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I halt midstep, turn to look at her with astonishlad Vale cut you loose before," she says simply

My hackles immediately stand to attention While I know Avery wasn’t fond of ht she had Vale’s best interest at heart I feel like I was in Vale’s best interest, despite a bad ht Avery knew that too, but apparently I’ to say, Av," I say with anger tinged in my voice "Especially since that’s old history"

"Exactly," she says, inclining her head to the side as if to eain Now is your time"

I blink…once, twice…stupidly a third time "Now is my time?"

"Yeah," she says with a minor eye roll as she unfurls her arer into the ht back then It’s easy in hindsight to see it Too immature…impetuous Too focused on each other to the detriment of all else It wasn’t your time then"

"But it is now?" I ask skeptically, because she al for us?

"Yes, it is now"

We stare at each other a moment and I shaketo say Clearly, ns supreme across my face, because she elucidates

"It’s like this, Hawke You had your career set You were a great hockey player and you were going places The only place Vale was going was for a ride in your hip pocket She had no direction, motivation, or ambition Look at what she’s become now and tell ether"

My one to school, even if she followed ht?

"Vale’s heart was broken when you two split, but she grew up She grew up fast and she was focused She becaes, if the way you look at her is any indication You may not see it, and she may never admit it, but the way in which your relationship failed was the best thing to ever happen to the two of you"

That siht?

Or do the facts speak for themselves and whisper a truth I haven’t considered before? That perhaps neither one of us had the maturity to appreciate the other What we had wasn’t really the one, great true love we thought it to be