Wide Open Spaces (Shooting Stars #2) - Aurora Rose Reynolds Page 0,31

I sit back, dislodging his hand. “I don’t want you to fight for me.”

“I thought you’d come home.”

“What?” I frown, wondering what he’s talking about, and he moves closer, dropping his voice.

“When you left, I thought you just needed time to clear your head. I thought you’d come home. Then one month turned into two, then two into three, and you didn’t come back, didn’t answer my calls. You left me here.”

“We are not talking about that,” I breathe, panicking at the turn in conversation, the alcohol in my system wearing off far too quickly.

“I was drinking and doing drugs. Doing everything I could to kill the pain you left me with,” he confesses, and I stare at him in disbelief.

“You were fine. I think you proved that,” I hiss, and his face softens, but his eyes narrow in a way that causes me to brace.

“You’re so fucking stuck in your head that you’re blinded by the shit you’ve told yourself.”

“No, I just know you’re full of shit. You moved on, and it didn’t take long to do it either,” I remind him, but more so to remind myself.

“I never moved on. I’m still stuck in the past, trying to figure out how to get back the girl I let get away.”

“Stop.” I pull my eyes from his. I can’t do this. Not now, not while everything else around me is up in the air, not when I feel so completely vulnerable.

His hand moves to my jaw and my eyes turn toward him. “Why’d you come back?”

“I told you why.” I feel my jaw tighten.

“You did. You said this was where you were happy.”

“Gramp—”

“No,” he cuts me off, taking a hold of my chin, locking his eyes with mine. “We were happy. You and I were happy.”

“And then we weren’t,” I grit out, and his gaze drops for a moment and his hand moves from my chin to the back of his neck, squeezing.

“You’re right. At the end, we weren’t happy. We were heartbroken over Samuel, and neither of us knew how to process that grief,” he says to his lap, then lifts his eyes to meet mine once more. “But we didn’t hate each other. Didn’t end things ugly. There was a lot of pain between us, but there was also a lot of love.”

“You…” I close my eyes, needing to get my thoughts in order, which seems impossible to do when he’s sitting in front of me, saying what he’s saying. “You moved on,” I repeat, feeling my heart break all over again. I loved him. I loved him, and he moved on.

“I didn’t.”

“You got someone else pregnant and married them. You moved on,” I say louder, and he shakes his head and looks away for a moment.

“I did, and I’m sorry to say this, ’cause I know it’ll burn, but I don’t regret what happened between Tina and me, and I never will regret it, because I got two amazing kids who I love with everything in me out of what happened between us. That doesn’t mean I don’t regret losing you.”

“That was supposed to be us!” I yell, balling my hands into fists, wishing I had kept those words locked away. Wishing I didn’t just cut myself wide open in front of him, exposing everything I’ve kept protected for so long. “That was supposed to be us,” I repeat softly, moving my eyes from him to look at the trees beyond us.

“Could you ever regret having Hunter?” he asks gently, and my body stills as my eyes fly to his.

“Never.” I clench my jaw.

“I know you couldn’t. There’s no way you could. So how can you expect me to regret Aubrey and Steven?” Swallowing, I squeeze my eyes closed. He’s right. I know he’s right. I know that if I didn’t leave, I wouldn’t have Hunter, and he probably wouldn’t have Aubrey or Steven, and I would never want him to regret them. “I know you don’t want me to regret them, and I know you don’t want to believe me, but not going after you is my biggest regret.”

“Stop.” I try to move away from him, but he stands and puts his hands on either side of me, forcing me to stay put. “It’s the truth. Every day since you left, I’ve lived with the knowledge that I didn’t fight for us, that I didn’t try to find a way to make you want to stay, that I didn’t go to you and make you