Stopping him, she said, “First, I want to show you something. Come on.”

She pulled him along to her room. “I’m surprised since you’ve been basically threatening my life for this information,” he teased.

She laughed as she nodded. “True, but I want to show you something. You know how you’ve said how important I am to you?”

“Yeah, you are.”

Pushing her door open, she went in first and then turned to look at him. “Well, you are the same to me, always have been. And I know I probably should have thrown away this stuff after what happened years ago, but I couldn’t let you go.”

Looking past her, confused, he saw a red and black box on her bed, the contents spread all over. Walking to the bed, he stopped short when he saw the picture of them after one of his games. He was sweaty, young, and excited, his arm wrapped tightly around Lacey’s small frame. She had her hair in a pixie cut from where it was growing out from the chemo. She was beautiful, and the way he was looking at her just screamed how much he loved her. Moving his gaze from that picture, he found another one of them at the coffee shop, her lying across his chest, reading a book while he played his DS. His throat was tight with emotion as he took in each picture, them during date night, hanging out at the frat house, just being young, crazy-in-love kids. Next were the letters, trinkets of love he gave her… She kept everything. Even the petals to the flowers he had bought her. She had loved him all this time like he had loved her, and neither of them had done anything about it.

How fucking pathetic and sad.

“I have a box of us too.”

“Really?” she asked, surprised.

He shook his head. “Yeah. I pull it out every once in a while.”

“When I thought you left without a word, I took it out and was about to let you go but then found the note.”

“Thank God,” he said, pushing their love story to the side so he could sit down. Taking her hand, he brought her down on the bed beside him and laced his fingers with hers. He loved how perfectly their hands fit together, and as he gazed at her hand, he couldn’t help but imagine the engagement ring on her finger. It was going to fit her flawlessly, and he was half tempted to pull it out of his pocket and give it to her.

But thankfully before he could do that, she said, “Tell me what you had to say in the living room.”

Looking deep in her eyes, he prayed that when he exposed her father that she would still love him. That she would still want to be with him and make a life with him. Yeah, they hadn’t said that’s what they were going to do, but damn it, it felt right. He felt it in his bones, and they were going to be together from that moment on. It was such a powerful feeling, but it could all go to hell if she didn’t trust him. He hoped to God she would, but to be sure, he had to make sure that Nate Martin did what he was supposed to do. Maybe then, if she did kick him to the curb, and while his heart was breaking, he would know that at least she had her business from all his pain and heartache. That it would be sort of worth it all.

“First, tell me something,” he said slowly.

“Okay?”

“This may seem like it’s out of left field, but did your dad pay for the start-up of your business?”

Her head fell to the side as she eyed him. Then very slowly, she nodded her head. “He did. How did you know that?”

That was good. He wanted that, but what he didn’t want was the way she was looking at him. Like he was about to tell her something horrible, which he was, but it made his stomach uneasy. His nerves were eating him alive, and he wasn’t sure what was going to happen, but he had already thrown that out there. She knew he knew, so there was only one thing to do and that was to tell her the truth.

“Because he said he would.”

Lacey was confused and really didn’t understand why her father was being brought up at that moment. Who cared if he gave her the start-up funding for her business? Why did Karson need to know that? It wasn’t that she minded that he asked, but it was, as he said, out of left field. And also why the hell would her dad tell Karson, the man he hated more than life itself, about it? He would rather gouge out Karson’s eyes than tell him anything. So what gave?

“What? I don’t understand.”

He nodded, moving his hand from hers. He ran his fingers through his hair as he let out a long breath. Looking at her, his eyes were sad, and his lips set in a nervous line. Something wasn’t right, and her stomach dropped at the sight of his discomfort.

Biting the inside of her cheek, she prepared herself for the worst as she watched him take in another deep breath before letting it out slowly. His shoulders moved and dropped with each action he made. Shaking his head, obviously having a mental battle with himself, he looked back at her and she urged him on with her eyes.

“What’s going on?” she asked softly, moving her hand down his arm and lacing her fingers with his. “Tell me.”

As he stared at her, she could see the love in his eyes but also the regret. She hated that. Yeah, he fucked up and left, but they were together now, and they were going to make up for lost time. She believed that. She believed and loved him. They had their whole lives in front of them, and together, it would be a life they’d both dreamed of. Yeah, she may be jumping ahead, but it felt right. They felt right.

Everyone had that one person who left a huge imprint on their heart. Sometimes they lost that person, or it didn’t work out and they went their separate ways, but the whole time, they wondered “what if.” Hell, Lacey had done it for nine years, and now she had the chance to start all over with the love of her life. There was no walking away from that. She had loved him since the moment she met him and didn’t plan on stopping.