Coraline
Before my horrid date can lean in and his lips collide with mine, I take a step back. Placing my hand on his chest, I squirm away.
“No…” I mutter. “I’m sorry, but no.”
After seeing Gavin and Georgia, Everly made us go to the local bar just outside the rodeo. I didn’t want to go; I just wanted to go back home and wallow, but she insisted. The first cowboy to ask for a dance, I said yes. I’m here for a good time, but I’m drawing the line at kissing.
I want to forget what I saw hours ago and stop crying for once…but I’m already regretting it.
“Come on, sweet thing.” Chase wraps his arm around my waist as I smell the liquor on his breath.
It makes my stomach coil. He’s drunk way too much tonight, and I’m not some buckle bunny.
He was boasting about all the girls who lined up for him after each rodeo.
That should have been the first and last strike, but I continued.
“Just one kiss.” He’s eager and desperate in all the ways that turn me off.
His black cowboy hat pokes my forehead, and his stubble rakes my face painfully as he tries to fight his way to my lips.
He isn’t taking no for an answer.
Instead, he leans in deeper, but I keep shielding myself with my cheeks, turning and eager to give him a knee to the groin.
“I said no.” I use my arms to push his chest away, but he isn’t getting the message.
Where is Everly?
Before I can kick him in the balls, someone’s large fist sends him to the ground. Chase lands hard on the floor, dazed and halfway to unconsciousness. My hands shoot up to my mouth, completely taken aback in shock.
“No way in fucking hell,” the man who punched him snarls.
That voice.
That scent.
It paralyzes me and sends an electric shock of heat into my blood.
Gavin.
The bar’s bouncers intervene and pull him up to his feet.
“We were already on our way to you anyway,” one of them says. “Let’s go, Chase.”
Gavin’s hand curls around my forearm and hauls me deeper into the crowd.
Isn’t he with Georgia? What the hell is going on? How did he find me?
“Gavin! What the?” I stumble but palm the walls to keep myself from falling. “What are you doing here?” I pull myself from his tight hold, and he lets go.
“I’m here to drink. Celebrate,” he says nonchalantly. I can’t even look at him without seeing the image of him being with someone else in my head. It hurts, and he’s only making this harder. He has no right to be here or to fight off my first date in months.
He stalks forward, a toothpick in between his teeth.
I keep taking step after step back until I hit the wall.
Fire courses through my veins, and something inside of me twitches with need.
He’s dressed in all black from head to toe, easily towering over me as he used to before.
Everyone around us is dancing or drinking the night away, completely oblivious to us.
“I saw you.” With Georgia. “You moved on.” I shake my head in disbelief.
“You don’t get to do this.” I breathe softly, my voice quivering.
I give him my back before he can see or hear me choke up.
Blinking away the heartbroken tears, I locate the exit.
“You’re with someone else. I’m going to try and move on now. ”
I walk away because I don’t want to break down in public or cause a scene more than we already have. I’ll text Everly that I’m waiting for her at the car. I just need to breathe before I break. I weave through the dancing crowd and head for the neon sign that leads to the parking lot.
As soon as I’m out the door, the summer Texas air wraps around me like a comforting blanket. The humidity calms my nerves. The parking lot is half empty. The building’s roof is the only source of light.
“Coraline.”
Why is he still here? I know he’s not anything like Liam, but for some reason, seeing him with Georgia, with my own eyes, I got that familiar ugly feeling in my chest when I caught my ex-husband cheating on me with my best friend.
I know Gavin is single and so am I, but he’s had my heart since we first met.
I belong to him even though I left. I’ve been trying to convince myself that I’m not in love with him, but it hasn’t been a choice for me; it’s been an unfair, permanent attraction that no time or distance can sever.
“No!” I shout without looking at him. I stop walking over the gravel and search for Everly’s jeep. “Don’t say my name.”
I’ve missed it too much.
“Stop running,” he keeps tracking me.
“You don’t get to tell me what to do!” I retort. Stopping, my boots skid across the gravel momentarily before I spin around to face him. I fold my arms across my chest.
Where the hell is my sister’s car?!
“I fucking do,” he growls.
My stupid heart does backflips as he gets closer.
I hate that he still has this effect on my body.
My pussy is already weeping for him. My flesh is already missing the way it feels when we collide.
But he doesn’t get to do this to me. Not after witnessing Georgia and him together—clearly happy. Well, I get to try to be happy too.
A few silent long beats pass as we stare at each other. His nostrils flare, and the veins in his arms bulge. Losing my internal emotional battle, a tear escapes my lashes. Heartache is written between us. I can feel it.
“You left me,” he says with a broken tone. “You fucking left me, Coraline.” I drink him in fully this time, my chin dropping as my vision blurs. He’s lost weight. He’s still built and muscular, but he’s leaner, and the fire in his eyes has turned into something cruel.
“I don’t sleep,” he starts, then pauses.
I don’t either.
“Merelyn died, and you made me let you go. I had to grieve alone. I lost her and you. These past few months have been hell.”
I think about it all the time. I think about him and Merelyn every day and pray that he doesn’t lose himself alone in Alaska. I thought I was making the right choice.
“I’m sorry,” I whisper, agony painting every syllable.
He takes another step closer, but I’m too weak to step back—to run.
“I wanted to forget about you. I wanted to learn how to let you go. I wanted to grieve without having to take pills and drink myself until I died in that cabin, too.”
I swallow. Guilt gnawing at me. Georgia helped him learn how to let me go.
“I saw you with her. With Georgia.” I accuse.
“Yes,” he confirms, simply with a slow nod.
Fuck. It hurts. This hurts too much. I smile and mirror his nod with my own, looking at the sky instead of his handsome face.
“You think I was going to wait for the woman who left without even saying goodbye? What did you expect? Huh? That I wasn’t going to stay angry at you? That I was just going to deteriorate in that cabin and feel sorry for myself?” His brows narrow.
I look down, unable to meet his sad blue eyes. Something twists inside my chest. I can physically feel the hope I had when I dreamed of him turning into agony. She was there for him when I chose to leave. It makes sense.
“The answer is no.” His voice deepens.
He’s stabbing me in the chest with his words. Hearing and seeing him happy with someone else is a slap in the face, but I did this to myself. I chose to be scared of the one person who brings me to life.
I turn to walk away, holding my chin high. I don’t want anyone to see me fall apart…especially him. What did I expect? I hurt him.
Suddenly, his hand curls around my hand.
“I’m not going to wait around, Cora. I’m not going to be angry.” His hands wrap around my face, cupping the back of my head. “I’m going to reclaim what never should’ve left.”
My brows knit together. An electrocution of hope is reborn in my soul. Warmth travels through me, and my eyes widen. Did I hear him right?
“But Georgia?” I shake my head. “I saw you together tonight. She—”
“She was being Georgia,” he cuts me off. “She flew out here to support me. She knows my heart belongs to another woman, and she’s having a hard time accepting it.”
I shake my head in disbelief.
“But I saw her try to—”
“Kiss me? Didn’t happen. These lips belong to you. No one else. Forever. I meant every word I said to you the day you left. There hasn’t been anyone for months, and there won’t be anyone for the rest of my life. I’m yours.”
He’s mine.
He’s really back, and I don’t want to blink.
He came back for me?
I don’t realize I’m crying again until he swipes a tear away.
“Do you believe in coincidences?” I ask.
“No.” He pulls the toothpick out of his front teeth. “I believe if you want something so bad, you go after it. No matter what that looks like. If it means letting go of the past and chasing after the future that I want, then that’s what I have to do.”
“I thought the city life wasn’t for you.”
“Coraline. You are for me. Wherever you go, I will follow.” He pulls me in by the small of my back until our bodies connect. “You are my future. I found you again, and I’m not letting you go. Accept that you belong to me, or you can fight me every step of the way down the aisle at our wedding.”
I grin for the first time in six months. Everything is warm again.
“I’m sorry for leaving you. It was stupid. I regretted it. I’ve been wanting to tell you that since the day I left. In the car ride, on the plane, and when I got home. I—”
He shuts me up with a fiery kiss. I sag in his arms, submitting myself to him.
“I needed it. You needed it. I had a lot of healing to do myself, baby.” He cups my head again. “I needed to let you go so I could heal from my demons and be a better man on my own. I need to be the best version of myself so I can be a good boyfriend, husband, and father. All for you.”
I sniffle, grasping onto the nape of his neck tighter.
“There was a lot of work to get done. Fuck, Coraline. I sold the cabin and got back on the bull. I thought it wasn’t possible to be a cowboy again after I lost my leg, but it is. And…” he pauses as we lock eyes, “I’m going to do whatever it takes to be the man you deserve.”