Page 150 of Let You Love Me

I suck in a breath. “You were looking through my things?”

“I wasn’t snooping, if that’s what you’re asking. The box fell and everything spilled onto the floor. I was picking the photo albums up when I saw it.”

I should’ve burned any pictures I had of the two of us long ago. God, why didn’t I?

“You know he and my father are close. In high school, he was around a lot. We were friends once.”

He stares at me for a long moment. “You’re right,” he eventually says, running a hand over the back of his neck. My chest tightens. “But I guess I just don’t understand this need tokeep the paternity a secret.” His gaze hardens when it returns to mine. “Did her father?did he force himself on you? Is that why?”

“No.” My mouth drops open in shock. “God, no. Nothing like that.” My hands ball into fists, fighting the tightening in my chest. “Looking back, I think he manipulated me, told me everything I wanted to hear, but he would never . . . He may be selfish, but he’s notthatkind of man.”

“Then, what, Lane?” He steps forward, arms outstretched, tone pleading. “Help me understand why you can’t open up to me.” He reaches out and grabs my hand and places it on his chest, over his racing heart. “I’m the one person you should be able to trust the most, and I’ve never given you a reason to doubt me.”

“Because I just can’t,” I cry.

But God knows I want to.

And that should be enough. It should be that simple.

But somehow, it’s not.

I yank my hand away, unable to touch him any longer, afraid the guilt might kill me if I do.

My limbs shake with the flood of emotions running through my veins, and I begin to pace. I feel like a trapped animal, wounded and bleeding andscared. Unable to quell the strangling fingers gripping my lungs and strangling the air from them.

“I love you, Lane. And I love Sophie, too.”

His words strike like lightning.

It’s the second time he’s said them, but my heart jolts all the same because I love him, too. So much.

Yet I feel him slipping from my fingers. And I know how to hold on, but it’s like I can’t physically do it. I can’t give him the one thing he wants, the one thing he needs—the truth.

Instead, I convince myself that’s okay. He doesn’t need it. We can survive on lies if they’re well-intentioned.

“I love you too,” I say, my voice thick.

Tears prick at my eyes, and I shake my head as if that will shake them off. My gaze drifts to his mouth, those full lips I know so well.

He closes the gap between us, reaching me in two strides. One hand cups the back of my head while the other squeezes my waist as if he’s afraid of losing me even though I’m standing right here.

He dips his head, pressing his forehead to mine.

I hear the shallow sound of his breath, his audible swallow. “Say it again, Lane?Please.”

“I love you.” I breathe.

I’d say it a million times over if he asked.

This I can give him.

This one truth I can share.

“I love you, Teagan. I love you so much it hurts. Why can’t that be enough?”

He sucks in a breath and releases me, scrubbing a hand over his face. When his eyes return to mine, the pain in them is so sharp I feel it lance through me like a knife. “Are you ever gonna tell me?”

My heart lurches.