“No,” Axton said, shaking his head. “I wasn’t comforting her. Damn it, she just threw herself against me. I didn’t want her to fall.”

“I’m sure. Why should she fall when big, strong Axton Cage is always willing to catch her? It’s what happened the first time around, then again back in October, so I should be used to it. Right?” I glanced over his shoulder to find that Gabriella was walking away. Her shoulders were still shaking with her sobs, but she didn’t give two shits that she had just ripped my heart apart.

That bitch knew that Axton would drop anything and everything if she wanted him to. She didn’t care that when he did that it was a slap to my face, my pride. My fucking heart. And it was always going to be that way, because Axton Cage was in love with her, not me. I was nothing to him and I would never mean as much to him as she did.

“Dallas, baby, just listen…”

“I get it, Ax. Really I do. She had you first and she will always have you. But I can’t live with being second. I won’t live like that. For a little while I thought maybe I could deal with it, but I was just lying to myself.” I swallowed hard, not wanting him to see that I was about to literally break into a million pieces at his feet. “This won’t ever work the way I want it to.”

“You don’t know fucking shit!” he exploded and I found myself taking a quick step back at the rage shining at me from his eyes, not because I was scared he would hurt me, but because this was a side of Ax I’d never witnessed and it was more than a little intense. “Yes, I met her first, but it wasn’t her. It was never her.” He was yelling and each time I took a step back he took another forward, chasing after me. “She was just the chick I hid behind because I was too much of a pussy to go after what I thought I wanted back then. Trust me, sweetheart. It. Wasn’t. Fucking. Her. I thought I was in love with Emmie!” He kept coming and I felt my heart clench at his words. “I probably still would have been delusional about that, loving my best friend in the world from the shadows, while she lived her happy ever after with a man I love and respect.”

I shook my head in denial. “You aren’t in love with Emmie.” I’d watched Axton and Emmie closely for the last month. I knew for sure that what those two had was more like a brother and sister kind of relationship than anything else. While there was no blood relation between the two of them, Ax and Emmie were closer than any siblings. Over the years I’d seen the same thing with Emmie and Jesse, Drake, and Shane. They made up a crazy family, but the love that they all shared was something I’d only shared with Harper, Linc and Lana.

“Yeah. I know that. Now. It wasn’t so clear a few years ago. Not until you fell into my life and opened my eyes. I was in love with you from the moment I kissed your perfect lips, Dallas. But I was still an idiot back then. I thought that if I played it cool, like I always do, that I wouldn’t have to admit anything. Who wants to admit something that embarrassing? That I inked some toxic bitch’s name on my skin to hide from something that wasn’t even real? Because that was what happened.” He grabbed the leather bracelet off his wrist, the one I’d never questioned because it had kept that tattoo out of sight. “Last October I realized that this one stupid mistake was keeping me from you more than anything else. Some stupid ink was putting up more walls than I would ever hope to break down. So I got it taken off.”

My eyes focused on his now bare wrist and all the air seemed to suddenly be trapped in my lungs. It was gone. Completely. There wasn’t even the slightest hint of what had once been there. My jealousy suddenly deflated and all I could do was stare. “Since…” I licked my lips. “Since October?”

Some of his own anger was starting to evaporate. “Yeah, baby. Since October. The same time I got the Prince Albert for you.” He stepped closer, his hands going to my face to cup my jaw while his thumb rubbed over my cheeks. “I love you, Dallas. No one but you. I never, not for a minute, loved Gabriella. And you more than anyone know that while I love Em, I’m not in love with her.”

I had to be dreaming. There was no other explanation for the words that I was hearing come out of his mouth. Words that I had been hoping to hear for so long now. His confession, on top of all the other things that had gone on that day were confusing me and I wasn’t sure why I didn’t open my mouth and tell him how I felt right then.

When I didn’t speak, but stood there staring at him, Axton laughed a little forcefully. “Okay then. Good talk. I have to get going. I take the stage in like ten minutes.”

Unable to find my voice, I simply nodded. My brain was trying to process everything that had just happened while my heart was yelling at me that I was an idiot and to tell him. Tell him. Tell. Him. I loved him. After another full minute of just staring at each other he nodded, kissed my lips quick and hard, and walked away.

Dallas

I stood there for five full minutes before my head caught up with everything. Axton’s words were on repeat in my brain and my heart was sobbing with happiness.

I love you, Dallas.

I closed my eyes and sucked in a deep breath before doing what I should have done when he walked away. I ran after him.

The man I loved had just offered me the only thing I’d ever really wanted and I’d just stood there and watched him walk away… Without telling him I loved him back. Fuck, I was stupid, but at least I had a good excuse. Damn pregnancy brain had my head cloudy and making things take longer to compute than normal.

Which was another thing I needed to tell Ax. We were pregnant. I’d been so disappointed when I’d first seen the pregnancy tests, and I would have walked away and not looked back because of the pain I’d felt at seeing the negative signs. I owed Linc a lot for making me stay a little longer to check the tests again. Five full minutes after taking the first three tests they had shown positive. And the two after that? Positive. And the three after that? All positive.

I was pregnant, and hormonal. And so happy I was pretty sure that it was illegal in some countries.

Of course I’d messed it up. I’d let any chance of holding onto my greatest happiness walk away without a word. My mother was right. I was stupid. But that only encouraged me to do what I’d always done.

Prove that bitch wrong.

It was completely dark by the time I reached the inside of the arena where the main stage was. Lights were on everywhere but as soon as I stepped inside the arena I knew I was going to have a hard time reaching the front of the crowd to talk to Axton. The stands were full, and the field was overflowing with every one of the hundred thousand plus fans. The band had already taken the stage and Axton was singing their first song of the night.