“Listen, Scottie.” He spoke up while escorting her down the sidewalk to her car. “I’m sorry I didn’t do a better job of staying in touch with you.”
“I didn’t give you much of a choice in the matter, Chase.” Scottie turned to look up at him. “And if anything,I’mthe one who owesyouthe apology. The way I ended things?—”
“You were barely sixteen,” he reminded her. “You’d just gone through one of the most traumatic life events anyone can. And hell, it wasn’t as if you had a choice. Even back then, I understood why you had to go with your grandparents instead of staying in Texas.”
The stubborn woman was already shaking her head.
“It doesn’t matter,” Scottie rebutted his claim. “Moving away from you may not have been my decision, but the way Iactedthat last time we were together…” Her swallow was audible. “That was unforgivable.”
“No.” A stern response. “It wasn’t.”
As if he hadn’t said a word, Scottie continued with an admission she apparently thought he was owed.
“I tried so hard to pretend I didn’t care. That my heart wasn’t being ripped out of my chest piece by jagged piece while I stood there, staring straight into those amazing eyes of yours as I lied through my teeth.”
The sadness in her eyes tugged at Chase’s heart. As for the other…
Scottie didn’t lie. Not ever. It was one of the billion reasons he’d fallen for her so quickly. She was good. Kind. And honest to the core.
But his curiosity got the better of him, so he cocked his head to the side and asked her, “What did you lie about?”
“Everything,” she murmured softly. A flash of guilt filled Scottie’s green gaze before she turned and focused on the sidewalk up ahead. “I made it seem as if I believed we never had a chance. That we’d end up breaking up once you left for the Navy no matter what. But…” The waves of her sandy blonde hair slid back and forth across her sweatered shoulders. “The truth is, if my mom hadn’t gotten sick…” A quick lick of her lips. “If she hadn’t died and I’d been able to stay…I would have done everything humanly possible to keep us together.”
“I know.”
“I would have waited for you while you went to boot camp,” she confessed, presumably not having heard what he’d just said. “I would’ve saved every penny I had, and after graduation, I would have moved to wherever you were stationed. I would have made a home for us while you were on missions with your team, and if the job moved you…” She brought her mesmerizing stare back to his. “I wouldn’t have hesitated to follow you to the ends of the earth.”
Ah, Scottie.
Needing to make sure she heard him this time, Chase spoke a tad more forcefully when he told her again, “I know you would have, sweetheart.”
The confusion spreading across her beautiful face would have been comical if its mere presence wasn’t breaking his damn heart. “You…do?”
“Of course, I do. Knew it back then, too. That’s why I didn’t push you more that night. I understood what was really going on. Not at first, I’ll admit. But it didn’t take long to figure it out. I knew in my heart that, no matter what you said, you loved me as much as I loved you.”
Those incredible eyes of hers grew wide. Lips he longed to taste—again—parted ever so slightly with the woman’s sharp intake of air. Unshed tears shimmered in the beams of a nearby streetlamp standing guard a few feet away.
“Y-you never said anything.” More tears formed, and as one began to fall, Scottie quickly reached up and swiped it away. “Why didn’t you ever say anything?”
“I knew going to Ohio with your grandparents was the best thing for you back then.” It sucked balls, and sliced his teenage heart in two, but he got it. “Your grandparents loved you, and I knew they’d do everything they could to help you work through your grief. I knew they’d be there for you when I couldn’t.” He took a step toward her. “Knowing you were safe…that you had someone in your corner and that you’d be taken care of…” Another step. “In that moment, that was what mattered the most.”
Scottie blinked at the moisture filling her eyes, the greens darkening with a visible wave of emotion. “But you…” Her voice cracked. “You let me walk away so easily.”
Chase intensified his stare as he brought a hand to one side of her gorgeous face. The hitch in Scottie’s breath reached his ears the moment his palm made contact with her flawless skin.
But the doubt in her eyes was still there. Still gnawing at his gut. There was a time when she would have believed anything he told her. A time when she used to trust him.
Trust me now, sweetheart. I need you to believe me now.
“Letting you walk away from me that day was one of the hardest things I’ve ever had to do,” he confessed.
Those pretty eyes of hers gave a cute-as-hell roll. “You were a Navy SEAL, Chase. I’m willing to bet you faced worse things in the military than your high school girlfriend dumping you out of some misguided sense of grief.”
He barked out a laugh because…how could he not?
Still as adorably cynical as ever.
“I’ve faced some shit, absolutely,” he admitted. “But losing you…”