Page 27 of Sweet on You
“But—”
Ah, here it comes. The but.
“—my life right now isn’t magical. At all. It’s far from magical. It’s…”
“Complicated,” I repeated his word from before. “So you told me.”
His gaze lifted to meet mine. And even with how sorrow-filled his eyes were, the turquoise blue shone bright. He nodded. “Complicated. And I-I’m not ready for you to walk into this complication. Notyet. I will be. I hope to be… sooner rather than later. But I don’t want to make a promise I can’t keep. It’s why I said no to you a month ago when you asked me out.”
I arched a brow at him. “Yet… you kissed me today.”
He sighed and looked up to the sky, nodding. “I know. I couldn’t help myself. But… I shouldn’t have. I wasn’t ready for how intensely beautiful you’d look today. Or how funny you’d be. Or how this one piece of your curly hair would keep falling into your eyes.” He reached out, brushing the fallen piece of hair back from my forehead. His fingertips lingered at my temple briefly and I turned my head into his touch, nuzzling it. “I’m sorry if I’ve led you on. I do want to continue this someday in the future.”
I swallowed, feeling momentarily brave. “Someday? That’s all I get?”
“Someday in the not so distant future? I just can’t make any promises or commitments right at this moment,” he offered. Then with another heavy sigh, he lowered his forehead to mine, Frost’s tail swishing gently between us. “I don’t expect you to wait around for me or anything. But just know that the second I have more of myself to give someone, it will be you. I wish I had more to give right now, but I don’t.”
I understood that. I nodded and the movement shook his head along with mine. “You need to go,” I said, pulling back and jerking my chin in the direction of his apartment. With a few steps backwards, he gave me a little wave before power walking back toward the center of town.
I sighed and with a small tug on Penny’s leash, he stood as well. When I turned left, he whimpered, pulling in the direction where Lex was still walking away from us in the distance. “I know, Penny. I wish he wasn’t leaving, too.”
But sometimes we don’t get what we want. It was a lesson I had a feeling both Penny and I had learned in our lives the hard way.
