For starters, you can acknowledge the truth I gave you.
For the first week, I ignored it. I put my best effort into keeping myself busy, allowing no time to pine over his broken promises. I played back the day I woke up alone in Linc’s room, the day Sin told me he had left. The day I started believing Linc’s love had been a lie, something I imagined and forced myself to trust. I wouldn’t say it was easy to understand or accept. I fought Sin for weeks, spent days trying to break the man who couldn’t be broken. Eventually, I had no choice but to accept the man I gave my heart and soul to didn’t want me. If I wanted to move on, I had to chalk up the greatest years of my life to nothing more than a mistake. One epic mistake.
Now, it’s two weeks since he’s told me that the only mistake between us is the one he made walking away. A week since he cornered me at my job and challenged me to accept a new truth.
He loved me.
It’s almost as if he thought those three words would fix everything broken between us. Like his confession would suddenly mend my broken heart and restore my trust in him. In case you can’t tell, I’m pissed. Actually, pissed isn’t the right word I’m fucking furious.
Not just at him but mainly at myself because I want to believe him. I want to forget everything that happened to us over the last two years and move forward with him. I don’t want to guess where I’m headed, I want to stay home with him. Always him.
So, yeah, I’m angry. Angry at myself because for the last week I’ve been thinking of our five-year plan. By now, I should’ve had my pink poodle. We should have our own apartment somewhere and he should be spending every night trying to get me pregnant not playing poker at my uncle’s kitchen table.
Agitated, I toss my empty plate in the sink before turning the faucet on and rolling up my sleeves.
“You okay over there?” he questions.
“Peachy,” I mutter, attacking the plate with a sponge.
“Rough day at the office?” Nico teases. “There isn’t anything more annoying than an unruly muffler.”
“Sure, there is,” I growl over my shoulder. “A cousin with a smart mouth.”
“Don’t you dare try to front and pretend like I’m not the reason you’ve decided to park your ass in the city that never sleeps,” Nico replies.
“Actually,” Linc interjects.
The plate falls from my hands and lands with a clatter in the sink. Turning my head, I widen my eyes and reach for a dishtowel.
“You got something to say?” I challenge.
Ignoring me, he keeps his eyes on the cards in his hand and pushes a stack of chips into the center of the table.
“I don’t think Nico has much to do with your decision to stay,” he retorts smugly. Nico’s phone rings, and he mutters a curse. Reaching for his phone, he studies the screen before turning to me.
“I gotta take this,” he mutters, rising to his feet. “Can you play my hand?”
Slicing my gaze back to Linc, his lips quirk as he tries to suppress a grin. Deciding it would serve me much pleasure to beat the bastard at his own game, I take Nico’s hand and plant my ass in the chair across from Linc.
Nico disappears onto the back deck and I shuffle my cards around. Knowing I have a decent hand, I match Linc’s bet and raise him two chips. He cocks an eyebrow.
“I’m not sticking around for you,” I declare, raising my cards.
“You never did quite master a poker face,” he accuses. My eyes shoot to my eyebrows as I lower my hand and glare at him.
“Your balls are the size of fucking planets,” I admonish.
“Not really. I think they’re pretty average. Now, my dick, that’s—”
“I don’t need to be reminded,” I interrupt.
He smiles.
“Glad to see it left an impression,” he says, nudging his chin toward the cards in my hand. “Time to show your hand, Pinky.”
“You first,” I challenge.
“That’s not how this works,” he teases.
“I know how it works,” I mumble.
“Laid my cards down for you two weeks ago and I’m still waiting for you to show me your hand,” he says, fanning his cards and displaying them on the table.
Royal fucking flush.
“You win,” I mutter, showing him my hand.
“Not really,” he says, not bothering to glance at the cards. Instead, he keeps his eyes firmly planted on me. “Winning would be if you stopped ignoring me.”
“I’m not ignoring you.”
“Right, so how is it we live under the same roof and I barely see you for two weeks. You forget we’ve done this dance before—”
“No, Linc I didn’t forget but, I’m not the girl I was back then. If you’re waiting for me to crawl into your bed and ask you to love me again, it’s not going to happen. I’m not looking for trouble anymore.”
“So, what are you looking for?”
That seems like a loaded question, one I’m not prepared to answer.
“I’m trying to figure that out.”
“I could help you,” he says with a shrug.
“You don’t quit, huh?” I question with a sigh.
“I quit once before and I regret it,” he says.
I’m about to roll my eyes when he surprises me by pushing back his chair. Gripping the ends of the table, he lifts himself onto his feet. My eyes scan the room for his wheelchair but, it’s nowhere in sight.
“What’re you doing? Where’s the chair?”
He turns around, and that’s when I notice the walker behind him.
“I decided it needed a rest,” he says, pushing the walker in front of him. I watch as he shuffles his feet around the table and when he’s standing in front of me, I lift my eyes to his.
“Help a guy out,” he quietly demands.
“What do you want?”
“I think you know what I want, Kelly,” he says. Keeping one hand on the walker, he reaches out and winds a strand of my hair around his finger. “I’ve got some things going down over the next few weeks. Things that will either make me or break me,” he shares, releasing the lock of hair. “If I’m lucky, I’ll be standing after the dust settles and should that happen you need to be prepared.”
Swallowing, I shove his hand away and narrow my eyes.
“Prepared for what?” I croak.
There’s a pause and I can almost hear the words before they’re spoken. The words I want to hear but I am afraid to trust. The words that hold the merit to become actions and those actions have the power to annihilate me. It’s in that pause I ask myself if the girl who lived without fear of consequence is ready to make a comeback.
“Me,” he says. “A man don’t get too many chances to make things right in his life but when he does, he fights with all he has,” he adds, gripping both ends of the walker. “I want you back in my life, Kelly. Back in my arms, back in my bed…back where you belong. I’ll be whatever it is you need, and I won’t quit this time. I’m coming for you and you need to prepare yourself because I can promise you, it’s going to be one hell of a ride.”
The words that follow stun me to silence and it’s almost as if he’s read my mind.
“Saddle up, baby, because everybody loves a good come back and I can promise you ours is going to be fucking spectacular.”
What do you say that?
Nothing, you say absolutely nothing.
Well, if you’re smart, you say nothing.
If you’re me, you go all in. You push all your chips to the center and though you’ve lost before, you pray for a streak of good luck. You pray for one good hand.
“Prove it,” I dare.
His eyes dart from mine to my lips and it’s the first time since I showed up on my uncle’s doorstep I feel the unfamiliar flutter of butterflies in the pit of my stomach. It’s the first time I look at Linc and feel a ping of lust. Regret ceases and need flourishes. I want him to kiss me. Not just my lips but every inch of my body. I want to feel him all over but, mainly between my legs. I want him to whisper his filthy promises against my ear as he fucks me into another dimension. Another realm. Where the only rules we have to abide by are the ones, we create ourselves. Where danger isn’t a concern and hearts don’t break.
A place where all that lives is the love found between two lonely souls.
A place where promises are true and actions aren’t flawed.
A place where lonely hearts become wild hearts and wild love reigns free.