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“Nora My nao Dry those tears and find those people you love and tell theh that was mixed with a sob

With a final wave, I turned and all but ran to the terlass doors to be met with a sheet of rain

And then …

“Whitney? Oh my God, Whitney!”

I turned to see Kyle running toward me

“Kyle?”

His hair was plastered to his forehead from the rain

“Don’t get on that plane”

“Kyle, I—”

He grabbed my face and kissed me His lips bruised mine with force He kissed me with all his pain, all his fear, all his love

How could I have wanted to run fro with me?

“I love you, Whitney I love you so damn much And Katie loves you And we can’t live our life without you in it, and we don’t expect you to be Super Wife and Mom We just want you there with us And I know you bla stop it already It was just that—an accident But running away and leaving us behind for four months isn’t an accident That’s just bullshit And you promised you’d be there For Katie For o back on a proripped my face

“Kyle, I know, I—”

He wouldn’t letit was for appearances only, but you and I both know that’s not how it is now This is for real This is forever Forget that weekend eight years ago I don’t care about our past I don’t care about any of it I only care about now and our future and us being together with our daughter”

“But Josie—” I started to say

“Fuck her Seriously She’s not interested in being a ood thing I recorded our conversations because they shohat acustody of Katie Hell, she’ll be lucky to get visitation But it doesn’t ether”

Then he was kissingaround me

“I love you I love you so damn much Come home Please” Kyle’s eyes were red, and I could see how exhausted he was After everything he’d been through in the past twenty-four hours, I felt horrible for adding more to his plate

He didn’t need this He neededHe needed my love, not my fear