Three years after his mother's death, Noah Reed is lost once again. Unsure of where to go after running from his problems for so long, he ends up back home, wanting a place to finally settle down. He's ready to tie up loose ends and to try and corre...
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Blake reacts the instant the words leave my lips.
At first, she seems shocked. Her brown eyes widen as she gapes up at me, taking a small step backwards as if that is going to help clear her mind. Then an expression I can't quite read comes over her, millions of emotions passing through her gaze. When her gaze meets mine again, I notice that her eyes have welled with unshed tears.
I can feel my heart shatter as she whispers, "No."
I want to take my words back, to walk away and leave Blake Rhodes alone. Maybe her life had been better without me in it. Yet I do none of this, because I'm selfish. I can't walk away, because all I have wanted for the past three years is to be with her again. I can't take the words back because they're true, and it's about damn time I admit the truth to her. I can't disappear from her life even if she is better off without me, because my life sucks without her in it. I'm not willing to give up on us yet.
I guess all of these thoughts is what drives me to take a determined step toward her, ignoring the way she takes another step back. I don't think as I speak, "Yes, Blake. I'm in love with you. I fell in love with you three years ago, and I never stopped. I love you, and you need to hear that, because I'm not going to stop. I am never going to stop loving you."
Blake shakes her head as I go on, eyes gleaming with tears. I watch as a lone tear escapes her eye, leaving behind a jagged path on her cheek. The sight sends me back to the day I left her, watching her cry as I had turned my back on her. I messed up back then, leaving the girl I love when she needed me most.
I'm not going to mess up again.
"Stop, Noah," Blake rasps. "Just . . . stop. I can't hear this. Not right now. I can't—"
"I love you," I repeat. I need her to hear the words, to know that I'm not going to leave her again. "Last night was anything but a mistake to me. I don't want to be your friend, Blake. I've tried, and that's not going to work for me. Because I love you, and I've waited this long to say it. I promised you that I was never going to stop loving you. I told you that I plan on keeping those promises."
Blake continues to shake her head, tears dripping down her cheeks. Her gaze has filled with a new emotion, one that I instantly recognize as rage.
"You know what else you promised me, Noah?" she cries. "You promised me that you wouldn't leave me! And I believed you! Look where that got me!"
"Blake—" I start to speak, but now that Blake has gotten worked up she is clearly not ready to stop talking.
"No, Noah," she snaps, interrupting me. "You don't get to do this to me. You don't get to come back after all this time, telling me that you love me and expecting me to fall for it. If you really loved me, then where were you when I needed you? Where were you on the nights I cried myself to sleep, calling out for you? Where were you the nights I felt like I couldn't breathe, suffocated by the memories of Mason's hands on me and everything else he put me through? Where were you when my siblings wanted to know why you stopped coming to visit? If that is how you show someone you love them, then you're pretty shitty at it!"
