“You’re here,” I breathed.
“Where else would I be?”
It’d been a week, but it might as well have been a year for how much I missed his voice. It washed over me, easing the muscles that had tightened with each second I thought he’d left me.
“I—” I swallowed past the lump working its way up my throat. Between the confession and seeing him, my emotions were on edge. “I don’t know. I just…I guess I thought you left.”
He moved around the edge of the couch and finally sat next to me, so close his leg pressed to mine.
“No, I’m right here, Hanna. Always here.”
I fought the urge to close what little space stretched between us and sink into his arms. But then I remembered why I hadn’t seen him, and the joy tainted with the hurt that had been lingering since the last time I’d seen him.
Sabrina.
That, and he hadn’t reached out to even try to convince me I was wrong. Maybe he didn’t want to.
“You haven’t been all week,” I said, sitting tall and inching back.
He dragged a hand through his hair and winced. “Because I’m a dumbass. I convinced myself I couldn’t fix this and that I wasn’t good enough.” He bent his head, waiting for me to meet his gaze. It pleaded with me to listen—to understand. “Hanna, I have no clue what I’m doing.”
I huffed a laugh. “I don’t want to shock you, but neither do I.”
Daniel’s hand crept closer, giving me plenty of time to pull away. But if I was being honest with myself, I didn’t want to. No matter the outcome. So, when his rough calluses scraped across the soft top of my hand, I turned to link our fingers.
“What are you doing here, Daniel?” I whispered, scared to break the moment. “How did you know?”
“How? Erik. Why?” He used his free hand to tip my chin up. “Because I wasn’t going to miss you being the bravest woman I’ve ever met.”
Tears glazed my eyes, and I shook my head, swallowing them back down. “I’m not.”
“You are,” he said fiercely. “Hanna…I’m sorry. I—”
“I just need to know,” I cut him off. “Was it real? Any of it? Did you see me at all?”
His hand abandoned mine, and I almost cried out at the loss, but before I could, both hands framed my face. “You are all I see. Jesus, you’re all I’ve seen since we met. You steal my attention whenever you walk into a room.”
“Then, why?” I pleaded. “Why did you say her name? Why did you call me that if I’m all you see?”
His jaw clenched, and his eyes bounced between mine, tinged with panic that maybe he couldn’t fix this.
“Because I was scared. So fucking scared. The last woman who loved me left her mark, and I just got swept up in the old feelings that had swallowed me as a teen. It pulled me back, and I felt like history was repeating itself. I was terrified of what you loving me meant for you. What if I couldn’t be enough? What if I hurt you too much and I—I don’t know. Because I know you’re a strong woman. I know you don’t need me, and you’d be fine without me. I know that. But fear doesn’t care what you know. And before I knew it, I was pushing you away, and I’m so sorry.”
I reached up to grip his wrists, just to touch him. “Daniel, you did help me. You taught me how to face the things I’d been hiding from. You pushed me in a way that I needed. You made me strong.”
“You were always strong.”
“Then you helped me see it.”
His tongue slicked across his lips, and I physically ached holding back from kissing him.
His forehead dropped to mine. “Maybe I offered to help as a way to make up for past mistakes. Maybe if I helped you, it would absolve me of my past. Maybe that was how it started. But at no point did I not see you. At no point did I see you as her. I wanted to help you, Hanna. Only you.”
“Daniel,” I breathed, a tear finally breaking free. Unable to hold back any more, I tipped my head and met his lips with mine. They tasted like mint and Daniel. He tasted like home. His tongue slicked across my lips, and I opened, letting him in. With each moan and desperate hold, I let him back into my heart, my decision made.
I believed him, and I wanted him. I loved him.
He slowed the kiss and pulled back but didn’t remove his forehead. “I want to give you something. Something I’ve never given anyone before.”
“You’ve given me enough.”
“I can never give you enough.”
He pulled back but still stroked my cheeks with his thumbs. His nostrils flared over his heavy breathing, and his eyes flicked between mine. I rubbed my hands up and down his arms, trying to soothe nerves so clearly marring his face.
“Daniel…”
One more deep breath. “I love you, Hanna. I’ve never said that to another woman before.”
Heat and tingles flooded through my chest, stretching to places I never knew existed. His words lit a fire that burned up my throat, and I clung to him, desperate to replay those words on repeat forever.
“What about—”
“Never. Only you. I love you. And I hope you’ll give me a chance to earn your lo—”
This time when I kissed him, I didn’t hold back. I pulled his body to mine, needing to be as close to him as possible. His hands sunk to my waist, and he tugged me onto his lap. Without hesitation, I straddled him and held him to me, not letting him pull away.
I bit at his full lips I’d missed so much and pulled away just long enough to whisper, “I love you too.”
As if he hadn’t already been holding me tight, he groaned and gripped me harder. I forgot
