Tyler. The thrill of his kisses. The passion in his eyes. The fire in his touch. I was still tortured by all those things, sentenced to live the past two months in a constant nightmare because I was foolish enough to love him.
A small child, who couldn’t have been more than two years old, ran in front of me, his parents trying to catch up. The glee in his laughter struck me as I watched the happy family enjoying their vacation. The mother playfully grabbed the little boy, swinging him around and around, his squeals echoing and calling to a side of me I didn’t know existed. A tear escaped my eye and trickled down my cheek, cooling the fire that had been burning inside me. Then another tear fell. And another. And another.
The dam broke and, for the first time in months, I felt something. I lowered the iron fortress I had erected around my heart and stopped pretending I was okay, pretending what Tyler did hadn’t destroyed me. It wasn’t his deception that shattered me. It was my love for him, then and now. In my heart, I knew he was real, that we experienced a love so perfect, which made everything so much harder. My heart ached for him. My skin craved his touch. My body longed to be held in his arms. The arms that would always remind me of dancing, full metal jackets, and Truth or Dare.
He had tainted something so beautiful, so pure, so fucking perfect. His love was toxic and I needed to purge it from my system through my cleansing sobs. I had bottled it all up for months and it felt therapeutic to finally let it out. With each tear, I was letting go of another piece of him. His smile. His green eyes. His husky voice that swore he loved me. His words begging me to spend the rest of my life with him. They were all leaving me and, once my tears stopped, I vowed to never cry because of him again.
I had no idea how long I sat there with my head buried in my knees, my cries ravaging my short and slender body, but I didn’t care. It didn’t matter that people could have been laughing and pointing at the poor pathetic girl who gave everything to a man who used her, then tried to cover his tracks and make her think she imagined him. I needed this. Maybe then I could finally be over him.
I needed to be over him.
I wouldn’t let him ruin my life anymore.
A warm presence approached from behind and two arms enveloped me. I sighed, molding my body into Brayden’s. He was exactly what I needed right now. I needed his smile, his laugh, his compassion. I needed his reassurance that I was strong enough to get through this. That this wouldn’t break me. That I could rewind the clock and forget all about Tyler Burnham.
Pulling at the crisp gray shirt underneath his black suit, I drenched him with my tears, and he simply continued to comfort me, not saying a word. He knew me well enough to know I didn’t want to talk. Not yet. He was the only man in my life who always gave me exactly what I needed when I needed it. He had always been true and honest. He never had an ulterior motive. His love was pure and untainted.
“It’s about time you started acting like a human again,” he soothed, breaking the silence between us. He rocked me gently, running his fingers up and down my back. “You can’t keep pretending what’s been going on didn’t affect you, baby girl. It’s obvious it did. It’s okay to show your emotions once in a while. It’s okay to show you’re not impenetrable.”
I nodded slightly and clung to him as if holding him was the only way to keep my world together. He and Jenna had prodded me for an explanation about why I ran out on Tyler, but I didn’t know what to tell them. I couldn’t tell them the truth. Instead, I maintained that I wasn’t ready to talk about it, but that I found out he wasn’t the man I thought he was, which had a sliver of truth.
“How did you know I’d be here?” I pulled back and stared at his kind face, his blue eyes sparkling as he gazed at me with all the tenderness and understanding I needed from him at that