and I have the urge to reach up and smooth the lines. Then I get lost in the serene blue of his eyes and almost forget to answer his question. But he deserves the whole truth from me. I promised him honesty, and from now on, I’m going to give it to him.

“The chase would be over. I don’t know. Maybe I thought that if we were bound to each other it would give you more time to fall for me.”

“Sweetheart, I fell for you the first time I kissed you in that bar.” He melts my heart a little bit more and I reach up to take his face in my hands. Leaning closer, he brushes his lips against mine. The soft touch I’ve been craving for a week. Or really, for my entire life.

A quiet sigh escapes me when we break the kiss. “Can we sit?” I gesture to the porch swing and move the flowers to the slatted wood porch. “I owe you an apology.”

“I thought I was the one who owed you an apology.” He turns to face me, leaving one leg down and bending the other one. “I behaved like an asshole, and I wasn’t fully honest with you about what I’d be getting out of our deal. I didn’t want you to feel like I was using you the same way everyone else was.”

I nod and put a hand on his knee. “I know. I don’t think that. And I’m sorry I wasn’t honest with you about…everything.”

“Mallory, I want to be with you for you. If you want to tear up this marriage license and get married all over again, let’s do it because I want to be clear that I’m in it all the way, sweetheart. I want to be married to you no matter what.”

My heart swells, and I almost forget what I called him over here to tell him. “I’m in it too. And I don’t think we need a new wedding. The first one was perfect.”

“It was.” He picks up the flowers and plucks one long stem from the bunch. He presents it to me. “Can you accept my apology? I never should have stormed out of here. And I’d have come back or called, but you?—”

“I said we needed a break. I know.”

“Do you still need time? I don’t want to force anything.”

“No. I just need to tell you something, though, if you’d stop apologizing.”

He makes the motion of zipping his lips shut and throwing away the key. “Okay, you talk.”

“That’s not zipping it!”

“Sorry.”

I press my lips together in mock frustration, and he laughs. But he doesn’t talk.

“You wanted to know why I asked you out.” I take a deep breath and let it out slowly. “It was because that day we ran into each other at the store…”

He mimes slamming into each other and splatting on the floor, and I laugh. Then I punch his shoulder. “Stop. That day, when you swooped in and caught me and kept me from falling, I felt something…I felt something magical. That’s the only way I know how to describe it. I felt like my heart had swelled up in my chest, and it was urging me to cling to you in a way I’ve never experienced before. My heart was telling me not to let go.”

He stares at me, his blue eyes taking me in while he takes in my words. Then he nods. “Me too. I felt it too.”

“I was like a zombie for two weeks, only thinking about how I needed to see you again. Like I couldn’t even control it. And you see me—I’m logical. I’m focused—this was nothing like me. I had to see you.”

“And then I didn’t respond when you texted me.”

I nod. “And I felt crushed, which was ridiculous because I didn’t even know you. And now, as I’ve gotten to know you, my fears just kept growing that once you knew I loved you, you’d be disinterested. I kept worrying about how crushed I’d be now that I love you. And I do love you, Dashiell Corbett. Truly.”

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