Page 60 of Taming Georgia

“That depends.”

“On?”

“On what happens next.”

“What do you want to happen next?”

“Wyatt, I can’t give you the answers. You’re the one who is always pushing me away. I need you to figure that out for yourself.”

Despite my best efforts to detest him, I feel something real for Wyatt. If I’m being honest, I always have. I shouldn’t; I know this. I’ve seen how toxic we are together, but I can’t stop wanting him. More importantly, I can’t stop hoping that he’ll want me.

His blue-eyed gaze is gentle as it roams over me, taking me in. His eyes examine my face, making my breath falter. He’s looking at me like he used to back when we were both so young. I’ve dreamed of this stare—deep, beautiful, and all Wyatt.

He doesn’t have his guard up or his jerky persona. Right now, I’m staring at the boy who stole my heart years ago. At this moment, I have the Wyatt I’ve always held a vacancy for in my heart regardless of how many times I tried to fill it.

He swallows hard. “I think about you all of the time.” He sighs, “I fucking dream about you almost every night. Even when I thought I hated you, you consumed my thoughts.”

“Thought? As in past tense?”

He shakes his head. “I don’t hate you. God, probably the opposite. I don’t know. You have to realize that people have let me down my entire life. So, when those assholes told me all of that shit about you, I believed them. I was wrong to; I know. But the fact that a beautiful, kind, popular girl liked me didn’t fit into the narrative of my life. What those jerks said about you did. The fact that I liked you so much and was so hurt jaded me—against people, against you. I’ve held so much anger toward you for so long, and it’s been hard to admit that I was wrong.” He lets out a dry chuckle. “I’m kind of stubborn.”

“Yeah, I see that. You know, what you said to me hurt, too. I’ve resented you for a long time.”

“I’m sorry,” he tells me, and I know that he is.

“But when I see you and how kind you are to others when you think no one’s looking, the things you do for so many, the way you help those who can’t help themselves, I know that you’re the same person you were. Actually, no, you’re better.”

He kisses me lightly on the forehead before lying back down. “I’m not good at this stuff. I don’t let people in.” His voice is full of defeat. “I have a really hard time trusting people, and because of that, I’ll probably always be alone.”

“No, you won’t. You’re too good of a person. You’re impossible not to love. Maybe you don’t see it, but I do. Ethel does. Others, too.”

I scoot up next to him and wrap my arm around his middle, leaning my head on his chest. “No one can promise forever. Stuff happens. But don’t you think there’s something between us worth exploring?” He doesn’t answer, so I continue, “I feel this pull toward you. Even when you were a total grump, I wanted to be by you. Do you feel it, too—this connection? Or is it just me?”

He scoffs, and if I were looking at his face, I know he’d be wearing a smile. “It’s not just you.”

“So then, what?” I ask.

“Will you come back to work?”

“Depends.”

“On what?”

“On what else you’re offering.”

“What do you want me to say? Do you want to, like, hang out and stuff?”

I laugh and sit up, pulling the sheet up around me. “You’re really bad at this, aren’t you?”

“I told you I was.”

“Will we be exclusively hanging out?”

He nods. “Yeah.”

“Okay, I can do that.” A cheesy grin spreads across my face, followed by one from Wyatt. His smile gets me every time.

Realization dawns on me as an image of the scantily dressed blonde woman flashes in my brain.

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