Page 39 of Unsteady in Love

Tears slowly trickled down her face as she became lost in the thought of her dad. He had meant everything to her. They were each other’s worlds and never fought.

“I hate that that’s your final memory of your dad. If I could change it, I would. That’s why you should leave and not look back. I don’t want you to think of me—”

“You’re being ridiculous, you know that?” she interrupted, her mouth set in a pissed-off line. “You do realize you’re not dying, right?”

“Some days, it sure feels like it,” I murmured.

Prue’s face went soft, and she slipped around the side of the bed. Her warm hand wrapped around mine. “I’m going to ask you something, and I want you to be honest. Can you do that?”

“Of course, I can be honest with you.” That’s all I’d ever been with her.

“Even if you don’t want to.”

“Yes, I promise to answer you honestly. Just ask your question.”

She nodded to herself as if she was preparing herself for what she was going to ask. “Do you love me?”

How could she ask that? I’d always loved her and knew I always would.

“I love you with everything that I am. I don’t see what that has to with anything.”

A slow smile spread across her gorgeous face. “If you didn’t love me, then I would have left. It would have hurt immensely, but I would have walked away.”

“And now?” I asked almost inaudibly. I wasn’t sure how she heard me.

“And now you’re not getting rid of me.”

“Wait until you see what you’ll have to live with for the rest of your life before you promise you won’t leave. I won’t blame you if you leave once you see.” And I wouldn’t. It wasn’t pretty and not something anyone would want to see every day of their life.

“I vowed to stick with you through sickness and health.”

I laughed bitterly. “You didn’t marry me out of love.”

Her eyes grew big before narrowing into slits. “Did you seriously just say that, Holden Ford Montgomery? You think I didn’t love you? I just told you that I’ve loved you since I was fifteen years old. I never stopped.” She turned away, her face falling, and for a moment I saw how much my words had hurt her.

“You didn’t want to get married,” I reminded her.

Her head whipped my way. “Yeah, I didn’t want to get married for you to then divorce me. At the time, I thought you were marryingmeout of pity.” Her eyes filled with tears once again. “We should have talked before.”

I scoffed. “If we would have talked, you wouldn’t have married me. You would have stayed pissed at me and then never talked to me again.”

“Well, I want to clear this up once and for all, okay? I loved you when we got married. I was sad because I hated that you were marrying me for money and out of pity, and that you didn’t love me. Which I now know wasn’t true. Yes, I was mad at you, but…” Angry tears streamed down her flushed cheeks. “Damn if you’re right in the fact that I probably wouldn’t have married you.”

“Why don’t you come over here?” I patted the right side of the bed. I hated to see her cry, and it seemed like that’s all she’d done the past few times I’d seen her. I hated being responsible for her tears.

Prue took in a ragged breath before she quickly moved around the side of the bed and curled up next to me, burying her head into my chest. And fuck if she didn’t feel perfect. She still smelled like vanilla after all these years, and it was like coming home. My arms wrapped around her shaking form and held her to me.

“I missed this,” she mumbled into my t-shirt.

My lips tipped up. How had I thought I could give her up?

Then a nurse walked in with my pain medicine, and I remembered why I had pushed Prue away. This was my life now. It wasn’t love, hugs, and snuggles.

26

PRUE

The momentthe nurse walked into the room, I felt Holden tense underneath me and knew he was going to try and push me away again. A-fucking-gain.

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