She rested there against him, neither of them in a hurry to let go. “It shook me when everything I thought we had disappeared. We were what I believed in more than anything. In all the years, the distance, the obstacles, we were the only real certainty. Then it was over with and gone as if it had never been.” With his arms still tight around her, she looked up to meet his eyes, needing him to understand. “It still shakes me that something so enormous as our love could be erased so simply.”
“Was it really so simple?”
“No.” She dropped her gaze to his chest. “Not for me.”
“Not for me, either. It wasn’t at all simple for me. Look at me. I loved you, Mia. There was nothing else, no one else. Even after Hannah… I loved you. I just couldn’t get to you.” He took her face in his hands with a desperation. “I ruined us. I know I did. You tried to love me, and I pushed you away. But please tell me there’s a chance. Tell me I haven’t lost you. Not again.”
“Nick—
“No, listen. I lived a lot of years, too many without you, because I couldn’t reach out. I couldn’t say what needed to be said. Like I’m sorry and I was wrong and I love you. All those things that were so hard to say, they don’t seem so hard now.”
“You’ve already apologized. You don’t have to say it again.”
“Maybe not, but I think I will. I’ll also say this, and it’s not easy to say. Forgiving myself for letting someone I love be hurt that way, that may be the hardest thing I’ve ever done. But if it means having you back, getting us back, I’ll have to do it. I’ll find a way to do it.”
She stared at him, her heart hammering as he said the words she’d dreamed of hearing for so long.
“Don’t say no. I know it seems like I went on without you, without a thought, but I didn’t.” He laid a hand over his heart, his eyes pleading. “I love you, Mia. You’re the only woman I’ve ever loved. I’ll keep showing you until you feel it, until you know it.”
He kissed her forehead. “We’ll do this slowly, as slow as you need, but I won’t accept never. You were right before. I did let you go. I won’t watch you walk away again. I can’t.”
This was a new side of Nick. More raw, more revealing. She squeezed her eyes shut against his pain, her pain.
“Look at me, Mia.” He waited until her eyes met his. “You still love me. I know you do. I feel it.”
Her heart trembled with fear or love—or both.
“Tell me. Give me that much.”
The truth rolled through her. And because it was true, she couldn’t keep it from him. “I still love you.”
The breath he let out, the relief in his eyes, told her more than anything.
Slowly, he dipped his head, put his lips to hers. It was a soft, slow kiss, deep enough to touch her heart. His fingers slid through her hair, his tongue circled hers, telling her, reminding her. She could no more hold herself back from Nick than she could keep from loving him. And that was dangerous. But being with him like this, she didn’t want safe. She let herself go, fell deeper, until he lifted his head.
Her eyes flittered open to find his looking down at her softly. He pulled his fingers from her hair, trailed one finger down her cheek. “I’ll follow you home.”
It took her a second to respond. Her head still swam with his words and the kiss that had followed. “You don’t need to.”
“I know. I want to. Just to make sure you get home okay. I won’t even get out of the car.”
“Just like you used to.” They shared a smile, remembering all the times he’d followed her back to the dorm with the same promise, then snuck in behind her.
She drove with Nick following, thinking of a painting she’d always loved in Nick’s parents’ home. It was the sea and sky, but what was special was the way the artist captured the essence of where the two met. Magical and inevitable.
She and Nick had always met and melded together. She'd thought she’d been the only one to suffer the loss, that she’d been the only one that tried to save them. That wasn’t exactly fair. She’d been devastated by what happened to Hannah, but Nick, the strongest man she knew, had been broken. Now it felt like the Nick she’d fallen in love with was back. Back and wanting her.
She wondered if they could meet now. If she could risk reaching over the edge for him, give him the power to take that piece of her again. Another piece of her. But what good were the pieces of her heart if she wasn’t with Nick?
He pulled in the driveway behind her. If he asked to come in, could she say no?