28. Hadley #2
I wipe quickly beneath my eyes, trying to steady myself enough to breathe through this conversation.
“What?”
His gaze locks fully onto mine.
“I wasn’t lying when I said I loved you enough to want forever.”
The words hit directly in the center of my chest. Painfully. Perfectly. Part of me still feared maybe the breakup changed that. This new knowledge loosens something aching inside me.
Nolan exhales.
“But I think…” He glances down briefly before forcing himself to continue. “I think I spent most of my life believing permanence had to be earned through sacrifice.”
Nolan’s eyes return to mine. “And when I got scared of losing everything, I started trying to control all of it.”
Nolan shifts the house plans into one hand before speaking again. “I bought the house behind the marina.”
The world tilts beneath me. “What?”
His mouth twitches faintly. “The old one with the wraparound porch.”
I stare at him as memories flash through my head all at once. The way he used to look toward that house absentmindedly. The kitchen layout conversations. The mornings we joked about domesticity. “You bought it?”
Nolan nods once.
Elation floods so hard through my chest I physically can’t breathe for a second. Because I know this isn’t really about the house. It’s about what it means. Roots. Permanence. Choice.
Nolan’s voice lowers, softer now. “I realized something after you left.”
Tears burn fresh behind my eyes. “What?”
He takes one final step closer. Close enough that I can feel warmth rolling off him again for the first time in days.
Nolan looks directly into my eyes when he says, “I don’t want a future that only survives if I control every possible loss.” Emotion roughens his voice sharply. “I want a life with you in it even when things are messy and uncertain and terrifying sometimes.”
The tears spill as I take in the meaning of his words. Love isn’t safety because nothing bad can happen. Love is trusting someone enough to stay through uncertainty together.
“Nolan,” I whisper brokenly.
His face crumples around the edges hearing his name in my voice like that. It’s then I realize he’s terrified too. Terrified to learn if I’ll still choose him after everything.
“I know I hurt you,” he says. “The hardest part wasn’t losing you.” His voice shakes. “It was realizing you’d been asking me to let you love me, and I kept handing you problems to solve instead.
“And I know I can’t magically undo weeks of making you feel alone.” His eyes shine now openly. “But Hads…” His voice breaks slightly. “I am so unbelievably in love with you.”
The words hit like sunlight after weeks underwater. After everything, I never doubted that part.
Nolan swallows hard before continuing.
“You asked me to learn how to stay because I wanted to, not because I was scared.” His gaze never leaves mine. “And for the first time in my life, I think I finally understand the difference.”
Love surges so violently through my chest I physically press one hand over my heart.
Nolan carefully lifts the rolled house plans between us.
“I bought a home because I want a future with you in it.” His tone becomes even more gentle. “Not because I’m afraid of losing one.”
The entire bookstore blurs behind tears. Every painful, lonely moment of the breakup crashes into something else entirely…hope.
I stare at the man I still love standing in front of me, finally choosing to follow his heart.
He looks terrified and hopeful and heartbreakingly sincere all at once.
Tears slide silently down my cheeks while Nolan watches me with the kind of careful stillness people reserve for things fragile enough to break.
Through all of this, we both changed. Not just him. Me too. Because loving Nolan taught me that staying doesn’t always look graceful. Sometimes it looks messy and painful and horrible. Sometimes love asks you to trust someone while they’re still learning how to trust themselves.
“Nolan.”
My voice breaks around his name. Immediate panic flashes across his face. Like he’s preparing for rejection anyway.
I close the distance between us before I can overthink it. One step. Then another. Until I’m standing directly in front of him again for the first time since the breakup. Close enough to feel his warmth. Close enough to hear his uneven breathing.
Nolan looks overwhelmed.
I slide trembling fingers carefully along his jaw. And the second I touch him, he exhales shakily. Like relief physically leaves his body all at once.
“You idiot,” I whisper tearfully.
A startled wet laugh escapes him. “There she is.”
Warmth flickers painfully through my chest hearing that. We still find each other inside the grief.
I cup his face fully in both hands. “You scared the hell out of me,” I admit.
His eyes widen, and a sharp intake of breath escapes him, his jaw clenching in an involuntary shudder. “I know.”
“And I hated watching you disappear every time things got hard.”
Emotion roughens his voice. “I know.”
The sincerity in it matters. No excuses. No defensiveness. Just accountability.
Nolan’s hands settle cautiously at my waist like he still can’t quite believe he’s allowed to touch me yet.
“I don’t need perfect,” I whisper. “I just need you to let me stand beside you.”
Nolan’s eyes close briefly.
“I can do that now.”
His forehead falls gently against mine, and suddenly, we’re both crying a little now. The kind of tears that happen after surviving something painful together.
“I thought I lost you,” Nolan whispers.
Pain slices straight through my chest because he sounds genuinely wrecked by the possibility.
I slide my fingers into his hair.
“You almost did.”
“I know.”
We stand there together, just breathing in each other for a moment, savoring this reconciliation.
“So…” Nolan clears his throat. “You wanna maybe see the house?”
A laugh breaks through my tears before I can stop it. The sound startles both of us.
“You’re asking me out using real estate?”
“It felt mature.”
“Concerning strategy.”
“Thank you.”
I shake my head helplessly through another tearful laugh. Then, without preamble, I kiss him. The second my mouth touches his, Nolan falls apart against me.
One hand slides tightly against my waist while the other cups the back of my neck like he’s terrified I’ll disappear again if he doesn’t hold on carefully enough.
The kiss hurts in a way that feels like coming home after being lost. Nolan kisses me like an apology and a promise and relief, all tangled together.
When we finally pull apart, Nolan rests his forehead against mine again, breathing unevenly.
“I love you,” he whispers.
The words slide directly into every broken place inside me. I smile through tears, brushing my thumb across his cheek.
“I know,” I whisper back. “And this time…” Emotion catches warmly in my chest. “I think you finally know how to stay.”
Nolan’s eyes crinkle at the corners, a wide, unrestrained smile spreading across his face.
Then from somewhere behind the café counter, Bailey loudly announces, “If you two start making out again in front of the new releases, I’m charging a ticket fee.”
A startled laugh bursts out of me, and Nolan groans against my forehead.
And for the first time in what feels like forever, everything feels light again.