Page 137 of One More Chapter

“It’s them.”

I shrug. “It is. And it makes themsoso happy. I mean, has Aaron stopped smiling this entire night?”

“Only when he was blubbering like a baby.”

“You’re telling me you won’t cry whenyourwife walks down the aisle?” I ask, lifting a brow.

Really, I shouldn’t have. The look on his face, coupled with the way his hand widens to possess my entire exposed back, and the way he pushes us closer together until we’re breathing the same air, chokes the wind from me.

But then, he softens. Like a full one-eighty flip, he melts in my grasp, so much so that I fear I might have to hold him up.

“I read it.”

He’s quiet. Anthony Ellis, louder than life man, has been humbled by my written word.

“Oh.” I nod a few times, staring at the place where his dress shirt and the purple of my dress collide. “Did you like it?”

A stupid question. Our entire history exposed on the pages. For the man who dealt the blows, it couldn’t have been an easy feat.

“At the end. When they finally pull their heads out of their asses.” He tilts his head back and forth, then narrows his gaze and bunches his lips. “Those saucy parts were alittlescandalous though, Ms. Layne. I didn’t realize you had such a dirty vocabulary.”

My cheeks flame as my eyes widen.

“To be fair,” I say, tilting my head from side to side, “theyweredecently accurate.”

“At the beginning, they were! I feel like, if I spanked you like that, you’d hand me my ass!”

He laughs, and the edges of my heart soften, brightening. I press closer to him, smiling.

“All I’m saying is, I guess I wouldn’t mind you trying, Ellis.”

“PenelopeBarker! Youdog!”

The hand on my waist slips to my butt, and he squeezes ever so gently, trying and failing to lift one brow and raising both in the process. I smile. Let him press me closer to him. Let the racing of his heart beat up against mine.

“I loved it, Pen. Every single word. Every bit of heartache had to happen so that you could stitch them back together.”

I swallow the lump in my throat, knowing thathe gets it.

“Would you mind me trying to fix the things I broke?” he asks in that quiet, shy voice again.

“Anthony…”

My hands slide up over his heart, squeezing before wrapping up over his shoulders and behind his neck, where I play with the hair at his nape. He leans in, tilting his head and huffing out a sigh.

“You alreadyhave. I just haven’t been the best at vocalizing my forgiveness. I’m so sorry that I’ve been dangling it in front of you. It’s part of our past, but we don’t have to let it hover over us anymore.”

I snake my hands around his neck, up over his cheeks, where I hold him gently. His eyes are strained when he opens them, like he still doesn’t believe that wehaveovercome our battles, and that wecanface the hills in the future.

“I forgive you, Anthony. Can you forgive me, too?”

“Of course I do,” he says gruffly, his arms tightening around me, the shake of his head contradicting. “But I know me, Pen. All I’ve been good for in your past is letting you down. I want to be the ground beneath your feet. What happens when I’m not?”

“We stop and take a breather, and work it outtogether,” I whisper. “What happens whenIfail? This goes both ways. Neither of us is perfect, and neither of us is going to be. I want to work this out. I want to fight for all of the good that we have when we’re together. Do you?”

“Yes.” It is immediate—his answer, the shift in his eyes, the way his hands become an anchor against my back. “Yes, I want that more thananything. I just don’t want to fail you.”

Taking a deep breath, I slide my hands back over his heart, and make sure that the turquoise of his eyes is mine before I speak.

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