“Then baby, why all the pushback when I did come back to you?” I push the hair out of her face and hold her face with both hands.

“Because I was mad at myself for not waiting,” she tells me honestly, as a tear slips down her cheek. Her brown eyes are bright, her chocolate-colored orbs highlighted by the tears in her eyes. “I am mad at you too for breaking us, but… now I have to hurt someone. I put all these unresolved feelings and emotions I had over you and locked them in a box in my brain and away from where my heart could feel it so I could heal. And then you come back and you ripped it open.” She sniffles and I wipe the tears from her eyes. “I hoped and prayed every day for over a year that you’d come back and then I guess I just gave up. You told me to move on and I realized that I needed to listen. You love my parents and I understand not wanting to ruin that relationship.”

“I’ll tell them. Tomorrow. You don’t have to be there, or you can. But tomorrow.”

“No!” she says, her eyes wide and unblinking.

“No?” I frown. “Baby, we’re going to be together and before we can make it official to the world, we have to tell the people in our world.”

She shakes her head. “No, I know, but… I have to tell Parker first.”

I let out a sigh. “I thought he wasn’t back until next week?”

“He’s not, and I’ll tell him then. I just can’t do it over the phone. This also gives me time to pack up my things.”

I wince, realizing this guy thinks nothing is wrong and he’s going to come home exhausted from a long business trip to find his fiancée moving out of the house. I guess I kind of feel bad over that. “That’s fair.”

“We can tell them after, okay? We’ve waited this long.”

“Okay. No backing out. We come clean to everyone. No more secrets.” I tell her, holding my pinky finger up and she links hers with mine.