Chapter 51
Rusty said quietly, “I was engaged, you know? But my fiancé died. We were in love, and then he was gone.”
“I’m so sorry.” Nate couldn’t bring himself to imagine what that would feel like. To find someone, then have them ripped away.
“Don’t be. It’s been a couple years, but I’ve got in the habit of being on guard. I told myself I’d never let myself get hurt like that again.” He brushed his lips against Nate’s, then went on, whispering now. “All this time we’ve been together, I kept crossing that line I’d drawn for myself. I’d find myself liking you too much, make myself back off, but then you’d do something, and there I was liking you all over again.”
Nate didn’t know what to say.
“But you know what? Geoff wouldn’t have wanted me to draw that line in the first place. And if he’d known you, he would have liked you. I’m sorry. It seems like we’ve both wasted a lot of the short time we’ve had together, haven’t we?”