Chapter 29
Rory
The light hurts my eyes.
My head is pounding, my pulse thundering in my ears. I try to raise a hand to block out the light, but my arm is too heavy to move.
“Rory?”
A voice comes from far away, like it’s underwater.
I blink my eyes open, and a face floats into view.
Nate.
I part my lips, but nothing comes out.
There’s a bright light behind him, circling his head like a halo. It’s the strangest illusion I’ve ever seen.
I shake my head from side to side to clear the fuzziness from my brain, but it doesn’t help. If anything, it makes me even more confused and increases the throbbing pain.
I try to say his name, but all that comes out is a moan. Or maybe it was a word? I can’t tell over the sound of the blood rushing in my ears.
I blink, and the image gets clearer—Nate, his face lined with worry, his brows pinched together.
I think back, pulling memories through the fog that permeates my brain.
Dancing together.
Having sex in the locker room.
Him telling me that he met the love of his life back in high school. That it’s always been me.
Falling asleep in his arms, waking up to head to the barn.
A light on my dash, the stupid truck acting up again.
A pair of headlights headed toward me.
Am I…dead? Is this heaven?
I wish I’d had a chance to tell him the truth. That the reason I pulled away back then wasn’t because I didn’t love him.
It was because I loved him so deeply that I wanted the best for him. I didn’t want to hurt him.
But through the haze, one thing is clear.
I love him.
And now it’s too late.