Shattered: A Salvation Society Novel by Bella Emy (pdf to ebook reader .TXT) 📕

I had to catch a connecting one… everything was delayed.. But I finally made it to you. I wouldn’t have missed seeing your pretty face for the world…”

Smirking again, I drop my arms and place one on my hip. I’m not buying his story. “Erin said she kept texting you to see where you were, but you didn’t respond after that time…”

He shakes his head. “My phone died, Lexi. See?” He pulls out his phone and holds it out in front of me, pressing on the home screen to show me it’s not going on. What does he think, that I was born yesterday? He could have easily turned it off before he got here to make me try to believe him.

I guess the look on my face is telling him he needs to try harder. “Lexi, I wouldn’t lie. I have no reason to lie. I came all this way to tell you I,” he looks down momentarily before meeting my gaze once more, and then continues, “I love you. There is nothing else I want more in this world than to be with you.”

“You came all the way out to Jersey just to repeat the same words you told me while I was out in California, the same words you used years ago before you took off and left me…”

Okay, yes, I know what the letter from my mother said, but for some reason, I just can’t let him off the hook that easily. If he wants to be with me and loves me like he claims he does, he’s going to have to work for it. I went through too much without him, trying desperately to mend my shattered heart all on my own. I need to know and feel deep within the depths of my heart that he means what he says. I need to be sure that he’s not going to leave me lonely once again.

He gazes down at the ground before him once again, and then as his eyes lock with mine once more, he looks defeated. He reaches forward and grabs my hands in his. “Lexi, I was a kid back then… I didn’t know any better.” He lets out a deep breath. “And I hate to bring your mother back into this because I don’t want you to think I’m being disrespectful to her, God rest her soul, but it’s true what I said before. She wanted me to keep away from—”

“I know it is. I know it’s true. Erin told me about the letter she wrote to me before she passed.”

He furrows his brows, looking confused. “Your mother wrote you a letter?”

Tears begin to fill my eyes, and the anger I felt for him begins to fade. I nod. “Yeah. She came clean and told me her reasons and that it was her who sent you away, making you think that if you truly cared about me, you’d leave me alone. You’d walk away without asking any questions and just let me live my life… if you truly cared about me…”

Kalen squeezes my hands tighter in his. “I did, and I do… I love you, Lexi.” He lets my left hand go and wipes a tear that’s falling down my cheek.

He shakes his head. “Still, I should have said something. Of course I loved you then and wanted the best for you, but I didn’t know then it meant that me leaving you wasn’t it. I didn’t know how to stand up to your mother and tell her there was no way I was leaving you, no way I was going to let you go.”

I nod but don’t say a word to interrupt his speech.

“I was immature and thought I was doing the right thing by you, by me, by her… I didn’t know that no matter what, love conquers all, and if you love someone, you work through it and make it work. I was just a stupid high school kid then. Please don’t hold that against me. Don’t punish me because of my naivety. Give me a chance to love you and prove to you I’m no longer that young boy, the one who let the girl of his dreams walk away, or rather, be the one who walked out on the best thing that ever happened to him because, Lexi, you… you are the best thing that ever happened to me, the greatest experience of my life, and I don’t want to lose you. I love you, Lexi. I love you so damn much, and I’m ready and willing to show you every day for the rest of my life just how much you mean to me. Please. Please come back with me to California and let’s start our life together.”

My eyes light up through the tears, and I can’t believe what he’s telling me. “What? But how can I leave and go back to Cali with you? I just got my job back here and—”

“Lexi, I know you love your job, but that’s just what this is. A job. Not your dream. This is not what you want to do. I know that,” he says, cutting me off.

“Well, I know, but what I had planned out didn’t technically pan out.”

“I purchased the old, abandoned ice cream parlor next to Starfish by the Sea. I have the keys and the paperwork right here,” he says, pulling the items out of his pocket. Then handing them to me, he says, “You can turn it into the lounge you were dreaming about. If you want it, it’s yours.” He wraps my hands around them.

“W-what?” I can’t believe my ears. Is this really happening? “You purchased the place?”

He smiles. “Yes, and it’s ready to be remodeled and decorated to your liking. All you have to do is say yes. Say yes that you’ll come back to Cali with me and yes that you’ll take it…” He moves in just a tad closer to me and whispers, “and hopefully yes, that you’ll be