Page 82 of If Tomorrow Never Comes

“Add to that a few months of pathetic pining, and I’ve had the same experience.” He’d been a real stage-five clinger to her memory.

“I’m sorry,” she said again. “I’ll always wish I handled that night differently.”

He shook his head. “Don’t be.” He wasn’t trying to make her feel bad. He’d do it all over again as long as they ended up here, tonight. “What matters is now and what happens next.”

“Your sister said the same thing,” she said with a wry grin.

“Did she?” He wasn’t sure how he felt about his sister meddling, but Elliott was here, so who the fuck cared?

“Yeah. I stopped by there tonight, and we talked it out. She made a lot of good points.”

“She usually does.”

“After talking to her, and based on what Yuka’s been saying for weeks now, it seems ... different somehow,” she said. “Now that more time has passed and Carly has left town. I know it’s stupid, and it’s probably just in my head. But no matter how much I like you and how badly I want to be with you, it doesn’t change the fact that I owe Carly everything.”

“What did change, then?”

“Since the moment I found out you and Carly were together, I’ve lied. To you, Carly, myself. I’ve tried to convince myself we could just be friends and that would be okay. It wasn’t until Blythe said Carly started making plans that didn’t involve you, and I saw her laughing with someone else, that I let myself admit what an outrageous lie that was.”

She seemed to study his face when she said the part about Carly with someone else. He hadn’t known Carly was dating again, but the news didn’t upset him. On the contrary, he was relieved. His hands shook with anticipation of where she might take this. “What’s the truth?”

“The truth is, I’ve thought about you every single day since the night we met. The memory of you carried me through months of solitude in a hospital bed. There was one week when things got kind of scary and my body wasn’t doing well, and I honestly wasn’t sure I’d come out of it. I’d picture your face and think of the things we talked about and the sweet things you said to me and told myself if I could just be strong enough to get through it, I’d let myself come find you someday.” She swiped at her cheeks, smiling through her tears. “I really did move to Omaha for a job and to start fresh. But I could have done that anywhere. There’s a reason I wanted to do it here, in this town. That reason was you.”

In one fluid motion he was up and at her side, his palms framing her face.

She covered his hands with hers. “I can’t even begin to tell you how crushed I was when I saw you and Carly together. But I forced myself to accept you were with someone else and that my chance with you wasgone. If I really have a second chance, this time I won’t let you walk away without telling you how incredible I think you are, and how badly I want you to be mine.”

He pressed his forehead to hers. “I’m not going anywhere. You fit me like no one else ever has.” He tilted his lips forward and kissed her softly.

“I think you might be everything I’ve ever wanted,” she whispered.

They kissed for several minutes, thorough and unhurried. Instead of hiding behind mutual self-denial, they were stepping forward to explore what was there all along, and God, it felt good.

Somewhere in the back of his mind he wondered how this kiss compared to their first one at the hotel and quickly decided this one was better. This time heknewher. He knew more than just her middle name and a few random facts about her personality. Now he knew who she was and who she wanted to be. He knew what she’d gone through to get here, and that he wanted to walk beside her as she continued on the road to achieve her dreams.

“Jamie,” she murmured.

“Hmm?”

“I ... want you. But do you think we should wait?”

“Why?” Maybe in this moment it felt like zero to sixty, but in reality this was more than a year in the making.

“I don’t know.” She glanced up at him from beneath long, dark lashes. “Can we, then?”

He smiled against her mouth then stood and reached for her hand, leading her farther into his apartment than she’d ever gone. He paused at the door and ushered her in, then turned to Hank, who had followed them. “Sorry, bud. No dogs allowed for this part.”

He closed the bedroom door, leaving Hank in the living room. When he turned back to Elliott, her hand covered her heart. “Did you see his face?”

Jamie chuckled at her distress. He loved his dog, but ...

He stepped closer and smoothed her hair back. “The first thing he’d do is jump in the bed with us. I’d be distracted and that’s unacceptable.” He dipped his head and pressed a kiss to her neck. “I want to focus on you, and only you.”

She tilted her head to the side to give him better access. Her audible sigh was thick with desire, but when she slid her fingers into his hair, her hands were shaking. Jamie reached up to take her hands and wove their fingers together, lifting his head to look at her.

“You okay?”

She nodded, her gray eyes wide and focused on his face. “I’m good,” she reassured him. “Nervous and excited, but in a good way. It’s just been a while. A couple of years.”

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