Chapter 13 Owen
Owen
I couldn’t breathe at the B living a hundred feet away, pretending I didn’t feel what I felt; watching Marcus play devoted father while Grace tried to convince herself that was enough.
I needed to tell her the truth.
Not to win her. Not to compete with Marcus. Just because the silence was killing me, and I’d rather lose her honestly than keep her as a lie.
The truth was the only thing I had left to give. What she did with it was up to her.
But I was done disappearing.
I got out of the truck and walked to the carriage house.
The night was cool, the first real hint of autumn in the air. Stars were coming out, scattered across the sky like promises.
Tomorrow.
Tomorrow I’d tell her.
Tonight, I’d try to find words big enough for everything I felt. I’d loved her for months—maybe years, if I was honest with myself.
It was time she knew.
I unlocked the carriage house door and stepped inside. The smell of wood and dust and possibility wrapped around me like something familiar.
The next day, everything would change.
I just had to find the courage to let it.