Page 65 of The Puck Charmer

I hop from Moxie and head up the driveway. The door is unlocked, so I enter and call out, “Hello?” At first my voice is met with silence, but when I hear footsteps, I shut the door behind me and head down the hall and toward the kitchen. Warm memories flood me as I breathe in the familiar scents in the house, take in the furniture that’s been left to give it a warm, cozy feeling for viewings.

“Hello, Mr. Marshall?” I call out in the kitchen, and spin around, coming face to face with none other than Alek Matthews, aka, The Puck Charmer. “What…what are you doing here?” I ask, the mere sight of him fraying the tattered edges of my heart just a little more. I take a few fast breaths, working to keep it together.

“Hi,” he says softly, his gaze carefully moving over my face, like he’s worried I’m going to bolt.

I pinch the bridge of my nose. “Alek, what is going on? Why were you at the nursing home?”

“Oh, you know about that?”

He comes a bit closer, and his warmth and familiarity curl around me. I hug myself, when what I really want is for him to pull me into his arms and tell me everything is going to be all right.

“So you were there.” I shake my head as my brain rattles around inside my skull, trying to make sense of all this.

“Do you remember when I said I’d never purposely hurt you?”

“Yes,” I say and reach out to grip the counter.

“I meant it, Aly. I’d never purposely do anything to hurt you. I’m sorry. So fucking sorry I never told you who I really was.” He grabs a fistful of hair and tugs. “The thing is, I really like you. I liked the way you were with me when we first met. Natural. Yourself. You never tried to impress me, never wanted anything from me,” he grins and adds, other than my body. I shouldn’t smile. I don’t want to smile, but my lips quirk at his cuteness, my heart spilling over with the love I have for him. “I didn’t even want to sleep with you.”

I arch my brows.

“Okay, well that’s not true,” he says and puts his hands into his jean pockets. “ I totally wanted to sleep with you, but I’d never met a woman like you. In my entire life. I just wanted to be with you and I was afraid sex would mess it up. I told you that, remember?”

“I remember,” I say softly.

“I wanted to tell you who I was so many times, but I was afraid.”

I blink up at him. “What were you afraid of?”

“Of exactly what happened. That you’d think I was being an asshole, or slumming.”

I wince as I think about the things I said to him. He might have been withholding information, but my words were cruel and meant to hurt, because I was hurting. I’m not really the kind of person to hurt anyone on purpose.

“I don’t really think that,” I say. The man had been nothing but sweet to me.

“You said it because you were shocked and I’d hurt you. I understand that. But I need you to understand, I was afraid of ruining what we had.”

“What did we have?”

“We had something that was really good, Aly. Something that’s totally worth fighting for. Something that only comes around once in a lifetime, and I pray to fucking God I didn’t fuck it up. That you’ll give me a second chance.”

“Your life,” I say and glance out the window. “It’s not here. It’s in Seattle and Boston.”

He shakes his head, the frown on his face wrecking my fragile heart. “You’re trying to push me away,” he says and I realize he’s right. I am. “You’re afraid. Afraid that eventually I’ll leave. Right from the beginning, you told me this was just sex, because even then you were afraid.” His eyes lock on mine. “I will leave, Aly,” he says and I falter a bit as my stomach lurches at that truth. He reaches out, puts his warm palm on my face. “But I’ll always be back. Always. I promise.”

“You do?” I ask, hardly able to believe what I’m hearing. Alek wants more. He wants what I want. Can I forgive him for lying? Does he deserve a second chance?

“You trusted me once, and I hope you can trust me again and trust that I stand by my promise.”

I take a deep breath and let it out slowly as he stands there, pouring his heart out to me and asking for forgiveness and trust. “I trust you,” I say, warmth, love, forgiveness and understanding invading my heart.

His face relaxes and he steps closer, invading my personal space. With his body flush against mine, he says, “I realize you can’t come with me when I’m on the road, and I’d never ask that from you. You need to be here with your grandmother, but maybe you can travel with me sometimes. Let me show you the world that you’ve always wanted to see.”

“Alek…” I say, and sniff as tears fall from my eyes.

He reaches into his back pocket and pulls out a piece of paper. He holds it out to me.

“What’s this?”