how tough an obstacle appeared.
“That’s my fault,” Mack said, walking towards her. “Honestly, sometimes you terrify me.”
“Gee… thanks?” Her silvery blue eyes were locked onto his as she placed the spent extinguisher on the ground.
“You live every day with your heart on your sleeve and you don’t care who sees it.” He shook his head, fighting the urge to turn around and tell everyone to get lost so they could have a private moment. But the fact was, it didn’t matter who saw him right now. The only thing that mattered was Zoey. “You operate with a level of hope and optimism that seemed impossible to me for a long time, because I misunderstood what it meant. I thought hoping meant acting without a plan, but it’s not that at all. It’s belief. Belief that you can make the life you want, belief that if you keep trying, you’ll make it to where you want to be.”
Zoey’s cheeks were flushed from the flurry of activity earlier, and a few colourful hairs had escaped around her face. She looked beautiful and real and Mack knew without a shadow of a doubt, this was the woman he wanted to spend his life with.
The only question that remained, was whether or not she would forgive him for being a fool.
Chapter Eleven
Zoey was on a legitimate rollercoaster of emotions. One second everything had been great—Sweet on You had happy customers, some already coming back for a second or even third treat. Then terror had set in as she smelled smoke and someone yelled fire. Instinct had gotten her to the fire extinguisher quickly and she hadn’t hesitated to run towards the smoke, desperate to save her business and prevent those around her from being hurt. Disbelief had clogged her lungs as the flames dampened, eventually snuffed out under the white foam.
How could this have happened?
She’d done everything Mack suggested. The insurance guy had been very impressed with her preparedness. Could she have missed something? Would people think this was her fault?
Her heart had almost split in two with the snide remark Mrs. Harris made—loud enough that everyone could hear. The old bat had hated her family ever since her mother was in high school. For a moment, Zoey wondered if everyone saw her that way. Inept. A genetically assured failure.
But now this… Mack standing up in front of the people in their town and declaring his feelings in a very un-Mack-like way.
“Zoey.” He reached for her hand. “You taught me a valuable lesson. Making a mistake doesn’t define you. What defines you are the steps you take next—your reaction to the mistake, your commitment to try again.”
“I do believe that,” she said with a nod.
“I’m here, owning up to my mistake.” He sucked in a breath. She’d never seen him like this before—strong and vulnerable in equal measure. Open and bare and raw. “Zoey, will you forgive me for being a complete tool? Not saying I loved you back is the most inauthentic thing I’ve ever done.” His eyes looked almost golden in the bright midday light and the sun giving a warm glow to his brown hair.
She opened her mouth to respond but he held up a hand.
“Wait. That’s me taking the easy route again. The safe route. Zoey…” The air seemed to crackle around them. She could see the change in him—the change she’d helped make. “I have loved you ever since I was a teenage boy with more hormones than brains and you were my best mate’s quirky little sister. I have loved you more and more every year and now it feels like my life would be appallingly incomplete without you.”
Her mouth hung open. Words raced in her brain like a flock of seagulls being chased and scattered into the air. Mack had always loved her? Just like she had always loved him?
“I love you, Zoey, with my whole heart.”
She blinked, unable to form a response. Maybe it was the rapid lows and highs of the day, but the world felt as though it was tilting beneath her feet. She’d been miserable after leaving his house a month ago, convinced that she’d tried for the last time.
“Did I fuck it up so bad that you really don’t know what to say?” he asked, his voice soft so that only the two of them could hear. “I don’t think I’ve ever seen you speechless before.”
But she was.
Because even after he’d hurt her, she still loved him. Nothing would ever shake that