Written with You (The Regret Duet #2)(48)

“Don’t worry. I don’t believe there is a reason for anything that happens. There are only actions, consequences, and unorchestrated coincidence. But every now and then, after the pain and heartache settle, beauty can be found in the consequences. There will never be a moment that I don’t also wish Malcom had never gone to the mall that day.” I lifted a shoulder in a noncommittal shrug. “But I can’t change it. And punishing myself for choices I made in the seconds of the past was ruining the seconds I had in the present. So I let go. I let time march on and I joined it for the ride.” I curled my hand around the feathers on his arm. “It’s okay to live with regret, Caven. But it’s something totally different to live in regret.”

He stared at me for a long time, his eyes searching my face, disbelief shining through unshed tears. “Letting go. That’s easier said than done.”

“Absolutely. But when was the last time life handed either of us something easy?”

The side of his mouth lifted in a boyish smirk. “Falling in love with you was easy.”

“Wow, you’re a bigger liar than I ever was.”

He chuckled, sad and distant. “I’ve never had anyone I can talk to about stuff like this. Not even Ian knows about the pictures.”

“Well, now, you have me. And I’m good at all kinds of things—bath bombs, tie dying, listening.”

He rested his hand against the side of my face, his thumb stroking back and forth across my cheek. “I know you want to be strangers. But I want this. Right here. Me and you. Willow and Caven. Two fucked-up people trying to make sense of the world.”

My heart soared, and I covered his hand with my own. “I’d like that. I really would. But I have a date with a Ryan Reynolds look-alike tomorrow.”

With a smile, he pulled me toward him, meeting me halfway. Ghosting his lips over mine, he whispered, “Fuck him. I’ll treat you better than that asshole ever could.”

I nipped at his bottom lip. “I don’t know. He’s taking me on a real date. You just brought me to Truett’s house.”

His smile fell along with his lids, and his nose brushed with mine, our exhales mingling. “I’ll take you on any date you want. Any time of day. Anywhere in the world. I’ll give you absolutely anything, Willow. Just as long as you stay with me.”

My chest filled with more warmth than I knew possible. And after spending five months with Caven and Rosalee Hunt, that was saying a lot.

“Anywhere?” I croaked out, teasing the tip of my finger up his forearm.

“You name it. Paris. Rome. Hawaii. Anywhere.”

“And on this date, we can do whatever I want?”

“Anything.”

“Okay. Then I want to go to your house and play in the backyard with Rosalee until she’s exhausted. Then I want to cook dinner and force you both to eat lots of vegetables. Then I want to curl up on the couch and watch the Animal Channel until she passes out. And then I want you to take me to your bed and whisper my name. My name, Caven. Not Hadley’s. Not the woman who came back. Not even the little girl from the mall. Just me.”

He smiled. “That was very specific.”

“I may have given it some thought before now.”

He touched his lips to mine. “Fine. If I give you all that, you’ll blow off the stranger and stay with me? Not the kid from the mall. Or Rosalee’s dad. Just me.”

It was a worthless promise. He would always be the boy from the mall to me. Just like I’d always be the girl at the mall to him. But we could grow into more.

More than the love we already shared.

Maybe we’d even grow into the permanent kind.

My nose began to sting, but I blinked the emotion back. It wasn’t a time for tears.

“Ryan Reynolds is going to be devastated. But yeah, I’ll do it for you.”

He was still smiling when his mouth came down on mine. It started as a lip touch—a shared sentiment of happiness and hope—before slipping into something slow and reverent. Tasting and memorizing. Life-altering and undefinable.

And I kissed him back, returning his worship stroke for stroke.

We’d said a lot of words in that car. More elephants had slid into the backseat, while a few had managed to break free into the wild.

But it finally felt like something had gone our way.

That kiss became a promise to work together.

A promise to heal.

A promise to step out of the prison of regrets and live in the seconds of the present.

We were a long way from forever, but just like the day at the mall when he’d appeared next to me, seemingly out of nowhere, I had hope that we could find a way out of this mess.

We were going to be okay. We were all going to be okay.

“It’s Saturday,” I whispered against his mouth. “Can we wait here for another twenty minutes or so? I’d like to see Truett.”

He backed away so fast that it felt like a Band-Aid being ripped from my lips. “Willow, I—”

“Relax. We aren’t going to talk to him. He’s not much of a conversationalist anyway. Have you ever met him?”

“No. Have you?”

“Yep. He might be the only person in the world holding more guilt than you.”

His forehead crinkled. “What the hell does he have to feel guilty about?”