Aria had been right. I needed to make a choice. And I chose love. Mother would come to accept that. After all, she’d once given up everything to follow love.
“Ryan,” he growled. The name sounded wrong coming from his lips, like they weren’t used to forming those letters anymore.
“Ryan?”
“That’s my real name.”
“Oh,” I whispered, overwhelmed by the situation. “That’s a beautiful name.”
He smiled tentatively. It still surprised me how it changed his edgy face. He leaned down and kissed me, then pulled back a few inches.
“I want New York to be a new beginning for me and you, if you want that too. And I want to be known as Ryan in this new life.”
“And I want a new beginning with you, Ryan,” I said. He wrapped his arms around me and held me tightly.
“I don’t deserve you,” he murmured against my hair. “Yet. But I will.”