That day, he’d shown up at the bank with a dozen red roses, hoping to invite her to dinner, where he’d planned to propose to her. But when he walked into her office and found an irate man berating her for not approving his loan, Brett had lost his cool. Sidney had shaken her head at him, clearly wanting him to stay out of it, but he hadn’t listened.

Instead, he’d stepped in front of her and jumped down the guy’s throat. At the time, he hadn’t known that the asshole was the bank manager’s brother. Nor had he realized that Sidney would be so upset with him that she’d end their relationship over it. But he’d found out both of these things the moment she pulled him outside into the parking lot.

Brett hesitated to bring up the past incident, knowing it would probably anger her all over again. They needed to talk about it though and at least clear the air between them. But he didn’t want her to feel as though he was forcing her into conversation while stuck in a vehicle with him so he waited until his truck rolled to a stop at the curb in front of her home.

She opened her door to get out, and the interior light flicked on above their heads. “Thanks for the ride, Brett.”

“Sidney, can you hold on for a second? I’d like to talk to you about something before you go.”

Her face morphed with confusion, but she nodded and closed the door, plunging them back into darkness. “Okay.”

He rubbed his sweaty palms on his jeans and took a deep breath. “I wanted to talk to you about last year…when you broke things off with me.”

She shook her head. “Brett, I don’t think—”

He raised his hand to stop her. “Just hear me out. Please.” She nodded reluctantly but he could tell she wasn’t expecting this to go well. “When you broke up with me last year, I was not in the right head space to do this so I’m doing it now.”

Her hand held on to the console, and she looked as though she was bracing for impact. “All right. Go ahead, I guess.”

He nodded and continued on. “At the time, I thought you had gone a little overboard by breaking up with me over something so trivial.”

“I—”

“Just wait. Let me finish before you say anything.”

He had no doubt that she expected him to give some pathetic excuse for his ridiculous past behavior, but that wasn’t what he was doing. He’d never gotten the chance to apologize for what he had done, and now seemed as good a time as any. Maybe she would never forgive him, but he at least wanted her to know that he regretted the incident and knew how badly he’d messed up.