Page 106 of Let You Love Me

He doesn’t know what he’s saying.

He doesn’t. He can’t possibly mean that.

Even if he does, he might change his mind. About me. About Sophie. Just like Chance did, and then what?

His fingers slide beneath my chin, tipping my face up toward his until our eyes lock. “What if I told you I wanted to stay here after graduation?”

I shake my head, tears blurring my vision.

Oh God. Donotcry.

“Do you even know what you’re saying, Teagan? That would be c-cr-crazy.”

The corners of his mouth curve, affection in his tone when he says, “There’s that word again.”

I inhale sharply. “You can’t stay for me.”

“Why not?”

“We barely know each other. It’s barely been a month since we even met.”

He cocks his head as if assessing my argument. “Maybe. But you can also know someone for years only to discover you don’t really know them at all,” he says, his mouth tightening in a way that tells me he’s talking about Knox. “Trust me, I know.”

I do, too.

Chance was coming by our house for years prior to hooking up. My father took him under his wing fresh out of grade school, and if someone would’ve told me he would get me pregnant onlyto leave and abandon me in my time of need, I would’ve said they were crazy, too.

“You can’t just say things like this, Teagan. It’s not just about me.”

“You don’t think I know that?” he says, waving a hand around him. “Haven’t I proved I have room in my life for Sophie, too?”

My chest inflates, too full for comfort. “Is that what today was about? What all of this is about? Proving yourself?”

“That’s not fair.” He shakes his head, the muscle in his jaw flexing. “You’re trying to start a fight, Lane, to find some flaw, and it won’t work. I won’t fight with you. Not over this.”

He’s right.

That’s exactly what I’m doing.

But I don’t know what else to do about the way I feel, and that’s the problem.

The one and only time I followed my heart instead of my head, I’d been wrong. Terribly, horribly wrong.

I can’t let that happen again. Not with Sophie involved.

I scrub my hands over my face, only for them to tremble and shake when I pull away. I’m so fucking scared, I can’t see straight.

“I’m sorry,” I say, because I have no idea what elsetosay, and I’m about two seconds away from breaking.

“My parents met when my father moved to Riverside their senior year in high school. They knew each other only weeks before they started seeing each other, and they were engaged not long after graduation, married a year after that. They’ve been together ever since, so I know it can happen just like this, Lane. Crazy or not, itcanhappen. And, yeah, maybe you have a daughter, and maybe that complicates things, but as soon as I found out about Soph, I asked myself if that was something I wanted to take on. If I cared your life was one step ahead of mine, and I don’t. I decided then and there that I’d catch up.Lane, I want you just as you are, daughter and all, and I don’t give a damn who knows it, including your father.”

My heart riots as those sapphire eyes stare straight through me.How is he so freaking calm? How is he so . . . steady?

Teagan is a rock—unyielding, immovable, and solid as the day is long—and if I’m brave enough to let him, he’ll bemyrock.

I clench and unclench my hands by my side in an effort to contain the emotions raging inside of me. How many times have I heard the expression,when you know, you know?

Teagan has done nothing but prove himself to me this last month.