Tears spring to my eyes. Because I’d forgotten that he used to say that to me, back when we were together. Before he betrayed me. Before he broke my heart. Before he left.
The Terence I knew said those words every single day. And I used to believe him, until he walked away. So this? It’s too little, too late. And after all those years of hurt, I’m not going to fall for a few pretty words.
“You had your chance, Ghost,” I spit and stare him right in the eye. So he knows I mean every word. “And now it’s too late.”
“It can’t be.” He shakes his head in denial, eyes pleading, and then drops to his knees.
“He is going to ask for your hand,” Eirwen cries from across the bleachers, and I realize that everyone around is watching, or pulling out their phones to record, what is most definitely not a proposal.
“He is not,” I shout back, then turn to glare at Ghost. “Whatever you’re doing, stop.”
“Wyn, I know I screwed up. But I’ll spend the rest of my life making it up to you.”
“That definitely sounds like a request for a binding,” Eirwen shouts.
“That’s a proposal if I ever heard one,” a man who’s built like an ancient warrior and barely fits in his seat adds. People around him murmur in agreement.
“It’s not a proposal,” I snap, then glare at Ghost. “Tell everyone it’s not a proposal.”
“It can be, if you take me back.”
“That’s not overly romantic. Promise her amazing beddings—er fucks!” Eirwen says, looking to the crowd for agreement.
“Get her flowers!” a blond man who reminds me of Thor suggests. “I got Magnolia flowers on our first date and it went really well, if you catch my drift.”
“Jewelry works better,” Lupine, who runs the orphanage, calls out. “Does he even have a ring?”
Ghost grimaces and gets to his feet. Guess he doesn’t have a ring—not that I expected one. What I do expect is for him to storm off, since leaving is what Ghost does best, but he reaches for my hand instead.
“Leave me alone, Ghost.”
“I can’t. I messed up, Wyn. Big time. Leaving you was the biggest mistake of my life.”
That earns him a few awwws from the crowd, and a glare from me.
“You have to forgive me, Air.” Because he used to call me that, too. I was his air. Or he made me believe I was. But he never needed me.
“Go away.”
“No. I can’t live without you!”
“I think I’m going to cry,” a beautiful blonde goddess who’s sitting at the edge of the aisle says. I ignore her.
“You lived without me just fine for years,” I snap. “From what I recall, you had no trouble walking away.”
“Don’t fall for it,” a man with blond hair cropped on the side and bright green eyes bellows.
“Take him back. He’s obviously sorry,” Eirlys—who runs Triple E—insists, elbowing the man in the side.
“It wasn’t like that, Wyn. Do you know how hard it was? Leaving you?”
“Couldn’t have been that hard. And after what you did during exams—”
“What did he do?” a man with mystical sea-green eyes shouts.
“Did he break up with you before finals? An ex of mine did that!” a redhead holding a coffee cup cries.
That gets a few sympathetic comments as more people in the audience chime in.
“He knows exactly what he did,” I glare at Ghost.
“Must be a doozy,” an old lady with a pink stripe in her hair clucks.
“I wouldn’t want to be him right now,” a gray-horned unicorn shifter, who looks like he belongs on the ice, and not in the stands, throws in.
“Can we go somewhere to talk?” Ghost asks, searching for an escape route. Typical Ghost.
I cross my arms over my chest. “I think we’re fine right here.”
“You tell him,” Sapphire—the same Sapphire who got into a snarling match with Snowball—shouts.
“Saph,” Bob, who owns my favorite diner, and is sitting next to her, says. “Don’t you want love to win? They could be happy together.”
“Love can eat a bag of sugar dicks.”
Bob’s expression drops into a frown.
“Except love with you,” she adds. “Your love can eat… ummm… ice cream! And waffles!”
“With real maple syrup?”
“All the time, Bob, all the time.”
And to be fair, the maple syrup at the Yes, Now Bob diner is that good.
“What can I do to win you back? Anything. You name it. It’s yours,” Ghost says. “All I want is you.”
“Poppycock,” a man dressed for a renaissance fair shouts. I ignore him.
“You had me,” I tell Ghost. “But I wasn’t good enough.”
“Is that what you think?” Ghost cups my cheeks—with magic—so I can’t pull away, and a hush falls over the crowd. “Wyn, you were more than good enough. You were everything. Do you think I would have left if you weren’t?”
“If you love someone, you don’t just leave.” I swallow hard.
“I thought being with me would put you in danger.” His voice cracks. “All I ever wanted was to keep you safe, but you didn’t need me to protect you. I know that now. You’re so strong. So powerful. You don’t need me. But I need you.”
“Oh my goddess, I wish a man would say that to me,” someone in the crowd shouts, but I don’t have eyes for anyone but Ghost.
“I’m not strong,” I tell him softly. “I can get hurt too. And this right here? It hurts. So if you care about me at all, you’d go.”
“Not without you.”
“No.” I lift my chin and cross my arms in front of my chest. “I mean, did you seriously think you could just waltz into Silver Springs and I’d take you back?”
“It wasn’t like that.”
“Then how was it? Never mind, I don’t want to know! You left me, Ghost. You moved on. And so did I.”
Ghost looks like he’d been slapped. He takes a step back, and my heart sinks. Watching him leave, again, is going to hurt. More than hurt. It’ll break my heart all over again. Because what I just said is a complete and utter lie.
I never moved on. Never got over Terentius White, no matter how hard I tried. And being this close to him, knowing that if I took him back, he could be mine, makes my lungs constrict. Because as much as I want him, I can’t risk my heart. Not again. Not after how easy it was for him to walk away.
“I never moved on,” Ghost says, unzipping his coat.
“What are you doing?” I demand as he throws it to the ground.
“Proving I never stopped loving you.” And with that, he pulls off his sweater in front of the entire crowd.
Someone wolf whistles. A few people gasp. And then people start to cheer. Because shirtless Ghost? Hot. Beyond hot.
Strong, sculpted arms. Hard pecs. Six-pack abs. And tattoos. Oh my goddess, he’s completely covered in tattoos.
“See this?” he pounds his chest with his fist, and hell if it’s not one of the hottest things I’ve ever seen. “This is how many times I’ve thought of you, Zoelle Wynter. This is how much I love you.”