Batter of Wits (Green Valley Chronicles #22) - Smartypants Romance Page 0,97

me because it felt safer to keep the door closed.

This place, everything that happened today just stoked the fire underneath the belief that I’d never belong. That I made a rash decision to follow my brother, who was already finding his foothold, while I scrambled in place.

“It’s not about trust, Grace. I messed up, and I’ll probably mess up again, because I’m not perfect.”

“Whether you want to define it differently or not, it’s still about trust.” I pulled back, out of his arms, until they fell limply by his sides. “I get it, I’m not part of this town to the point where it’s a given that I’ll hear the gossip, know everything that happens. But it should have mattered more to you that I might get hurt hearing it from someone else. Instead of trusting that I’d be on the fringes, just … snapping pictures of everyone else living life here, I want you to trust that I’ll work through anything with you.”

My eyes blurred and I willed those freaking tears to stay back. I would not lose my grasp on my emotions now. Every brick inside my heart might be crumbling into dust, but if there was one moment where I’d keep things in check, where I’d try my damndest to protect my own heart, cursed though it might be, it would be this moment.

I brushed past him and picked up my keys where they’d fallen on the floor of the garage.

“Hang on a second, Grace,” he said, grabbing my hand gently and pulling me to face him. “I’m sorry, I’m so damn sorry I didn’t tell you, that I didn’t explain what he did and why.”

I wanted to rub at my heart to see if I could stop it from aching. His was probably doing the same.

And that man, he saw it on my face, because he cupped my cheeks again in his big warm hands. “Don’t leave like this, please. Stay. Stay and talk to me.”

I turned my head and pressed a kiss to his palm. “I can’t. I know you’re sorry.” I shook my head. “But I need some time.”

“For what?” he begged. He slid his hands back into my hair and tilted my face up. “You just told me you loved me, and Grace, you have to know that I’m falling—”

“Don’t,” I said. I pinched my eyes shut. “Don’t you dare say it like this if you don’t mean it, Tucker. Not right now.”

My heart couldn’t handle it if he didn’t.

The highs and lows of that one day were enough without him saying something he might not mean. Or was rushing because he thought I wanted to hear it.

He was quiet, and I opened my eyes carefully. His whole face, painfully handsome and bent in frustration, was so close to mine. When his chin dipped, I allowed myself that moment, and I met him in the middle. His lips covered mine with such surety, such skill.

His arms wrapped slowly around my back and I let out a shaky exhale as he tilted his head and took the kiss deeper. It would be so easy, to let the one moment become two. Then three.

Pull his clothes off and do the same to mine.

It would be easy to let him swing me up into his strong arms and take me to bed, where we’d bury what happened, with his body covering mine.

Tucker pulled away when he sensed me slowing the movements of the kiss and rested his forehead against my own.

“Why do I feel like you’re going to walk out of here and not come back?” he whispered. “I screwed up, Grace, it’s not an excuse, and I can’t change it, but I don’t know what else to do but apologize and promise that I won’t do it again.”

I pressed another kiss to his lips and pulled out of his arms.

His hair was a mess, his lips pink from our kiss. His clothes were wrinkled and there was a mark on the side of his neck, probably from my fingernails. I’d never seen him look so miserably disheveled, and I loved him all the more for it.

But no matter how much I did, no matter how deeply I knew he was it for me, I needed to love myself too. I needed to know that in this moment, when it counted, I made sure that I was taking care of me.

“I forgive you, Tucker,” I said quietly. “But I need you to do more than just