Page 25 (1/2)

"I think you should go now," she whispered

I glanced at the clock on the wall and nodded "Yeah, I need to get back to Brady’s place so he can have his turn up here with you"

She shook her head, refusing to look at o I don’t want you here and I don’t want you around Eht start bawling like a baby if I didn’t try to remain calh a lot That was all this was

Before I can speak and reassure her that I wasn’t going anywhere ever again, she continued "Youmine I don’t want you anyhter sure as hell doesn’t need someone like you in her life that thinks he can just walk ahenever he wants Get Out"

As her voice grew stronger and louder with each word, it garnered the attention of one of the nurses that alking by She immediately came into the roo tohow in the hell I would ever be able to change her h she flat out toldway I could listen to her No matter how hard Brady and I tried to convince her that she wasn’t alone and that she should lean on us, she didn’t want to hear it, especially frohter and it broke her heart

And it broke ed the moment her and her attitude walked in the door and the first tiive her money for her swear jar It wasn’t just aboutI cared about wassure these to else in the world, were happy

After Gwen got out of the hospital, I went to Brady’s place every single day And every single day, Gould lock herself in her bedroom and refuse to talk to me I kneould be hard to convince her that I wanted to be in hers and E out on theive up very easily

Brady decided not to kick aveup with floould never be a good fucking idea so instead, I just showed up

Every day for a month

I turned down the mission to Kuwait and took that et rid of me that easily Since she wouldn’t speak tookay fro her teach ht Eventually, Emma wouldn’t let Gwen hide out in her room and forced her to interact with me To say I was scared to death to finally talk to her is an understates I wanted to say to her and I didn’t want the But most of all, I needed to know if she could handle a life with me And if that’s what she even wanted anymore

As I hold Gwen in my arms and stare around my rental house at the Christmas decorations and other womanly touches that Gwen and E about the day she finally gave in

Brady left a little while ago to finish up soive Gwen and I soether now that she’s started to warm up to me a little more and I don’t knohether to thank hi atthe ass kicking

"Thanks for tucking E open the door and waiting for me to leave

I took a deep breath and walked up to her, stopping ere to-to-toe "I love you"

Gwen scoffed and opened the door wider "Like I said, you can go now"

Reaching around her, I grabbed onto the door and shoved it closed "And like I said, I love you"

She rolled her eyes and started to walk away froainst le out of ainst noring you You can stop with the act any time I know you have somewhere you’d rather be and as you can see, Emma and I are fine now You don’t need to stick around any those words hurt her and it ave e I needed to lay it all out on the table

"Fine, you can ignore me I don’t need you to talk anyway, just listen," I started She huffed and crossed her ar away froest one that everything I’d ever wanted was right here in front of me I was afraid I was afraid to tell you how much I wanted you only to have you tell me that you couldn’t handle a life with me because of the job I have You and Emma are important to me, I love you both, but my job is also important I don’t want to let you and Emma down, but I also can’t let my men down and I don’t kno the fuck to have both I don’t kno to do this, but I want to try I want to wake up to you every day when I’ht before bed I want to take away every one of your bad ood ones I can’t proo away on a mission, but I can promise you that every second I spend with you, I will never let you forget how h my speech and I had a moment of doubt that it was too htainst Willia onto her shoulders

After a few minutes, she looked up at me with tears in her eyes

"God daured the only way to fix this noas to backpedal "Look, I know it’s a lot to take in but –"

My words were cut off when she unfolded her arrabbed onto the front of my shirt and pulled my mouth down to hers As soon as our lips touched I was lost and forgot everything else I hadn’t even told her yet I deepened the kiss as her arht then that noI could to convince her that I meant what I said