Page 78 of Broken King

“No! I love you, Kate. I’ve always loved you. Don’t go.”

Her eyes are filled with surprise, like she can’t believe I just said that. “You still love me?”

“Yes. I never stopped. You broke up with me, and I couldn’t stop loving you. I wanted to talk to you today to find out if you think you could ever love me again. I know I’m not the person I used to be because of the accident. I get it that my issues might seem like a lot. But I swear I’m getting better with them everyday. I see a therapist, and she’s helping me see I only lost my hand. I still have everything else I need to be happy. She’s wrong, though. I need you to be happy. I need you, Kate.”

CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX

Kate

I can’t see clearlybecause my tears are making everything blurry and Ronan seems like some kind of watery dream standing in front of me. He loves me? I thought there was a chance I was coming here to listen to him tell me he can’t see me anymore, and now he’s saying he’s always loved me?

“So you don’t want Sabrina?”

He shakes his head. “No. It’s always been you, Kate.”

“It sure didn’t look like it.”

Ronan doesn’t answer for a few moments but finally sheepishly says, “I admit I liked having someone interested in me. It stroked my ego, and I guess I needed it. But there’s never been anyone but you, Kate.”

“You cheated on me, Ronan, and while I thought I forgave and forgot, I can’t forget because she was just like Sabrina. Pretty. Sexy. The kind of girl everyone wishes they could be.”

Ronan leans down and softly presses his lips against mine before whispering, “You should have never wished you were like that. I didn’t.”

I look up into his dark eyes and see he clearly has no idea how much I’ve wished I was like those girls. “All my life I wanted to be like them. You have no idea. You’ve always been like them—gorgeous, popular, successful. I’ve always been on the other side. You have no idea how much guys don’t like brainy girls, and when we grow up to be brainy women, they like us less.”

He smiles down at me, and I swear it’s like stepping out from the shade into the sun. “I don’t care what those guys like. They can have those other girls. All I ever wanted was you.”

Looking down at the ground, I try not to be embarrassed when I admit the truth of how I’ve been feeling. “I thought you liked her because of how she looks. All those insecurities came rushing back, and I decided I couldn’t do this anymore. That’s why I didn’t answer your calls.”

“So you really were thinking you didn’t want to keep seeing me?” he asks, and I hear so much hurt in his words.

I lift my head to see that hurt written all over his face. “Only because I was sure at any minute you were going to tell me you decided since you have a new lease on life that you want someone different. Someone like Sabrina.”

That makes him chuckle. “The new lease on life I have is because of you. You don’t know how many times I wanted to call you since my accident. Talking to you has always helped me put things in perspective, but I wasn’t sure you’d want to be around someone who isn’t whole anymore.”

For the first time, I lift his right arm and look hard at where his hand used to be. The hand that knew how to catch a baseball when he played shortstop and could throw a ball on a frozen rope. The hand that he would use to cradle my face in his when we were alone. The hand that I know meant the world to him.

“This was never all you were, Ronan. I know it’s been hard accepting that your dreams won’t come true now, but there are a million other things a person with only one hand can do. Thisdoesn’t make you disabled. What makes a person that is if they won’t keep living because one part of them is gone. I don’t care about your missing hand. I care about you. All of you.”

He smiles again, and I breathe a sigh of relief. I practiced that speech all the way over in the car, just in case he was planning on telling me not that he wanted Sabrina but that he didn’t think I could want him since he lost his hand.

“You sound like my therapist. You’d like her. She’s smart like you and doesn’t let me slack off with my bullshit, just like you never did.”

“Well, then I hope you’re listening to her because she’s right. I’ve always loved how strong you are. I’m smart, but I don’t have that strength you have. I’m glad to see it’s still in you.”

Ronan pulls me to him in a hug unlike any other I’ve ever received. He clings to me, and I hold him tightly to me, utterly content that he loves me and I love him. We’ve been through a lot since the last time I felt this good.

“So what do you want to do?” he asks, confusing me.

I lean back and look up at his face, hoping to find some clue as to what he means. I can’t decipher his words, though, so I ask, “Do? When?”

“I haven’t left this house since I got here, except to go to my therapist’s office every week. What do you say to the two of us going out for a bite to eat?”

Relief washes over me. So that’s what he meant.

“Oh, okay. Just tell me where we’re going, and I’ll get us there.”

As I move around him to open my driver’s side door, he puts his hand on mine, stopping me. “I’d like to drive.”

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