Page 83 of When You Stayed
“Like I love you?”
Her eyes were so bright I could see how wide they’d grown even in the dimness of the room. When she didn’t reply, I chuckled lowly before stroking her side and up along her back.
“Does that scare you?” The sound of Gus purring could be heard from where he’d curled up near our feet. I urged again, “The idea of me loving you, does that scare you?”
The pads of her fingers moved over my lips. “No, it thrills me, Ford. I’ve wanted to be inside your head the way you’ve been inside mine for a long time.”
She still didn’t get it. “Rose, you’re not in my head. You’re in my veins, my fucking blood. You’ve consumed me for far longer than I think you’ll ever comprehend. When I was ten and I kissed you…”
“Then told me you wished you really hated me because it would be easier?” I saw her brow flick up, and I traced it with my finger. “Itwouldhave been easier. I wasn’t lying about that.”
Her voice was broken with awe as she asked, “You truly wanted to hate me?”
If only she knew the depths of how desperate I was to despise her. “It was either watch Connor tell everyone he’d grow up to marry you or hate you. It became easier to want distance from you.”
She stroked my jaw, dragging her finger over the hair there. “Must have been so hard for you when you found out I was staying in Rose Ridge.”
“Hard for me?” Connor left her here, just fucking walked away as if she was the kind of woman you’d find twice in one lifetime. Fucking idiot.
“You planned to go to college and had a full-ride scholarship. I always wondered what happened with your family that made you stay behind.”
I needed to find a way to tell her all of it, but she was stroking my jaw, and it felt so fucking good. Having her in my arms, and feeling the heat from her skin, it was too much. I couldn’t give this up.
“Do you want to know a secret, Rose?”
She leaned in and pressed a kiss to my chin. “Always.”
I sucked in a silent breath. “That night when I went to Connor’s and he said to give you that box…there was something that snapped inside of me. It was like this dam that I had tried to build with twigs and mud, it just burst. He was leaving you, letting you go, and I saw this box full of moments that didn’t belong to me. Connor was just letting it all go, and I couldn’t seem to fathom it. I couldn’t seem to wrap my head around it. How could he release this one thing that I had envied of his all this time?”
“So you kept the box?” Royce joked. I could hear the smile in her voice, and I wanted to swallow it.
“No, baby. I stole it. The life he wanted, the girl he loved, thedream…I decided right then and there that I’d take what he was so easily willing to give up. I’d take it for myself, and I didn’t care how long it was going to take, I knew that one day we’d be here. With you in my arms, and me confessing how fucking insane I am for you.”
She didn’t say anything, so I pressed my mouth to her forehead in a gentle kiss. Then I brushed the space under her lashes and realized she was crying.
“You weren’t supposed to be sad about all that. I’m sorry, I know I’m?—”
“I love you, Ford,” she cut me off with a raspy confession. My chest grew tight as I froze and she continued. “It’s easy to say that maybe I always have, but not like this. Not this desperate, wild thing that seems to have burrowed deep into my heart over the past month. I’ve known you my entire life, and yet these moments we’ve stolen and—I wasn’t ready to hear that you’d secretly pined for me.”
I smiled, regardless that she couldn’t see it, I knew she’d sense it. “I’m feeling a little insecure because I think if I line it up, you fell for me after you met Gus.”
Her laugh was warm against my face, but went deeper, sliding under my skin.
When her arms came around me in a tight hug, I held her to me completely and utterly terrified that if I let up even the smallest bit, this moment would fade and somehow I’d wake up to find this all a dream.
TWENTY
ROYCE
The tablet might as well have beenglued to my chest for how tightly I clutched it. The band playing was one that I had been emailing for months to come visit, and the fact that they’d actually agreed was currently blowing my mind. They’d announced their stop on their social media, which had close to five hundred thousand followers, and suddenly our little venue was packed to the brim.
People were ecstatic, especially because I’d talked to Charlie and planned a specialty cocktail that was tailored to the band’s name:Dark Theory.
A hand came down across my shoulder, startling me into a slight jump.
“Sorry, didn’t mean to scare you.” Nick said, pulling me into his side. I immediately stepped out of his hold.
“No worries, but don’t touch me, please.” He’d never given me creeper vibes before, but I didn’t like any person touching me just because they thought they could.
