“Okay. Well, you saw me earlier,” I whispered. “That’s who I am. I’m broken. Why would you want to try to establish a relationship with me after you saw that?”

He stopped me, not with words, but by bringing his lips to mine for the first time since the day we were married. “You are not broken. You were hurt, but the woman I’ve seen, the one who made it through that shit and went back to that same school with her head held high, that woman isn’t broken. A broken person couldn’t have done that.”

“You saw,” I managed to choke out.

“I saw you have a shit moment that was partially brought on by my bad behavior and my friend saying whatever the fuck he did to trigger that attack. That just means you have things to work through, and that I need to do better by you and be supportive.”

“Okay.” I didn’t know what the hell I was agreeing to by saying that, but the word slipped out and I couldn’t grab it back.

“Okay? So, you’ll move back in and we’ll work on things?”

“Um, no.”

“Oh, I thought…”

“I agreed to be Luna’s roommate because she needs one, and because I needed a good friend. I’m staying here for now. In the eyes of the public, you cheated on me, that’s not something I can just pretend didn’t happen. If you want things to be better, then prove to me that they will be. We did this all wrong because our circumstances dictated that we had to. Whose to say that we can’t start over the right way?”

“What exactly is the right way?”

I laughed at the fact that he even had to ask. “If we were normal people, and just became interested in one another, what would come first?”

“A conversation?” He asked, as if it had been a trick question. I giggled at that. “I like that sound.”

“What?”

“You laughing. It’s one of the things I liked when I watched you before.”

“Okay, stalker. We’re having a conversation now,” I told him in order to get back on track. “So, if we were normal people progressing with a real relationship, what’s next?”

“A date?”

“Are you asking me?”

“Out on a date?” He answered back with his own question.

I rolled my eyes and turned away from Tucker. It was his turn to laugh. “Of course, I’m asking you out on a date. I just need to know when you’re free.”

“Tomorrow night, maybe Saturday?”

“Tomorrow sounds great,” he said before leaning in and placing a gentle kiss on my shoulder. “I know it’s not what normal couples might do when they’ve only had a conversation, but do you think I could stay the night? After what happened earlier, I just want to make sure you have someone here, and to be honest, I just want to hold you.”

“Hold me?” I had been questioning that he wanted to hold me, not asking him to do so, but Tucker wouldn’t be Tucker if he didn’t take some liberties with things.