Page 127 of What Happens at the Lake

He shrugged. “I have no goddamn idea. I suck at words.”

I laughed through tears. “You’re doing pretty well today.”

“Then I’ll keep going. If what you got out of everything I said so far is that I’m madly in love with you and will do everything in my power to make up for hurting you if you’ll just give me another chance, then maybe there’s hope for me after all.”

“You love me?”

Fox cupped both my cheeks. “Sweetheart, if you’ll let me, I’ll spend as long as I have to and do whatever it takes so that you never doubt that again.”

“Whatever it takes? So you’re going to move here to Manhattan?”

Fox froze. It looked like he might shit his pants. I should’ve kept him on the hook for a lot longer after the hell he’d put me through, but I cracked and smiled. “I’m kidding.”

He blew out all the breath he’d been holding, and his shoulders shook with quiet laughter. “You’re going to make me pay long and hard for screwing up, aren’t you?”

I twisted my lips like I was considering it. “Not too long. I’m guessing the women of Laurel Lake have been doing that for me since I left.”

He groaned. “You have no damn idea.”

I smiled. “That’s what family does. They stick together.”

“How come you’re family after only a few months, yet I’ve lived there my entire life and I’m getting the cold shoulder?”

“Because youdeserve it, jackass.”

“True.” Fox’s face had lightened a bit, but he grew serious once again. “But what I don’t deserve is you, doc. Don’t deserve you one bit.”

I smiled. “I am pretty spectacular.”

Fox’s lip twitched. “You sure are, sweetheart. You sure freaking are.”

***

It was the middle of the night by the time we finished talking. Fox, man of normally very few words, had really opened the floodgates. We spoke more about Ryder and Evie, about what it had been like for me coming back to New York and saying goodbye to Nilda, and even about how he had struggled to find his way after his injury had forced his retirement from hockey.

I was emotionally and physically exhausted as we slipped into bed. Fox had driven twelve hours straight, too, so I couldn’t imagine how his eyes were still open. I lay with my head on his chest while he ran his finger over my shoulder, tracing a figure eight in silence in the dark.

“Do you still love him?” he finally said.

I felt my eyebrows reaching toward my nose. “Love who?”

“The douchebag.”

That was the name he’d bestowed on my ex. But he couldn’t be asking if I was in love with Noah after all we’d shared tonight. Could he?

“Who’s the douchebag?”

“The guy you were going to Aruba with.”

I pushed up to look at him. “How did you know Noah and I had a trip to Aruba planned?”

“There was paperwork for it in the envelope I brought you, along with your passport.”

“Oh. Yeah, that’s right. But why would you ask if I still loved him?”

Fox’s forehead wrinkled. He looked as confused as I felt. “Because Opal said you were getting back together.” As soon as he said it, he closed his eyes. “Crap. She was just trying to get me off my ass, wasn’t she?”

“Is that why you came here? Because you thought I was going to Aruba with Noah?”

---