“How? How can you still love me? If I deserved it before, I definitely don’t now,” I said, exasperated.

He shrugged. “I just love you. I don’t stop to question whether or not you’re worthy. But you can’t keep forcing me to make choices that aren’t mine.”

I had burned him twice. Anyone else would have walked away by now, but he still loved me.

“You’re right. You’re absolutely right. I know I said I wasn’t scared of you. But I lied. I tried not to fall in love with you, but I didn’t want to try too hard. Now, we’re here, and every time I try to do the right thing, it’s wrong. I hurt you, just like I knew I would.”

He took a step toward me, interlacing his fingers with mine. He grazed his lips along my cheek until his mouth was whispering against my ear, “No one could have been prepared for this scenario. I don’t blame you. I don’t want an apology. I just want you to stop the bullshit, Ivy League. You’re smart, but you’re not always smarter than me.”

I looked up at him, the corners of my mouth curling up.

“We’ve got a baby on the way,” he said.

“You have a baby on the way.”

“No, this is our baby. You have said from the beginning that this was all happening exactly the way it was supposed to. You can’t pick and choose. It’s either fate, or it’s not.”

“What if she changes her mind? What if she comes back?”

“Then we adjust. We don’t fall apart.”

My eyes filled with tears. “I’m afraid. That’s a lot to ask.”

“I’m not asking.” He held the back of my neck and kissed me, tightly closing his eyes, as if it were painful. He held my cheeks and looked straight into my eyes. “You’ve walked away from me twice, Falyn. I go back to Estes in a couple of months. I’m going to be a dad in December. I’m fucking terrified. But I love you, and that surpasses fear.”

Even after months of being apart, being in his arms felt normal, as if it had always been and would always be. I couldn’t break his heart again even if it meant being brokenhearted later. I didn’t know anymore what the right thing to do was. I just knew that I loved him, and he loved me, too. That was worth all the pain before and all the pain to come.

“Okay. I’m in.”

He leaned back, scanning my entire face. “You’re in? Which part?”

“Estes Park, the baby—all of it.”

A cautious small smile touched his lips. “When?”

“When you go back, I’ll go with you.”

“Falyn.”

“Yeah?”

“I’m having trouble believing you.”

“I know. But I promise.”