Page 124 of Ex's Accidental Baby

I inhale through my nostrils, trying not to panic.

“Regardless of what you think I did wrong when we talked, I do know one thing I did wrong. And that’s leaving you. It was the hardest thing I’ve ever had to do, and it was also the stupidest thing I’ve ever done.”

Her shoulders slump just a fraction, but I know I’m getting to her.

“You can’t just breeze back into my life and expect me to?—”

I hold up a hand. “I’m not expecting anything. I promise. I just… I need to tell you how I feel.”

She frowns. “How you feel?”

“I love you, Meredith.”

Her blue eyes widen.

“I’ve been in love with you since the first moment I saw you, when you were on that tire swing in those little daisy dukes you always wore in the summer.”

“Logan, you can’t do this to me.” Her voice trembles, and her arms drop to her sides. “You can’t leave me and ruin everything and then come back and say these things.”

“I wish I could take it all back. I wish that I could hop in a time machine and never leave you, princess, but I can’t do that. I’ve never thought that I could be the man you deserve, and maybe I can’t. Maybe I can’t, but I want to try. I really want to try. Because whatever else I may lack, no one will ever love you as much as I do.”

She goes completely silent, her eyes filling with tears. “Logan, I don’t know what to say.”

“Say we can try. Say you want this to work. I know you don’t love me, but we can work on that. I can love enough for the both of us. Please.”

She opens her mouth, but then closes it again. “I don’t know how to trust you won’t do it again.”

“Meredith, I will never leave you again. Not ever.” I take a few steps toward her and when she doesn’t back away, my heart starts beating faster.

I cup her face and kiss her passionately.

“What the hell do you think you’re doing?”

Shit. Grayson.

I break apart from Meredith, and she starts to speak, but Grayson grabs onto my shoulder, throwing me off the porch.

I roll down the steps, groaning as my ribs hit the ground.

Then Grayson’s on top of me, punching me in the body and then one good time in the face, and my nose starts to pour blood.

“Grayson! Stop it!” Meredith rushes down to pull him off me, but he just keeps coming.

My head is spinning from the punch in the nose, and I try to scramble up into a standing position.

“Fight me back,” he spits, struggling in Meredith’s grasp.

“No.” I wipe my sleeve across my bloody nose, ruining my six-hundred-dollar silk shirt. “You’re right to hit me. I should’ve told you.”

“Hell, yes, you should’ve told me!”

Meredith smacks him on the shoulder.

He finally looks at her as if it’s for the first time.

“The stress isn’t good for me. Please shut up for five minutes so we can explain.”

“The stress? You’re the one who?—”

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