Page 66 of The Do-Over
He pulled out a chair at the table and sat down.
“He hit you?” Thea murmured.
“That’s why I had to get out of Deer Ridge. That’s why…” He looked up at her. “I left you. I left you.”
“It was a long time ago, Rob,” she said softly.
“But I did, didn’t I?”
“You got into Larrimore. I didn’t.”
“You were so upset.” Memories were coming back to him now. “You begged me to stay. To go to Iowa State with you. To stick to the plans we had made.”
“But you couldn’t,” Thea said. “I understand that now, Rob. If he was abusing you, of course you had to get out. If I had known that back then, I would never have asked you to stay.”
He closed his eyes. “I’m so sorry.”
Her hands were on his shoulders. Her face was so close. “It’s all right,” she said. “You made the choice you needed to make. It was the right thing.”
He reached up and cupped her cheek.
She didn’t pull away.
He leaned in, waiting for the moment she would say or do something that would break the spell, that would remind them both of the years that stood between them.
But she didn’t.
So he closed the last few inches between them and kissed her.
