Page 71 of Caleb's Salvation
“Why do you think?” he asked me, looking at me like I was food and he was hungry. Like I was water and he was thirsty. I like I was pain relief and he was in agony.
I shook my head slowly. “No good. I’m going to need the words.”
“I fucked up,” he admitted.
“That’s a start,” I said not giving him any wiggle room. He’d left me. Walked away time and time again when all I’d given him was…myself. Not because I thought I had to, but because I’d wanted to. That, too, was power.
He looked away. “I thought I wasn’t allowed to have a second chance. Thought I didn’t deserve it.”
I swallowed and resisted the urge to comfort him. Because this time it wasn’t about him. It was about me and Sam and what we wanted. What we deserved.
“And now?” I prompted.
He looked at me then, into my eyes, into my chest, right through all of me. “Now, I don’t know if I deserve it or not, but I don’t care. I’m taking it.”
“Taking it?” I said, my eyebrows slightly raised.
He stepped closer so that he was in my space. “You and Sam. If you’ll have me. I want you both to be mine.”
“You left us,” I charged.
He nodded, solemnly. “I did.”
“How can I trust you won’t do it again?”
“Because a man who realizes what a gift a second chance is, he doesn’t throw that away. Ever. As long as I breathe on this earth, Vivienne, you’re a part of me. There’s no running from that. No matter how far I went.”
My heart was pounding, and I could feel tears threatening but there was too much at stake to let something as silly as feelings overcome me now. “And Sam?”
“Needs a father. I was a good one, once upon a time.”
The breath rushed out of my lungs so fast I thought I might faint, except Caleb’s arms were around me holding me to him instead.
“I’m sorry, Vivienne. So sorry. You deserve so much more than me, but I can’t…I won’t let you go.”
I squeezed him with all my strength, letting him know that I also wasn’t letting him go. Pushing back from him, I wiped the tears from my eyes as I tried to deal with this new reality.
“A lot of people have left me.” I sniffed. “No one’s ever come back for me, though.”
He pulled away. “I’m so sorry. Sorry that I took you for granted. Sorry that I made you think for a second you weren’t the most amazing and bravest woman I’d ever met. I had to come back. I had to because I couldn’t stay away. Not from you.”
“Darn right,” I said with watery smile and a lot of bravado.
He came back for me.Hecame back forme.
“Let me take you to Bud’s and buy dinner. We can talk some more. I can tell you where I’ve been.”
He picked up his duffel, dropped an arm over my shoulder and steered me toward the truck. “Do I want to know?”
“I think. Some of it.”
He pushed me in the direction of the passenger side, and I didn’t protest too much. He seemed too ridiculously pleased to be behind the steering wheel, muttering something about tin cans.
“You know, Caleb, this isn’t going to be easy for you. You’ve got a lot of making up to do for breaking my heart like you did.”
“Did I?” he asked. “Break it?”
Wounded it for sure. But maybe not totally broken. Maybe because somewhere deep inside I knew…I just knew he’d come back. For me.
