What in the world am I doing? I’m so frigging confused, I don’t know which way is up. Is this mess his fault? Mine?
Maybe we’re both to blame.
My phone dings with a message from Maggie. I open it automatically.
It just says, “Did you talk or did you run?”
It hits me like a ton of bricks. It’s as if a wall fell on me.
Oh God, I’m running? Again? I can’t be such a coward. Even through the crushed pieces of my heart I feel the connection to him. How can I just let that go once more and regret it forever?
He made an effort.
And then my phone dings again, and it’s not from Trent or Maggie. It’s from Kaden.
Don’t run, baby, it reads, and I clap a hand over my mouth, muffling a sob. Check the videos on your phone. Give me one more chance.
The Uber driver gives me a funny look through the rearview mirror. “Everything okay, miss?”
“Yes, just… Stop.”
“What?”
“Stop the car.” I open my photos and videos up, and sure enough there’s a video with Kaden’s face on the still, uploaded this morning.
My finger hovers over it.
“Want me to go back, miss?” the driver asks.
“No, not yet. Just… wait? Please.”
I draw in a deep breath.
And press play.
He’s standing in front of the drawing of the key in his bedroom. The blinds are down, but there is enough light to see his handsome face. It must have been right after he shaved, because his face is smooth. God, he’s so cute.
If someone with shoulders like a hanger can be called cute.
But he is. Sweetly handsome. Strong. Sexy.
“Hailey.” He angles the phone better, so that I can see his eyes. “Not sure if this is a good idea, but I saw your phone and I thought, hell, why not?” He grins right at the camera, and my heart stops.
Sweet baby Jesus. Look how my heart came back to life just from seeing his face and hearing his voice.
I laugh, and I have tears in my eyes, watching him rub at his forehead and wink at me.
“So a lot of bad has come through our phones, and I wanted to set it right. I am in a setting it right mode today, as you’ll see when you come back home. Home to me.” He brings the camera closer. “And you can tell this asshole Trent, that. You belong with me. You’re my girl, and he’d better keep his fucking hands off.” He considers what he said. “His metaphorical texting hands, too. And his dick is tiny. Tell him that.”
I snort.
The driver gives me a long-suffering look.
“So I am now in your phone, too. To tell you that I love you. Let it be on the fucking record: I, Kaden Hansen, love you, Hailey …, from this day forward, for better, for worse, for richer, for poorer, in sickness and in health. Nothing can keep us apart, as long as you come back to me. Because I fucking swear I’ll never cheat on you, and you’ll be my everything, always.”
God, what is he doing to me? My tears are cool tracks rolling down my cheeks. I have a lump in my throat.
“Believe in us, Hailey,” he says. “I want to spend my life with you. It took my memory disappearing and then my life flashing in front of my eyes to see what an idiot I was not to ask you sooner, but…will you be mine?”