Reverse (The Bittersweet Symphony Duet, #2)

by Kate Stewart

“You want truth? You want brutal honesty? The truth is, for the last two days, I’ve been sitting on the beach drowning in the realization that while loving you helped me recognize my worst fear, losing you left me living in it. Any life I live without you now will feel like settling.” Fear for what I’m doing threatens, but I push through it as Easton stares back at me, his stoic expression unforgiving. In the past it would have intimidated me, but I know better. “Do you think I didn’t know what I was giving up when I let you go? I’ve been brave, Easton. Brave enough to face and endure the pain and the knowledge that I lost the thing with you that made me feel the most alive. I’ve braved every day knowing I should never have let you drive away that night without telling you that I love you, that I’m sorry, and that I wish I would have done so many things differently. And I’ll regret it tomorrow, the day after, and after that for the rest of my fucking life—that’s bravery!”

“Inappropriate would be confessing I never slept with that quarterback because you were the last man to touch me intimately and are the only man I’ll ever want to again…because despite everything that’s happened, I’ve remained faithful!” Easton’s eyes widen slightly as I smack the table and lean forward. “So, you can keep on pretending that it’s no longer there between us, but you and I both know the love we feel—that we’ve always felt—isn’t going anywhere. As you’ve said all along, our parents’ story isn’t ours. But in one major way it is—because like theirs, our love is timeless,” my voice cracks on that truth because it’s the hardest to bear. “So, if you want my silence, you’re going to have to earn it with your first lie to me and tell me that I’ve got it all wrong.”

“Natalie, you’re making a scene,” Damon hisses next to me as I palm the table to keep myself upright. “Oh, but he deserves it,” I rasp out with sincerity as Easton’s eyes slam back into mine, a thousand emotions running through them as I allow him to see every crack in my exterior. “He deserves it, Damon, because he deserves a woman who’s just as protective of him and of his heart. A woman who will fight just as hard for him as he did for her.” My tears blind me briefly before I blink them free to see Easton devouring every word of the revelations pouring freely from my lips. I choke on a sob before I go completely blind to my surroundings. “I’m so sorry,” I croak. “I’m sorry if I ever made you feel like anything less to me than my supernova…and you should know the only thing I’ve ever despised about you, Elliot Easton Crowne, is your last fucking name.”

I might hate hindsight for the bitch she is, but I have her to thank for giving me clarity on exactly what my worst crimes are when it comes to my ex-husband. It isn’t the promises we’ve broken but the vows we both failed to uphold. Patience, kindness, understanding, protection, preservation, all of them. They’re the chosen vows countless others have spoken in ceremony for good reason. I didn’t fully comprehend how keeping them close could have kept us united, nor did I understand the importance of each one of them, until we fell apart.

Either way, intertwined between my melancholy and heartbreak, is a relief that, at least now, he knows. If he decides to walk away, I’ll force myself to watch him with a peace I didn’t have before I voiced my regrets to him. That is, if he hasn’t already fled himself.

Even knowing my rejection may be inevitable, like Easton, I have to swing anyway. There are high stakes to truly loving another human being, and you have to hand your heart to them with all the trust you have without knowing the o...

“I’m in love with Easton Crowne, Daddy, and I’m never going to fall out of love with him, and I t-think…” she hangs her head, her cries carrying over to me and breaking me down completely, piece by piece as does her next declaration. “I think it’s way too late. I think…I think I’ve lost him for good, but I’m going to try like hell to get him back, and if I do…I’m going to put him first.”

“We broke a lot of promises being young, reckless, and naïve—but I think I figured out where we went wrong—at least, where I went wrong.” Taking a steadying breath, I keep swinging. “Love is patient, Easton—it has to be, and we both needed it. Love is kind. We had that in abundance and lost it along the way. We both needed to remember that, we…I,” I run the sleeve of his jacket over my face. “Those promises we made, they mattered, but it was the vows that would have kept us together—the vows I wish I would have paid more attention to. You were always protective, but I wasn’t the only one that needed protecting, and I didn’t do my part, and for that, I’ll forever be sorry.” Mustering the strength I have left, I continue to swing. “I left you alone in it—I didn’t mean to, but I did. I let their past and my guilt tear us apart. I allowed my relationship with my father to overrule the most important love of my life—you. I took your patience and love for granted, Easton, because I believed in you—in everything you said, in the way you viewed and felt about us, because I felt and believed it too. But I didn’t nurture us the way I should have, when you needed me most, because I was too terrified to lose my future. But I lost it anyway when I lost you…and I miss you so much. I miss us. I regret more than anything, not apologizing for my mistakes when I had the chance.” I step closer to him, and he remains where he stands. “Married or not, I want the chance back to uphold those vow...