Page 96 of When You Were Mine

“Well, thank you, Trevor. Thank you for sucking all the magic out of it.” She reached for the car door handle. “I think we’re done here.”

“Hey, you asked. But that’s my point. You can keep insisting my life’s nothing but roses and sunshine, but it just isn’t true. My reality isn’t what it looks like on social media. No one’s is.”

“You’re right. And I’m sorry I keep doing that.”

“I get it. You want to hold on to your idea of me. But I’m not the inexperienced guy who left and never looked back. I’m someone who once loved every single part of you, who never wanted to hurt you—never wanted to live without you. I just fucked up, Elz. I fucked up, and I’m trying to make it right. I’m trying to get us back.”

“I’m not sure it’s possible.”

“Well, then, prepare yourself. Because I’ll die trying.”

How could she not smile at a statement like that? She whacked him on the arm. “You haven’t changed one bit.”

“Which means?”

“You’re a passionate man who goes after what he wants.”

“Nothing wrong with that, right? But the important piece is whether hegets what he wants.”

“It sure looks like it,” she muttered. Because she genuinely liked this man. And the more time she spent with him, the harder it was to deny their crackling connection. It was his touch, sure, but it was also the energy in their conversation. She didn’t have that with anyone else.

He was right. His insistence on clearing up the misunderstandings and offering a true picture of his life and his experiences was breaking down her defenses. Affection was pouring in through every crack and hole.

“One of the extras used to hang out in my trailer, and we’d talk about everything under the sun. He talked about the multiverse and how we’re living countless lives at the same time. And it gave me comfort that somewhere, on some mystical plane, I was living my life with you. Most nights before I fell asleep, I dreamed about it.” He shook his head. “I figured it was probably bullshit, but that didn’t stop me from wanting to get there. How the fuck do I get to that plane of existence where we’re together?”

Tears burned the backs of her eyes, and a painful knot formed in her throat. “What did it look like? Our life together.”

“We had a ranch in Calamity.”

Of course we did.“Robbers Roost.”

“We took long hikes. I built us a tree swing.”

“You better put a cushion on it. They’re not as comfortable as they look.”

“You think I want my girl to have a sore ass? Of course, I did.” He smiled.

My girl.She liked that. It made her feel all warm and soft inside.

Something struck her. From the moment he walked out of that motel room, she’d gone hard. All that bad-bitch energy she applied to tackling a newborn and building a career had kept her locked in it.

But it was Trevor who allowed her to be soft. And that was really nice.

“I pictured us cooking together,” he continued. “Laughing a lot. Spending our nights in front of a roaring fire.”

“Reading or talking?”

“Talking. Making out.”

“Seriously, that’s what we’re doing?” she asked. “We’re ‘making out’?”

“Hey, I was giving you the romantic version. You want the truth? Fine. We were fucking. There was a lot of fucking going on in my dreams.”

She laughed. “Were we poor?”

“You know, I didn’t really go there. I was mostly thinking of where to hide a rubber spider. My favorite is in your slipper, so you’d feel something with your toes.”

“Jerk. Did I retaliate?”

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