Love, Exes, and Ohs (Cactus Creek #4)(57)

Dumbfounded, Xoey turned to the gorgeous smiling and nodding woman.

Christ, this was worse than an intervention. It was an invasion.

And her heart was the target.

Next he pointed at Luke, who was standing there with Dani.

“Of course you already know Luke. Before you became my best friend, he filled that role for over a decade, and he can tell you probably a hundred stories over the years of instances where he caught me thinking about you.” Eyes glued to hers, Isaac confessed softly, “He’ll tell you that I went back to that club where we first met. Every single night for weeks, I sat in that club just hoping to see you again. And when I didn’t, he can tell you I was basically a miserable son of a bitch to be around for the next few weeks following.”

Luke’s muttered, ‘Amen,’ had everyone laughing. But Xoey was reeling too far to be able to do anything but listen.

“The next spring, I’d remembered that you said you were graduating from ASU soon and so I went to the commencement ceremony. I sat in the stands of the arena and stared out at the sea of graduates, the thousands of strangers in caps and gowns, on the crazy chance that I’d see your face. I stayed the entire ceremony knowing I wouldn’t actually be able to find you, but wanting to be there with you when you graduated anyway.”

He lifted a shoulder sadly. “I didn’t know you’d deferred a semester for the pregnancy, obviously. But back then, I had thought that I’d shared that life moment with you.”

Tears were running down her face and she didn’t even move to stop it.

“And finally, Luke can tell you how many times I’ve stopped and stared at a woman, not because she was beautiful, but because there’s something about her that reminded me of you. Even though I’ve only had shadows and bits and pieces in my memories, a part of me was always looking for you, Xo. Always”

She didn’t have to see Luke’s nodding face to see the truth in that.

He walked over and put his arm around his mom. “This special lady, you already know. My mom can tell you how I called her after you’d found out I was ‘Mack,’ and how I’d looked up every video and every book on pregnancy, drilling her with question after question because I’d missed it. Your pregnancy with our child. It killed me that I hadn’t been there for you, with you for those nine months. But at least now, I know a little more of what you went through.”

Oh God. It was happening. The protective shell she’d managed to build around her heart over the past two months was cracking. Shattering, really.

“Now you see these guys over there? The walking GQ catalogue? Those are the guys you met at the house that day you tried to find me. After my ten minutes are up, they’re all going to line up and get on their friggin’ knees to beg for your forgiveness for hurting you that day, and for making you feel for one second that I didn’t want you. They’ve already apologized to me for making me lose out on nearly a decade with my son and the love of my life, but I’m leaving the decision to you. If you don’t feel like they’ve apologized to your satisfaction, if even their perfectly quaffed hair with their overuse of hair products offends you, say the word, and I will take them out back and beat the living daylights out of them.”

The five guys in question had their heads hung in shame.

And oddly enough, this strange display did make it better.

“Next, we have Lia’s brothers back there, the Spencer boys, standing next to every single guy in my gym. They can all tell you that I’ve threatened each and every one of them with severe bodily harm if anyone so much as checked you out, let alone hit on you.”

She jerked in shock over that. One look at the group of fifty or so beefy fighters—who were all standing in cross-armed fighting poses, nodding and grinning widely at her—confirmed he hadn’t been exaggerating in the least.

“And then over there, covering the entire dining area of your brewpub, is every person in this town who knows, and who has known, that I am hopelessly in love with you.”

Xoey scanned the sea of faces in the standing-room-only crowd.

“Everyone there will give you a different reason why they’re convinced I’ve never stopped loving you. And every single one of those reasons would be absolutely true.”

He came back over to her and carefully pulled out a piece of paper. “Finally, there’s this.”

She gasped. “You kept this? All these years?”

“I did. This was the note you left for me on my nightstand after our one night together. And I was wrong, baby. You did sign it. You signed it ‘XO,’ which, at the time, I had thought was just you writing hugs and kisses.”

The crowd murmured as if they’d just witnessed a fantastic plot twist.

Xoey had to admit, it was a pretty darn good one. Freaking universe.

He folded the note back up carefully. “I never forgot you, Xo. And though the universe has had a good joke at our expense for almost a decade now, I truly believe that you and I weren’t ever really apart. You weren’t the one who got away.”

Cupping her cheek gently, he said softly, “You were the one who never left—not my heart, not my soul.”

“You brighten all my days, Xo, every single one. And as the last decade has shown me, I can’t live without you in my life.”

He kneeled down then and she swore, she heard the entire room stop breathing.