Page 152 of Mine Again
And yet, I’m still here, letting Luca hold the pieces together, if onlyfor a moment.
I lean into him, not because I trust again, not yet, but because he’s the only thing that feels solid while everything else slips through my fingers.
Our foreheads touch.
Everything goes still. I listen to both of our breaths. Mine unsteady. His shallow.
“I didn’t love him,” I whisper, needing him to understand. “My heart was claimed a long time ago. I never got it back. Never wanted it back.”
The air shifts slightly, like a window cracking open after being shut for too long. Something inside me loosens. My chest opens.
The exhale from Luca is instant. His relief wraps around me.
Could he really have believed I’d ever love someone else?
“No other man could ever be deserving of you. Especially not someone like Moretti,” Luca says, his voice low but resolute.
“He’d never have seen you. Not really.
“I’m sure he realized you were beautiful. Charming. Maybe a little complicated. But he wouldn’t have asked why you never touch soy milk or why you stare at the sea like it’s the only thing that understands you.
“He wouldn’t have known you count steps when you’re anxious. That you freeze when someone raises their voice because silence has always seemed safer than defiance.
“He wouldn’t have noticed when your laughter was forced. Or when your smile was something you wore to keep the peace.”
His eyes hold mine now, unwavering.
“He wasn’t the wrong man just because he was bad, Isa. He was the wrong man because he never truly saw you.”
His hand lifts to my cheek.
“I always have.”
A single tear escapes, and he catches it with his thumb.
It’s true. He’s the only person in my life who always has.
So I do the only thing that feels real.
I press my lips to his.
I kiss Luca.
And I pour everything into it.
The grief. The rage. The years we lost. All that time I believed he was dead.
And then something else takes over.
Muscle memory. Longing. Love that never really left.
And he kisses me back.
The second my lips part, his hand slides to the back of my neck, and his mouth crashes onto mine with more force.
My pulse stutters.
The kiss isn’t soft. It’s hungry. Demanding. Raw.
