Page 44 of Kiss the Bride

“I thought you wanted me.” It’s late, I’m tired and there is no hiding from my stupidity.

“Why do you care?”

“Because I want you to want me.”

“Why?”

“Because I wasn’t enough.”

“Why?”

“How am I supposed to know?” Anger and frustration boil in my belly. “Why wasn’t I good enough for you? All those years ago. We didn’t fight, we wanted the same things. Even now, we are still friends. Why wasn’t I good enough back then?”

“Why don’t you think you’re enough?”

“Didn’t you hear me?”

“Why?”

The dam bursts, and I cry out between tears, years of hurt pouring out and my pride left on the shelf. “Because I wasn’t enough for you. You said you loved me, but I wasn’t good enough for you.”

“Why?” His voice is patient and calm, which only makes me more upset. Doesn’t he care? Doesn’t he wish that he never walked away?

“Why should I tell you? You don’t care.” I refuse to let him off the hook. If I have to admit my truths, then it’s about bloody time Hunter does as well. “Why wasn’t I good enough for you? It took years before you set me up with Mitch. You had heaps of time to change your mind. Why wasn’t I enough for you back then? Why aren’t I good enough for you now? Hell, most men would love to wake up to have the woman in their bed kissing them. Why aren’t I good enough?”

“Liv, don’t go there, please.” His words saydon’t, but squeezing me closer gives me hope.

“Why wasn’t I enough for you?” I ask softly, needing his answer.

“Liv, don’t, you’re upset about Mitch.”

“Don’t change the subject. This is about you and me. Yes, you. Hunter Herbert Williams. Tell me why Oliva Marie Woodgrove wasn’t and still isn’t good enough for you?” Hunter hates his middle name, and I only pull it out in emergencies—like when he needs to know I’m not looking for meaningless compliments. I need and deserve more than hiswe were too youngbullshit excuse.

“Oh, sweetheart.” He gently kisses away each tear, and I wish I could tattoo the imprints of his lips on my cheeks. “You’re asking the wrong question. It was never that you weren’t enough. We were the right couple at the wrong time. We were perfect together, but neither of us had lived enough to know that.”

“You keep saying that, but I don’t understand.” No matter how hard I try to frame the words, they don’t make sense.

“We were perfect, but didn’t you ever stop and think?” He pauses to brush hair from my face and over my ear. His look is filled with so much love that it breaks my heart all over again. “What if we were only perfect because our mothers threw us together as babies because we grew up together, and because we had no other choice?”

“You chose Ava over me.” The gorgeous, sporty blonde from university has always been a sore spot. I couldn’t hide my inner bitch when Hunter introduced her to our crowd, and I didn’t bother hiding my delight when they didn’t last. Knowing it’s unfair to throw their relationship in his face now doesn’t stop me. She’s the name that represents every woman Hunter’s had that wasn’t me.

“Sweetheart,” he says, kissing my cheek even though I want to twist my face so he reaches my lips, “I broke up with you before university started. Long before I met Ava and even longer before we were anything.”

“Long before meeting her?” I scoff, unwilling to leave it alone. “I think you met her in your first week, precisely a week after breaking up with me.”

“Liv, it doesn’t matter. Ava doesn’t and didn’t matter. We were friends for a long time before anything happened, and it ended almost as soon as it began.”

“But it does matter, don’t you see?” I pull myself to sit up and face him. Of all our conversations, this is make or break. Yes, I was wrong to kiss him when he was asleep, but we need this conversation. We should have had it years ago.What if we weren’t ready back then? What if Hunter needed those faceless women and I needed Mitch to get us to this point?I change my wording and hope, “I wasn’t enough for you—so you needed to go looking. I wasn’t enough for Mitch and he turned to Lina and who knows who else.”

“You think there were others?”

“Don’t you?”

“Hadn’t thought about it, in any case, I’d be the last one he’d tell, other than you.”

“Just be honest. You couldn’t see a future with me. Then, there was Mitch—“

Hunter presses his fingers to my lips but stares longingly into my eyes before responding. “Look, since getting back, I tried not to intrude on the two of you.”

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