My heart stuttered at the raw quality of his voice. I wanted to deny that I’d uttered those words, but I couldn’t. How could I when it was the truth, and it wasn’t like I could take those words back. I couldn’t.

Lowering my hand, I drew in a shallow breath. “I love you; I’m in love with you.”

Seth jerked like I’d punched him. “You can’t love me.”

My mouth dropped open. “There you go again! Telling me what I can do and not do! Telling me how I feel. Stop doing that.”

“But I . . .” He shook his head. “I’m at a loss to what to say.”

“Well, that’s a first,” I said dryly, but the fact he had no idea what to say stung as if I’d stepped on a hornets’ nest. “I don’t even know why I told you that. Not like I haven’t embarrassed myself enough when it comes to you. I don’t even know why I’m in love with you. You’re an ass. And I have shitty taste in—”

“Stop.” He shot in front of me, moving so fast I didn’t see him until we were face to face. “Please just . . . I . . . I don’t know what to say, Josie.”

I winced, feeling what he was saying all the way to the core. “That . . . that says everything, Seth, because if you don’t—” My voice cracked, right along with what was left of my heart. “If you don’t know what to say, then that’s it.”

“You don’t understand.” His voice was low.“I don’t understand anything.” Heart aching, I stepped to the side, but Seth followed.

“Please, just let me go. We can forget we even had—”

He clasped my cheeks in a gentle grasp. “No one has ever told me that before.”

“What?” I whispered after a moment.

His eyes were wide, slightly dilated. “No one has ever said they loved me or were in love with me, and actually meant it.”

I couldn’t believe that. Not even his mother? Yes, that was a different kind of love, but then I remembered how his mom was and once again I found myself wishing she was alive so I could bitch-slap her into eternity. But to live the years he had, and to never experience any kind of love wasn’t just wrong, it was sad. I wished it wasn’t so.

Seth’s hands slid down my neck, stopping where his thumbs pressed against my pulse. “But you . . .”

I had a choice here. I recognized that. I could save face and let this go. I could pull away and walk out of this room, but I was hurting for myself and despite everything that had gone on between us, I was still hurting for him. Maybe that. “But I love you.”