Text Me, Maybe - Jolyse Barnett Page 0,63
of her.
“Please excuse us, Doctor.” She grabbed Matthew’s hand and moved into the crowd, rushing past the various department booths. “Seriously?” She frowned at him over her shoulder. “He’s your department chair, and you’re serenading a woman in front of him and the whole campus like an eighteenth-century troubadour.”
“Not just any woman, but the woman I love. You.” He grinned.
Away from the crowd and out of breath, she stopped under a shady tree. “You might have just lost your job. Why are you so happy?”
“Because I love you.” He glanced down. “And you’re holding my hand.”
She looked down. “So?” His hand felt good. It always did. “I missed you so much,” she confessed. “It was all I could do not to chase after you that night.”
“I almost stopped you from getting in that cab alone.” His gaze was intense.
“What cab? When?”
“I was worried about you after I left the dinner party Saturday, so I hung out outside. When you came out a little while later, I was so tempted to stop you and make you change your mind about us, even if that meant begging you to give us one more chance.”
“Oh, Matthew.” She’d wanted him to fight for her.
“Thanks for coming.” He inched closer. “Sorry about the crowd.”
Lexie wanted to look away, but his gaze kept her captive. “You sing awful.”
“Yup, but it was worth it because you’re talking to me.” His tone was solemn.
“So, what’s the surprise?”
He laughed softly. “In a moment. Want to sit for a while?”
She nodded and sank next to him on a nearby bench.
He leaned back. “I just want another chance to make you happy for the rest of my life.”
Lexie gazed at their entwined hands and turned toward him. “Maybe that’s where people go wrong in relationships. They think they can make another person happy, but they can’t. Happiness comes from within.” She took a deep breath—and another risk—then asked the most personal question she could imagine, the one weighing on her mind. If they were going to have a real shot at forever, they needed to understand where the other stood. “Are you happy with yourself?”
Matthew threaded a hand through his hair. “Sure you’re not a psychologist like Chris?”
She nudged him with her shoulder. “It’s your turn.”
Scrubbing the scruff on his jaw, he sighed. “I’d always assumed that making people happy and having them depend on me gave me purpose. After we met, I started thinking about things I’ve avoided, like why I live in that big house alone. I didn’t like all the answers I found, but you stood by me in spite of my karaoke phobia, two oddly uninvolved parents, and my sad days after Etta passed.” He shook his head. “And now I have the balls to ask you to forgive me for a mistake Chris says would doom most relationships. I know it’s too much to expect, but I’m grateful you’ve given me a chance to explain myself. You’re a very special woman, and you’ve helped me change for the better.”
She reached up and held his face as she gazed into his solemn eyes. “I love you so much.”
With a groan, he crushed her against him.
And she felt his heat, the flames sweeping through her everywhere they touched. “I ache thinking about you. That’s how much I love you,” she breathed.
“But can you forgive me?” he rasped, leaving trails of kisses along her jawline and neck and back up again.
“I think I forgave you by the time I got home that night. It hit me how many times you’d tried to tell me. And that you did tell me that day on the phone.” She brushed her lips against his. “I don’t know. Maybe I wasn’t ready.” She snuggled closer. “But don’t think you can make breaking my heart a habit,” she warned. “That was a one-time deal.”
“Never again,” he vowed, and covered her mouth with his.
A long moment later, he lifted his head. “Want your surprise now?”
She tilted her head. “Is it a good one?”
He nodded. “I put the house up for sale yesterday, and I’m set to go apartment hunting.”
“Wow.” He had grown.
“Turns out my life is in Midtown, and I’m hoping you’ll go with me since the realtor advised me it’s important that all interested parties are involved when making such a big decision.”
Her heart grew. “Are you saying what I think you’re saying?”
He smiled and squeezed her close, likely remembering when he’d asked her that very question the night she’d decided to take plunge