Chapter Fifty-Five Damion
CHAPTER FIFTY-FIVE
“Everyone should fall in love in Riverside Park.”
—Remington
Damion
“Well, I did it,” I said to myself as I sat there on the bench.
I looked out at the Hudson, thinking of how many times I’d sat there with Remi, and I wondered if he’d be proud of me.
I felt like he would be.
Not that I deserved it after I tried to wreck things, but he was always good with forgiveness. He was the kind of guy who thought if someone did the right thing by the end, that kind of made things okay.
So I felt good.
It finally felt like I was doing right.
“Hey.”
Oh God.
I was afraid to turn around because there was no fucking way I was going to see what my mind wanted me to see. It was kind of like the day I’d stared at the picture of her in the wallet, so alive and laughing in the photo, and then she just appeared in front of me.
I think that’s when it started. When I fell for her.
But lightning didn’t strike twice, so there was no way I was going to turn around and see her standing there in a blaze of curly glory.
“Hey,” I said to whoever was behind me. I kept my eyes on the river as I wished so hard it was almost painful.
Wishing it was her, glad it wasn’t.
“I heard you’re going to business school.”
My heart sank.
Her voice.
It was her.
I turned around slowly, afraid to have her see me. Fucking terrified of what she might say to me. Goodbye forever. But those thoughts disappeared when I saw her because dear Lord.
She was so beautiful that it almost hurt my eyes.
Her hair was down and curly, blowing in the breeze, and she was dressed in jeans, square-toed brown boots, and my stretched-out sweater, the one she’d never given back.
My sweater.
On her.
God, the things that did to me.
I tried to read her expression, the lines of her face. She looked soft, but determined.
Is she happy to see me? Pissed that I went to her house?
She cleared her throat and said, “I just wanted to let you know that if you need a tutor, I might be available.”
“You’re… you’re, uh, you’re wearing my sweater,” I said dumbly. I really couldn’t get it out of my mind. My sweater. On her.
“Oh. Yeah.” She blinked fast, obviously thrown off by my inane comment.
But I just fucking loved the way she looked right now, her… Julia-ness all wrapped up in my favorite sweater.
I dared to stand up and walk toward her, drawn to her like a magnet to steel, not stopping until the tips of those Nebraska boots were touching my loafers. Until I was so close I could look down and see the flecks in her eyes.
“Did you hear me?” she asked, soft lips saying pretty things.
I clenched my fists to keep myself from touching her. “You, tutor? You’re available?”
“I just might be,” she said, reaching out a hand and tugging a little on my tie.
Tugging on my heart, waking every molecule in my body.
“Are you actually a tutor, though?” I asked, quoting the response she’d given me the day I showed up on her doorstep, offering my services. “Like, you’ve tutored other students?”
“I’m actually the best at Gardenwood,” she said, those pretty glossed lips sliding up into a big smile. “Ask anyone.”
“Is that right,” I said, my hands finding her waist and pulling her against me.
“Oh, for sure it is,” she said breathlessly. “So how about it? Try me for one session? If you don’t like it, you can find somebody else—”
“I don’t want anybody else,” I said, meaning it in every cell in my body. “You’ve been the only one I wanted since the minute I looked at that stupid picture of you and the dogs.”
“You better be careful with that. I’m a Gardenwood girl, and I heard you don’t have any love for them.”
“You’re not a Gardenwood girl,” I said, lowering my face because I needed to kiss her.
“I’m not?” she asked, her eyes heavy-lidded as she rose onto her tiptoes. “You think I’m just a Springfield girl, is that it?”
“I think you’re just my girl,” I said, taking her mouth because I couldn’t wait another second.
But I immediately pulled back because I had to say it. I looked down into burnt amber and said, “Words cannot express how sorry I am, Jules. For everything.”
She blinked fast, like she was processing, and then she gave me a tiny nod. “Okay.”
“Okay?” I asked, pressing my forehead to hers, needing the connection.
“Okay, I’m going to take a risk and trust you one more time,” she said, her mouth soft and oh so tempting. “But please don’t let me down.”
“I won’t,” I said, then I couldn’t stop myself from giving her the line. “Because ‘the two of us combined could set it on fire.’ ”
Her nose crinkled with her sweet smile as she raised her fingers to my cheek and said, “He contains multitudes.”
Wild horses couldn’t have stopped me from kissing her then, and when she kissed me back—thank you, God—Julia kissed me back the same way Julia drove a pickup truck out of a cornfield.
She was bold and impulsive, wild in the very best way, and there was zero doubt in my mind, as her fingers trailed down to grip my shoulders, that she was going to get me exactly where I needed to go.
Home.