Page 108 of American Beauty

A slow heat creeps through me.

This day keeps getting better.

I enter my office… and freeze.

Tyson McRae is standing there.

A squeal slips out before I can stop it. A rush of adrenaline surges through me, sharp and immediate. My breath catches in my throat.

His face is a damn mess—bruised, swollen, his left eye black from where Alex’s fist connected. There’s a splint on his nose, proof that he received medical attention after leaving my apartment last night.

I swallow, my pulse kicking up.

Alex would lose his mind if he knew Tyson was here. He might murder him this time instead of beating the shit out of him.

“Mags––”

“You can’t be here.”

“I’m sure you don’t want to see me right now, but we didn’t get to finish our conversation last night.”

“There’s nothing left to say.”

“I meant what I said last night. I love you, Magnolia.”

“Stop saying that.”

He shakes his head, jaw tightening. “I have to say it because I need you to know.”

Anger simmers beneath my skin, rising with every second he stands there, uninvited.

“Let me explain something to you. When you love someone, you put their happiness first. You want them to have everything they’ve ever dreamed of—even if it costs you everything. Even when I thought Alex had chosen someone else, I still wanted him to be happy. Even as it broke me, I prayed he’d find the life he deserved. Because that’s what genuine love is. Selfless. Unwavering. Even when it tears you apart.”

I give him a minute to absorb.

“Can you say the same? Do you love me enough to let me go? Enough to want me to be with the one I choose—even if that person is Alex?”

His throat bobs, but he doesn’t answer. And that hesitation? It tells me everything.

“Sebring wants things you are not ready to give him.”

Who the fuck made Tyson McRae the authority on what I am—or am not—ready to give someone? “What do you think Alex wants that I’m not prepared to give him?”

“A wife. Kids. The whole fairytale ending. That’s not you, Mags. You don’t want that.”

That was the old me––the me who thought love was something to keep at arm’s length.

“I wouldn’t push you into something you don’t want. But that’s what Sebring will do.”

His words don’t shake me or plant the doubt he’s hoping for. If anything, they solidify what I already know. Because the thing is… he’s got it all wrong.

It’s true what they say… you don’t know what you have until it’s gone.

“I thought I didn’t want marriage. But when you love someone, and you lose them, it changes things.”

“Sebring is still the same person he was before. What he wants hasn’t changed.”

“My heart aches for Alex. I never want to live without him again, and I’m not fool enough to believe that doesn’t lead to marriage.”

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