Page 99 of Inarticulate

Her? He looked again, scouring the porch from one side of the building all the way along to the lone figure standing at the far corner. At first, he thought it was a trick of the dwindling daylight. An apparition. But the more he narrowed his eyes, the clearer the vision became.

And she was a vision.

A sight to behold.

“Savannah,” he whispered her name and felt it echo through his ears. What the fuck was she doing here?

He couldn’t tear his concentration from her as she came to stand against the railing, her lips parted slightly, her eyes wary. There wasn’t an inch of him that knew how to react. He was frozen in confusion. Mesmerized. Completely awestruck by the simplicity of her gloved hands clutching the balustrade and her pink cheeks framed by the raised collar of her jacket.

Why? he signed.

“Like I said, she’s having trouble letting go. I don’t think it helps when Mom, Dominic, and I are berating her to give you another chance.”

He pulled his focus from the porch and met Penelope’s gaze.

“You do love her, don’t you?” Her heartache was evident. Her resolution, too.

There was no need to ponder. He nodded, slow and confident. “I do.”

She smiled, but the happiness didn’t reach her glassy eyes. “Then give her everything this time. More than you give my mom, or Dominic, and even me. Be yourself, Keenan. And let her love you back.”

She shut the door between them, leaving him to sink into his seat, the engine still rumbling beneath him as she walked toward her brother, then into the house. He still didn’t need to contemplate how he wanted this night to end. The outcome his heart pounded for was set in stone. But for the first time in years, he questioned his worth.

It seemed he’d spent a lifetime trying to prove himself to others, to convince them of his value. Now he was the one who couldn’t see it. He wasn’t entirely sure that ‘being himself’ was going to be enough. Not for her.

He wondered if she considered his silence petulant, like his father did. Or if she’d give him ultimatums to ensure he spoke aloud, like his mother had. No. He shook his head and cut the engine. He would never have fallen in love with a woman capable of that. And he was in love—wholeheartedly, undeniably, even unintentionally.

He grabbed his cell from the center console and slid from the car. His expression was devoid of the hope he carried in his chest as he came to stand before Dominic, waiting for the inevitable assault he wasn’t sure would come in physical or verbal form.

“I’m not warning her anymore.” Dominic took a gulp of his beer, his scowl fixed. “I’ll warn you, though. Do right by her this time or we’re done. You hear m—”

“Dominic,” Savannah’s soft plea carried from the corner of the porch. “I can look after myself.”

“Yeah.” His friend gave him a look brimming with silent threats and then reached for the door. “You’ve done a great job of that so far, Savvy.”

It was a modest warning, definitely less than Keenan expected or deserved. He’d take it, though, and remember it nonetheless. There would be no more contemplation of an imminent end. If given the chance, he would aim for a relationship without an expiration date. He was striving for forever, the target forging itself into his mind as Dominic slammed the front door.

His throat tightened at the first step onto the porch and grew painful when he faced her. She turned to him and leaned her back against the railing. There was no greeting. No welcome or murmured hello. She didn’t say a thing, merely eyed him, the careless whisper of her lashes sweeping back and forth as her chest rose and fell with heavy breaths.

He felt awkward in the silence he’d grown to derive comfort from. He’d kill to give her his words. The real ones. Not whispered, not typed. But the desert in his mouth assured him he’d slaughter everything that left his lips.

“A-are…” Yep. He wasn’t wrong.

She shook her head, denying his failed attempt to connect. Instead, her gaze spoke to him with fluency. She told him a story of heartache and loss, yearning and anger. She laid her pain at his feet and he took it in, letting it destroy him all over again.

“A-are…”Fuck.He chanced a step forward, one foot in front of the other, again and again in the hopes she was here to let him salvage something he didn’t deserve to have.

“It’s okay. You can use your phone if you want.”

No. He shook his head. His cell would be a last resort.

Her shoulders tensed the closer he approached, the depth of her inhalations growing once they came face to face, mere feet apart. He’d caged her into the corner, and still she didn’t move, didn’t slide away. She kept screaming to him with her expression. Beseeching him for his carelessness and begging him for his affection with the shiny glaze in her eyes.

He conveyed all he could with his returned look. He tried to tell her of his unending regret and the enormity of his love. His heart was pounding rapidly behind his sternum with the physical need for her to know. He couldn’t live without her witnessing his agony and vulnerability. Everything was hers to take.

She could have it all.

He took another step, the last step, and brought them toe to toe. Adrenaline poisoned his blood at her mere proximity and the accompanied perfume teasing his senses. He leaned in, testing the boundaries that should’ve been thick and impenetrable and stopped close to her ear.

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