She may as well have socked me in the gut with the weight those two little words held.

I’m moving.

“Isabelle, you can’t move next week.” It’s blunt and to the point, but it’s the fucking truth.

“The hell I can’t,” she snaps back, glaring at me before purposely turning her back on me to pour herself a cup of coffee. “I don’t know who you think you are—”

“You know exactly who I am,” I remind her.

She shoves the coffee pot back onto its base, then carefully sets the mug down. Her hands are trembling slightly, although from anger or another emotion, I can’t tell. “Wrong,” she advises me. “I knew who you were. Once upon a time. But you destroyed that silly fairy tale, didn’t you?”

Her eyes are blazing. In all the years I’ve known her, I’m not sure I’ve ever seen such blatant ferocity coming from those depths.

“You don’t get a say, Jace,” she continues. “I’ve been in this godforsaken town my entire life. It’s time to get out of it. Away from the bullshit, away from all the memories…” She blinks, then locks her gaze on mine. “Away from you, and every memory of you.”

I swallow down the bile rising in my throat. It sickens me to think she hates me enough to leave her hometown. Our hometown. “Izzy, you obviously didn’t believe me back then, but I told you...I told you I would come back for you—”

“No.” She barks the word at me, pointing a finger in my face. “Don’t you dare, Jace Andrews. You didn’t say that. What you said was, ‘You deserve better than the life I can give you, Izzy.’ I should know, believe me. Those fucking words have haunted me for three goddamn years.”

Another punch to the gut without even touching me. “Wait. I did say that—”

“You’re damn right you did!” She shook her head. “And over a fucking text, no less.”

“Wait, no. Izzy, shit.” My thoughts are jumbled, and I can’t seem to make sense of them. “You did deserve better than what I could give you back then—”

“And I deserve more than you now, Jace.” Her fiery gaze is back on me, and I’m convinced I can see the pulse beating wildly in her throat. “You came back too late,” she adds. “Way too late.”

Something’s not adding up. But, unfortunately, I can’t think straight. I’m losing her all over again, and the realization is slicing through me with the red-hot pain of a knife. I can’t lose her again. I won’t.

Isabelle must think I’ve chosen not to respond, and she averts her gaze, reaching for her coffee cup on the counter. I take my chances, reaching out in one foul swoop to pull her to me, crashing my mouth down onto hers. The desperate need to remind her of what we are and what we’ve always been together is all-consuming. I kiss her like my life depends on it, and in a way it does. The life I want—the life I came back for—is slipping through my hands.

For the briefest second, I feel Izzy succumb to my kiss, her knees buckling as she leans into me despite her surprise. But it’s over just as quickly as it began, and she pushes me away, hard.

“Jesus, Jace, what the hell’s gotten into you?” Her fingertips come up to touch her bottom lip gently, as though she can still feel my kiss. “You can’t just use the fact that I can’t seem to control myself around you to your advantage.”

A sharp twinge of satisfaction buzzes within me at her confession. Her obvious breathlessness and the uncertainty in her voice boosts my ego, too. She’s not even sure of what she’s saying, so I don’t feel compelled to be, either. “You admit it, then.”

“It doesn’t change things.”

“Izzy, it changes everything!” I bellow, once more exasperated that she can’t seem to understand that we’re still the same Jace and Izzy we’ve always been. Or, maybe she just doesn’t want to. “Because it means that not a damn thing has changed. Not where you and I are concerned.”

She’s staring hard at me, unsure what to do or say next. I’ll admit, I’ve got a few damn good ideas, but I give her time. That’s the thing with Izzy, I’ll give her everything she wants, if she’ll just let me.

She is quiet long enough that I start to feel like I’ve actually made progress, like she’s actually weighing the things I’ve said in her mind. Then, finally, “It’s too late, Jace.”

“It’s not.” There’s not a beat of hesitation in my reply.

“It’s too late,” she says again, nodding as though attempting to convince herself. “You need to go.”

“Izzy, I’m telling you—”

A loud knock makes the walls of the old house shake, and we both snap our heads toward the door. The sight of her is marred by the gauzy translucent curtains on the door’s window, but I recognize Emily there, nonetheless.

“Shit,” I mutter under my breath. I turn back to Izzy, standing at the counter. She looks shell-shocked, like she’s been caught doing something she shouldn’t have been. Or someone. I guess that’d be me. “Izzy, I swear to God, I never meant to hurt you the way I did. There’s been a misunderstanding—”

Her hollow, angry laughter stops the desperate string of words coming from my mouth. “A...misunderstanding?” She laughs again, but there’s nothing humorous about it. “You shattered my heart, Jace. There’s nothing to misunderstand in that.” She points to the door. “Now, as fun as this little trip down memory lane has been, you need to leave. I’m asking you, Jace. Please, just go.”

I take a step toward her, but Izzy immediately puts her hands up between us, blocking me. “Izzy, it’s not what you think. If you just—”

She blinks rapidly; the tears are burning her eyelids, threatening to fall. “It’s exactly what I think,” she replies in a thick voice. “It’s over.”

This woman has the power to hurt me in ways I never imagined. Hell, I’d thought I’d been gutted by her three years ago when she chose to change her phone number and start dating Chad. That feeling of desolation doesn’t even begin to stack up against what she’s putting me through right now.

I don’t say another word, instead choosing to take a giant step away from Izzy. I’ll give her space between us. I’ll even give her a moment’s reprieve. But time, that’s what I’m running out of. So, I give her a sad smile and a nod before I leave, knowing my chances are limited to make her realize the truth—that this, us, Izzy and Jace—we’re the furthest thing from over.

* * *

All this time. Three goddamn years.

Izzy’s spent that entire time hating me for the fact that I broke her heart. And, by the sound of it, that’s exactly what I did.

This thing is, I’ve spent the last three years wondering why she broke my heart and cut off all contact with me. I mean, I thought I knew, and that’s exactly why I didn’t storm back into Brooksville and fight for her the way I should’ve. Because I was a coward, and because I was hurting pretty damn bad. Thinking that the woman I loved had chosen to move on without me when the only thing I’d tried to do was build a better life to offer her…

Yeah, I was pretty tore up. She’d broken my heart, and bruised my ego pretty fucking bad, too. So, I’d made the ridiculous choice to back down, back away, and let her have what she wanted. Freedom. From me, and from the dreams we’d once had together.

Except, my dreams finally came true—I rode one bull after another, all the way to the top, and I won the Professional Bull Riders World Finals.

 I became a word champion, and I didn’t have Izzy by my side to share in the celebration with me. Now that I know it’s because of something so fucking stupid, the pain of that fact rocks me to my core even more. So much time wasted, when we could have been together.

That’s why I’m here, outside Davidson’s Hardware. Emily’s father has owned it as long as I’ve been alive, and his father owned it before him. Everyone here knows that. Another thing that’s a well-known fact is that Emily’s father, Hendrick, doesn’t drive. Not since the collision that happened ten years ago that almost cost the man his life. Since then, he’s never been behind the wheel of a car. And since then, Emily has dropped him off at the store in the mornings on her way to work at the post office, and she’s picked him up every evening.

She doesn’t deviate from that schedule today. I’d said absolutely nothing to her this morning as I passed her on the way out of Isabelle’s house, but the heavy, curious look she gave me spoke volumes. She didn’t hate me, even if her friendship with Izzy dictated that she, in fact, should. Which is why I’m taking a chance, hoping she’ll hear me out, even if Izzy won’t.

Judging by her narrowed eyes as she climbs out of her Corolla, however, I wonder if I’ve made an error in my calculations. I climb out of my truck and slam the door. “I need to talk to you, Emily.”

“Well, hey, Jace. Good to see you, too.”

“Sorry.” I hold up my hands in surrender. “My manners aren’t nearly as important to me right now as this situation with Izzy.”

“Situation.” She scoffs, laughing darkly. Damn it, I wish she and Izzy would stop doing that. “You can’t just show up here after almost three years with a big fat paycheck in your hand and think Izzy’s going to run back into your arms after what you did to her.”

I want to argue that that’s exactly what she did, but now isn’t the time. “I’ve made my fair share of mistakes, I won’t deny that. But, Emily, there’s something she doesn’t know. Hell, it’s something I didn’t know until this morning. But, my biggest mistake will be letting her run off to Los Angeles without at least explaining it to her.”

Emily’s forehead crinkles in confusion. “You broke her into pieces,” she says after a long pause. “Are you saying there’s more to it than that?”

We’re standing on the curb in front of the store, and I don’t care who hears me. “I’m saying I never intentionally broke up with, or hurt, Izzy. Just like she didn’t hurt me the way I thought she did.” My chest is pounding furiously against my ribcage, and all I can do is pray that she’ll listen to me. “And I can prove it.”

Emily stares into my eyes, obviously trying to determine how much of my story is utter bullshit. Whatever she sees, it makes her sigh. “Shit,” she breathes out. “Fine, give me a couple minutes to get Dad, then you can follow me to their place. I’d say we could go to Edna’s, but Izzy’s working, and if I walk in there with you, she’ll kill us both.”