Page 141 of Just One Fake Date

He’d halfway expected that and he was ready.

“It’s me and I was hoping that you’d pick up the phone so we could talk. The choice is yours to make and I’ll respect whatever you decide, but you don’t have all the facts, so I want to give them to you.” He took a breath, knowing it would have been easier to make his confession if she’d been listening, or even if he’d known for sure that she’d ever hear his words. “There’s something special between us, something I want to nurture and defend, something I’m willing to fight for. The thing is that you have to want it, too, and if you’re still in love with Cole, then I don’t have a chance. If you’re not, though, I’d like that chance. I love you, Shannyn, and I’d be honored to spend my life with you. That’s not because I want or need something from you, or because I have expectations about the future. It’s not because I think you need fixing. It’s just because I like being with you. I like that you’re unafraid to challenge me or my assumptions. I like that you defy expectations and make people reconsider things, even me. Especially me.” He took a breath. “I like who I am when we’re together. I like this sense of adventure and discovery and I’m pretty sure it’ll never end if you put your hand in mine. I want more of you in my life and I hope that maybe you feel the same way, that maybe you can put Cole behind you the way he’s put you in his past, and that maybe, me saying it out loud will help you to move forward.”

It sounded like a crazy long shot, but Ty wasn’t done.

He opened the book he held to the marked page. “Now, here’s the part where I feel silly, because you’re not there to listen. But I’m going to go for it here, on the off-chance that you remember that day in that course when I had to read this poem aloud and explain it. I did a pretty bad job then, if memory serves, because the words weren’t evocative to me. I couldn’t understand what it was like to want something or someone and have to live without that. The words are powerful now, though, because I understand what it’s like to fall in love and maybe not close the deal. I understand how empty my life feels without you. This is a long shot to try to change your mind and give us a chance.”

Ty cleared his throat, feeling like an ass, and began to read Keats’ poem aloud.

There wasa message when Shannyn got off the phone with her mom, and she might not have looked at it if it hadn’t been so late. If it hadn’t been pouring rain. If she hadn’t been thinking about Tyler talking to her that first night.

If her mom hadn’t told her to fight for what she wanted and tell Tyler the truth.

When she saw that it was from Tyler, she had to listen.

She closed her eyes at the sound of his voice, holding tightly to the phone as she listened, amazed and thrilled by every word. She couldn’t believe that he doubted that she could love him and she shook her head that he imagined for one minute that she still loved Cole. She was shocked that he read Keats’La Belle Dame sans Mercito her, because she did remember that day. Contrary to Tyler’s memory, the entire lecture hall had been enthralled by his reading.

The beautiful woman without mercy. Did he think that was her?

Shannyn’s heart was in her throat as she listened to his recital, his voice so smooth and low. He lingered over the words, which gave them more weight. Her tears rose by the end of the poem, then she listened again, putting it on speaker.

I met a lady in the meads,

Full beautiful—a faery’s child,

Her hair was long, her foot was light,

And her eyes were wild.

I made a garland for her head,

And bracelets too, and fragrant zone;

She look’d at me as she did love,

And made sweet moan.

I set her on my pacing steed,

And nothing else saw all day long;

For sidelong would she bend, and sing

A faery’s song.

...

She took me to her elfin grot,

And there she wept and sigh’d full sore,

And there I shut her wild wild eyes

With kisses four.

And there she lulled me asleep

And there I dream’d—Ah! Woe betide!

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