overtook me and I drenched his shirt. He held me close, warming me with his embrace.
“I’ve missed this,” he murmured.
I had been craving this feeling for months, needing his arms to assure me everything would work out, that I would finally be over the ache his absence caused my heart. Could everything really be forgiven by a simple “I’m sorry” or “I love you”? They were just words. Meaningless words.
Straightening my spine, I pushed against him, freeing myself from the hold he still had over me. I tore back to the bed and finished throwing all my things in my suitcase, zipping it up.
“Mackenzie, wha–”
“Yes, Tyler. Yes, it’s true. I still love you, but that doesn’t fix this. You can’t just come back into my life and pick up where things left off. As much as I want to forgive you because you need it, I can’t do it.”
Tears streaming down my face, I rushed out of the room, darting down the stairs and into the foyer.
“Wait, Mackenzie!” Tyler cried out after me. “Tell me what you want me to say and I’ll say it! Letting you walk away from me once was the biggest mistake of my life. I won’t do it again.”
I spun around just as I was about to open the front door. “You let me walk away from you?” I hissed, my teeth clenched.
“That’s not what I meant.” He ran his hands through his dark brown hair and I could see the desperation wash over him. “What I meant to say is all the lies, all of it… I’m so sorry I put you through it. But do you think I regret any of it?” His eyes grew more intense and impassioned, his chest heaving as he poured his heart out to me. “Not for a second.”
I glared at him, waiting for him to explain.
“If it wasn’t for all the lies, for my assignment, I never would have met you, so I’m not going to say I regret a fucking second of any of it. I don’t care what it takes to win back your heart. You can push me away all you want. You can tell me you’ll never forgive me, that there will never be an ‘us’ again, but I will always come back for you. A hundred times. A thousand times. I will fight for us until I take my last breath.”
He stepped toward me, grabbing my hand in his, caressing my knuckles in such a delicate way that made me want to melt into a puddle.
“Please, Mackenzie…” He leaned toward me, brushing his lips against my forehead, kissing me so delicately, so lightly. “Serafina,” he whispered, “tell me what it will take and I’ll do it.”
Despite everything he had just said, I simply couldn’t let him back in. Relationships were based on trust, and Tyler took my trust and used it against me. I couldn’t forget that, no matter how much my skin yearned for his touch.
“You want to know what it’s going to take?” I asked softly, freeing my hand from his grasp.
He nodded, nervous anticipation radiating through his body as he looked at me with eager eyes.
“It’ll take one more time,” I murmured, opening the door. Peering over my shoulder, I saw his deflated expression. “It will always take one more time.”
Tyler
“DON’T TELL ME YOU’RE giving up,” a voice said, startling me. I didn’t know how long I had been staring at that closed door, thinking the only thing that mattered had just walked out of my life once more.
“Ma.” I spun around. “Did you–”
“I heard enough.”
I let out a low sigh, feeling weighed down. “What should I do, Ma? She wouldn’t even listen to me!”
A sympathetic look on her face, she approached me and placed her hands on my shoulders, forcing me back around. “You get back out there, Tyler. It’s not going to be easy, and I have a feeling this battle certainly won’t be won overnight. It’s going to take some time. She spent the last several months getting used to her life without you in it. You being back is going to take some adjustment on her part…and yours. You can tell her you’re sorry all you want, but your words don’t hold any merit, not after what you put her through. Start from the beginning again. Be the Tyler I love. Show her the real you…”
“I did show her the real me.”
“Then help her get reacquainted with that person.”