Page 80 of Time After Time

“My father said if I had any brains, I’d put a ring on it.” I take her hand in mine. Rub the skin over her ring finger.

She gasps, pulls her hand away. “Thenwhy did you say those things toher? Why make me sound like a mistake?”

“I wasn’t thinking, Em. I just wanted her to stop talking about you. I wanted her gone. I wasn’t…wasn’t even paying attention to what she was saying because I was getting ready to kick her out of the chalet on fucking Christmas Eve.”

I pause, swallowing the knot rising in my throat.

“I hurt you—viciously. And even if you could forgive me, I don’t know that I ever could. Of all the people in the world, you were the one who never deserved it.”

Tears fill her eyes, and I groan. “Oh, baby.”

She sniffles and then shakes her head. Then she says so softly that I have to strain to hear her, “For five years I couldn’t get over you.”

My breath catches.

“I kept thinking…I must have done something wrong. I must have said too much, been too needy. I wasn’t polished enough. Not clever enough. Too young. I didn’t realize how deep it had gone until I saw you again. Until I heard you talk about me like I was a misstep.”

“Em,” her name breaks in my throat.

She presses on. “You want to know what that did to me? It made me stop trusting myself. My instincts. My emotions. Because clearly, they led me to someone who didn’t believe in me. And now…now you show up, with your note and chocolate and sincere apologies, and you want me to believe in you again?”

A tear slips through. She swipes it off her cheek.

“I don’t trust you,” she states, blunt but not cruel. “And worse…I don’t trust myself. That scares me more than anything. Because what if I follow my feelings and it leads me into harm’s way?”

The fire crackles softly between us.

I lean forward, elbows on my knees. “I can’t promise you I won’t ever mess up again. But I can promise that I’ll stay and make things right. I won’t run from us. You were not the immature one, Em. I was. You were brave. You loved with everything you had, and I didn’t deserve that back then. But I want to earn it now. If you’ll let me.”

Silence falls between us, thick and trembling.

She doesn’t say anything, just drinks her chocolate. Mine has gone cold, so I set it aside. In any case, I’m full of anxiety. There isn’t room for anything else in my body.

“What now?” she asks, staring at the mountains.

I want to stand up, beat my fists on my chest, and roar with relief. With love. With hope.

But I don’t. I stay seated, quiet.

Because this is delicate.

She’s not handing me her heart—she’s letting me show her I deserve a place near it.

Because now, I know: the only way back is through trust earned, not begged for.

“Now we take one step. And then another.” I reach over, slow and careful, and place my fingers beneath her chin. Gently, I tilt her face toward me until her eyes meet mine. “We figure out who we are and who we can be.Together.”

She licks her lips. “And it doesn’t mean we’re dating, right?”

Like hell it doesn’t!

“Whatever you want. However you want it.” I take her hand in mine, squeeze it.

“I…I need to think about it, Ransom.” She doesn’t pull away.

You think all you want, Sweet Em, but I’m not letting you go.

“Like I said, whatever you want.”