Page 70 of The Promises We Broke
By the time Gage walked me home, my cheeks hurt from smiling and my heart felt full to bursting.
"Thank you," I said as we reached my apartment door. "For tonight. For pushing me out of my comfort zone."
"Thank you for letting me," he said, stepping closer in the dim light of my porch. "For saying yes to this, whatever this is."
"What is this?" I asked, suddenly needing to know.
He was quiet for a moment, and I could see him weighing his words carefully.
"I don't know exactly," he said finally. "But I know I want to find out. I know I want to take you on more dates and kiss you goodnight on your porch and maybe, eventually, convince you to trust me with your heart again."
The honesty in his voice made my chest tight. "That's a lot of maybes."
"It is," he agreed. "But for the first time in eleven years, maybes feel like possibilities instead of impossibilities."
I looked up at this man who'd been my best friend, my first love, my greatest heartbreak, and now maybe something new entirely, and felt something click into place.
"Okay," I said.
"Okay?"
"Okay, let's find out. Let's see what this is."
The smile that spread across his face was brilliant enough to light up the entire street. "Really?"
"Really. But slowly," I added quickly. "I need time to..."
"Slowly," he agreed, cutting off my nervous babbling with a gentle kiss. "Whatever pace you need. I'm not going anywhere."
The promise hung between us, weighted with history and hope, and for the first time since he'd come back into my life, I let myself believe it might be true.
"Goodnight, Gage," I said softly.
"Goodnight, Billie." He stepped back reluctantly. "Sweet dreams."
I watched from my window as he walked away, his hands in his pockets and something light in his step that hadn't been there when he'd first come home. And as I got ready for bed, the stuffed horse he'd won me sitting on my nightstand like a promise, I let myself imagine what it might feel like to trust him again.
Scary, definitely. Terrifying, absolutely.
But deep down, I knew it was worth the risk.
Chapter 25
Gage
The cottage was dark when I got home from walking Billie to her door, but I could make out a familiar silhouette sitting on the porch steps. My father looked up as I approached, and even in the dim light, I could see the soft smile on his face.
"Good evening?" he asked.
"Very good evening," I said, settling beside him on the steps. The night air was crisp with the promise of autumn, and I could still smell woodsmoke and cinnamon from the festival in my hair. "What brings you by?"
"I was hoping we could talk," he said quietly. "About tonight, about Caroline, about... a lot of things."
I studied his profile in the darkness. There was something different about him tonight. Lighter somehow, like he'd set down a burden he'd been carrying for years.
"You reached out to her," I said. It wasn't a question.
"I did." He ran a hand through his hair, a gesture so familiar I might have been looking in a mirror. "After twenty-eight years,Gage. And she didn't ignore me, she didn't turn me away. She agreed that it's time to talk, and I'm going out to Blue Point Bay next week." He paused then, and I saw the emotions warring on his face before he dropped the bombshell. "She has a daughter who's twenty-eight years old."
