straightened and moved until he was standing centimeters from me. He stared down at me so hard that I couldn’t raise my gaze to meet his. I feared what I would find there. I needed as much strength as I could to walk away, and one look from him would crumble my will.
“This is not about Craig. This is about us and the fact that we are not forever.” The words were a whisper as they escaped my lips. I wanted to give in and kiss him. To let go of the pain I was feeling and finally live, but I knew I couldn’t.
“Please,” Danny begged as he reached up and cradled my cheek. He leaned forward and brushed his lips against mine.
He was so gentle and so desperate that it caused the tears that I had been holding back to slip down my cheeks. I allowed my lips to linger with his. It was selfish, but I wanted to experience this moment for a bit longer. I wanted him next to me for a few seconds more before I pulled back and walked away forever.
“Mom?”
My entire body froze. My eyes whipped open, and I leapt back from Danny like I had been burned. I turned to see Tag standing there with his overnight bag slung over his shoulder and his eyes as wide as saucers.
Bella was standing behind him with her eyebrows knit together. She was squeezing her teddy bear and worrying her lips as she swept her gaze from me to Danny.
Craig was walking across the grass and had an equally confused expression on his face.
“Hey,” I said in a loud and completely fake tone. “Hey, guys.” My second attempt didn’t sound any better. I was desperate to pull back from what had just happened. From the fact that my kids had now seen me kissing Danny. In a few minutes, he would pull out of the driveway and out of my life forever, so it wasn’t going to matter.
But right now, they looked confused and hurt, and that was killing me.
“Let’s go in the house and let your mom finish what she was doing,” Craig said as he wrapped his arms around Bella and Tag’s shoulders and started steering them toward the front door.
I glared at him. I could tell he was enjoying this. And that irked me. At least, I’d waited until I was divorced to kiss someone else. He’d chosen to do that when we were supposed to be committed to each other.
He had no right to feel smug about any of this.
Once they disappeared into the house, I went into problem-solving mode. I turned to Danny and offered him a weak yet apologetic smile. “I think you should go,” I said.
Danny looked just as broken as he had a few minutes ago. Back before the kids walked up on us.
“Please—”
“I can’t.” The words came out fast. I knew I wasn’t going to be able to remain strong if he asked, and right now, I needed to be strong. There were going to be repercussions from what Tag and Bella had witnessed. Plus, I knew I was going to have to deal with Victoria at some point.
Danny and I were fools if we thought we could just have a relationship and that would be it. That we weren’t going to have to face reality eventually. We just got there faster than most. We weren’t meant to be together. We were just a stop for each other on our road to discovering who we were and who we wanted.
Danny took a step back. I hated seeing his face contorted in pain. If I could, I would take it all away. But I couldn’t. I couldn’t say the things he wanted me to say. I couldn’t be the person he needed me to be.
“Goodbye, Danny,” I said as I wrapped my arms around my chest and took a few steps back. My heart was breaking, and I feared if I lingered, I would throw my resolve out the window and go running back to him.
But the thing that I’ve learned about pain is that it doesn’t last forever. Every minute, every day, every week that you continue living after your heart has been broken, you get stronger. You get more resilient.
And from this last year, with everything I’d gone through with Craig, I’d learned I was stronger than I thought.
Gathering my courage, I turned and hurried across the lawn and up to my front stoop before I