Page 137 of The One

When I tried to tell her I accepted her apology, she held up a finger.

“What’s ironic is that I told you it wasn’t an opportunity, it was just a coincidence that the both of us were there. But itwasn’t the only coincidence from our past, and technically, it was an opportunity.”

“I don’t know what you mean.”

“Six months ago, I saw you in Bangkok.”

I shifted on the couch to face her more. “You saw me … in Bangkok?”

She nodded. “I was sitting outside a restaurant, and you walked by.”

My heart began to fucking pound. “Why didn’t you stop me? Why didn’t you say something?”

“I”—her head shook—“don’t know. It felt like too much. The way my emotions suddenly took over and my heart was beating—the whole thing felt so surreal, so out of body in a way. But what it did was show me that it was possible to actually feel something.” She turned silent. “I’d gone so long without feeling anything.”

I lifted her hand and held it to my chest, right over my heart so she could feel what was happening within me.

“Yes, Rhett, just like that.”

I didn’t release her fingers, and she didn’t pull them away. And when I tightened my grip, she still didn’t pull away then either.

“That’s when I made the decision to move home,” she admitted. “I’d been thinking about it, toying with the idea. Like I told you, I was tired of running. I just didn’t know if LA was where I wanted to plant my feet.”

I couldn’t believe she had seen me there.

That I’d walked right by her and hadn’t seen her.

That, somehow, I hadn’t felt her.

“Why did seeing me in Bangkok solidify your decision to come back?”

She drained the rest of her vodka and set the empty glass on a tray in the middle of the ottoman. “You know that wholeoutof sight, out of mindthing? That’s how it was, except it wasn’t like that at all.” She laughed. “I thought about you all the time. I just couldn’t see you, especially since you don’t have a presence online. I guess, in a way, that made things easier on me. My brain filled in the blanks, satisfying my curiosity. But then I saw you, and I completely spiraled. You started to consume me again, just like when I’d left to move to Europe.” She stopped to take several breaths. “I had no idea what would happen between us. If there was even a possibility of something happening. If I even wanted there to be one. I just knew I needed to come back.”

“You know there’s a possibility. You heard that in my words when I found you at the track, you’re seeing that right now on my face.”

This was going to be the most important question I ever asked, and everything in me was fucking shaking. It didn’t matter what she’d posted on Instagram or that the darkness had finally lifted or that I felt a bit of hope. What mattered was how she answered this.

“Do you want us?”

I needed to feel her. I needed her to feel me. I touched her cheek, my heart melting the moment I came in contact with her skin.

“Because I want to give you everything, Lainey. I want to be with you. I want to love you forever. I want to marry you. I want to have children with you. And I don’t want to ever spend a second away from you.” I halted. “But I don’t know what you want.”

“You.” There was no hesitation in her reply. “Rhett, you’re all I’ve ever wanted. But I need to take things slow. I’m not talking a date once a week and speaking to each other every few days. Nothing at all like that.” She shook her head. “I’m also not saying we should move in together next week.”

I chuckled. Because I fucking would.

“I loved the eighteen-year-old you,” she continued. “I loved the nineteen and twenty and all the way up to thirty-three-year-old you. But a lot of time has passed, and I want to continue getting to know you all over again.” Her hand went to her chest. “I want to fall, like I fell back then.”

My other hand gripped the back of my neck, releasing the air I’d been holding in while she spoke. My gaze was getting a little blurry as I stared at her, the water making it hard to see the finer details of her face.

“Did I say something that upset you?”

“Upset me?” I forced the emotion down. “You just made me the happiest man alive.” My hand lowered to her neck. “I’ve dreamed about this day, Lainey. Shit, I’ve dreamed of many things when it came to you, but this …” I bit my bottom lip. “I didn’t think it was ever going to happen. I thought I was going to spend the rest of my life loving you from afar, silently wishing you happy birthday every year, telling Penelope my hopes of marrying her sister …” My nostrils flared as I exhaled. “And never getting to spend birthdays with you, or watching you walk down the aisle toward me, or seeing your belly swell with my baby inside.”

Her eyes filled so fast; I didn’t get there in time before the drips spilled over. “Our baby.”

I caught the first few. “A little boy named Penn Ray Cole.”