Miracle (Carmichael Series #4)✔️

The Truth

**NEW VERSION - EDITED**

Brock's POV

My dad left and my fingers started to tremble with nerves as my heart began to pound in my chest. I could do this.

"You wanna sit down?" I asked, pulling out one of the bar stools in front of me for her to sit. She slowly eased her way onto the seat before giving me an expectant look.

"There's something I need to talk to you about," I began before swallowing the pit of nerves that had settled in the base of my throat, making it hard to speak. She nodded, but that was the only indication she gave me to continue speaking.

"When I was seventeen, my father was shot," I began, looking down at my now-clenched fists as I tried to control my breathing. I heard her swift intake of air before her hand shot out to grasp my forearm. Her gentle hold on me brought comfort I hadn't known before. "It was a deranged cop that had a vendetta against him from their earlier years because of jealousy over my mom. He was in a coma for a while. We didn't know if he was going to make it," I husked out, my voice breaking. I shook my head harshly, wiping a rough hand down my face. "My mom...it changed her a lot. And it fucked me up. Seeing her go through so much because of my dad's injury...I never wanted to do that. I never wanted to allow myself to experience that kind of love for fear of losing it like she almost did."

"Brock," she sighed, her tone holding so much sympathy as she pulled me towards her. I allowed her to envelope me in her warm embrace, her hand guiding my face into the crook of her neck.

"That night...when I broke things off with you," I continued, my voice growing unsteady. "I never told you the truth about that night, Dani. There was a reason everything looked so fancy and special. When you found me in the kitchen when I was supposed to be getting the champagne and you said-"

"That you looked like you'd seen a ghost," she finished for me through a whisper, pulling back to stare into my eyes intensely. I nodded.

"I wasn't getting champagne. I was getting the ring. I was planning to propose that night. You weren't the only one who'd developed feelings, Dani. As far as I was concerned, you were the only woman who existed in my world. Fuck, I even started contacting a few travel agencies to see about taking a trip together out of the country. You said you always wanted to eat authentic Italian pasta and take a gondola ride in Venice. I wanted to make that dream a reality. And then I wanted to be the man who whisked you away to see the northern lights up close and personal so you could finally get the inspiration you needed to recreate them on a canvas.

"Those things scared the shit out of me because when I realized what I was doing and that I'd fallen so ridiculously head-over-heels in love with you...I was that seventeen-year-old kid all over again standing in the hospital waiting room watching my mom wither away while a bunch of fucking machines kept my dad alive..." I croaked out.

"Love isn't rational, baby. It's messy and scary and illogical, but it's also amazing and beautiful and so fucking worth it. A wise man once said, 'Tis better to have loved and lost, than to have never loved at all'," she murmured softly, ghosting her fingers along my jawline as a slow smile pulled at her lips. "Thank God your father is still here, but I'm sure your mother would've never wished away any of the moments she'd had with him away had things turned out differently." I pondered her words for a moment as I reached up and pressed her hand against my skin of my cheek to keep it there.

"For the record, I'm still madly, ridiculously, head-over-heels in love with you too," she murmured. My heart kicked in my chest as an ear-to-ear grin pulled at my lips. "And I heard everything earlier," she giggled before biting her lip mischievously. I scrunched my brows in slight confusion. "I may or may not have followed you to your dad's office and eavesdropped to make sure you would be okay," she confessed. My eyes flew wide open.