Chapter 85

We both rushed to pick it up and bumped into each other, my head bumping his shoulder roughly and his head brushing my ear. We laughed and immediately stood. For the time being we had forgotten the poem on the floor and simply stood facing each other, staring into each other’s eyes like lost cowboys.

“Dixon,” he whispered, touching my right cheek and wiping my tears away, “I’m sorry about everything.” We were standing so close that his breath warmed my face. “Toby is no longer.”

“Toby is no longer,” I repeated, enjoying hearing those words.

He took his hand from my cheek and laid it on my hip. His other hand followed suit and now he had me in his grip, perhaps keeping me from falling to the floor in my thick state of nervousness. He whispered, “It’s all about you. My heart has always been about you. You have to understand that. You have to forgive me and trust me. You have to believe that I’m a good man who will never hurt you again.”