Page 71 of Her Football Star Ex

Of course, I’d always hoped that she’d be able to forgive me someday, but I never really dared to dream that she actually would.

It took a moment for me to speak, and when I did, my voice was thicker than usual. “You’ve forgiven me?”

She stared down at her hands in her lap and nodded. “No one is perfect. And I know you were under a lot of stress with your injury and I had become distant after we lost the baby.”

“But that still doesn’t excuse what I did.”

She nodded again. “I know that. And of course I wish it never happened. But we all have things we wish we could take back. None of us are perfect. And…” She drifted off and lifted a shoulder, glancing over at me with an almost wistful look. “I can see that you’ve done everything you could to make up for it.”

I’d certainly tried to. But it seemed like no amount of apologizing or groveling could ever be enough after what I’d done to her.

“You had a bad night,” she continued. “Where you drank too much and were more susceptible to being influenced.” She paused. “But no one is their biggest mistake.”

Her eyes locked with mine, and I couldn’t breathe as her words and their meaning washed over me.

No one is their biggest mistake.

She sighed. “You’re a good man, Vincent. And you are such a good dad to Jaxon.” She wiped at her eye, and her voice wobbled a little. “And I just think that it’s time for me to allow myself to really heal. A big part of that is to stop looking at the past hurts for validation and focus more on what is happening now. Like right now, I’m sitting in this truck with one of the best men I know. You’re not perfect. But neither am I. And I guess I just want to choose happiness now instead of pain.”

I drew in a shaky breath as she spoke and I tried to keep myself together, my heart racing so fast and hard in my chest it was practically thrumming.

Don’t cry. Don’t cry. Don’t cry.

I blew out a long breath and willed the tears pricking at the corners of my eyes to just stay inside. I didn’t need to cry in front of Emerson right now. And I really needed to be able to see the road right now, too.

She must have noticed the huge wave of emotion I was trying to fight back, because she took off her seatbelt and scooted to the center of the bench seat. She buckled in next to me, and as I focused on the road, still trying to keep my emotions contained, I felt her stare on me.

Was she just waiting for me to cry?

But then, to my amazement, she leaned her head on my shoulder and slipped her arm through mine. “We’re going to be okay,” she whispered, gently kissing my shoulder.

And I couldn’t keep the tears from falling as I felt the pieces of my heart that had been clawed apart because of my actions start to patch themselves back together.

27

Emerson

“Thanks for the ride,”I said when Vincent pulled into my driveway.

I knew this was the part where I was supposed to unbuckle and walk inside the house, but I didn’t want to move away from him.

I liked being next to him. He was warm and strong, and just being close to him had a calming effect on me.

And it felt like something really had shifted between us. We were both a little morewholeat the end of our drive than we’d been at the beginning.

Was it so bad that I just wanted to live in this magic bubble for a little longer? Before we went to the wedding and I had to watch him and his date spend the day together?

Sure, I knew Landon would probably be happy to keep me company tomorrow, and he’d even be a fun distraction. But somehow, that didn’t make the prospect for tomorrow any better. We’d had fun talking tonight during dinner, but even though he was really cute and fun to talk to, he was missing the certain spark that I knew was possible with a guy.

A spark I knew was possible because I’d had it with Vincent.

“Want me to walk you to your door?” he asked, his voice low next to my ears.

I lifted my head off his shoulder for the first time since I’d put it there to look at him and said, “That would be nice.”

So we climbed out of his truck and walked to the front door. But instead of typing in the passcode to unlock the door, I turned to face him.

He was so tall. Such a solid and comforting presence. There was some innate need that I had to feel protected and safe, and this hulk of a man had filled that need so perfectly.

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