Louisiana Sky (Love in Belle Pont #2) by Ashleigh Zavarelli Page A

he’d told me that. If only to reaffirm that wasn’t the case.
    “Now I don’t plan on makin’ any excuses,” he continued. “But I would like to give you an explanation for why I done what I done.”
    I inhaled a shaky breath and nodded, waiting for the words that I needed to hear a long time ago. And I’m sure I could have, if I’d just given Bentley a chance to explain. But my heart wouldn’t let me.
    “When you and I started… well, hookin’ up, I wasn’t in a good place. You already know that, and like I said, it ain’t an excuse. I was an angry drunk who just generally thought I was no good, and then you came along… and Roxy, you were so God damned sweet and innocent and beautiful in every way. You kept complimenting me and tellin’ me how amazing I was, and it just didn’t sit right with me.”
    “I was confused as hell because I’d never felt anything like the things I felt when we were together. But at the same time, I knew everything you thought I was couldn’t be true. And I’d get angry and say stupid shit to upset you, just to prove a point to myself I guess.”
    “I remember.” I gave him a wobbly smile. “You never could get out of your own damn way.”
    “Ain’t that the damn truth,” he mumbled, scrubbing a hand through his hair. “But the last time I saw you, before that night… I just kept replayin’ it through my mind. How I’d made you cry, and how much it just completely broke me to see you that way. And I knew that I was too selfish to let you go, so the only choice I had was to make you hate me.”
    I opened my mouth to argue when Bentley cut me off. “I didn’t say it was a good choice. I was an angry drunk, remember?”
    I tried not to smile, because I knew which part was comin’ next, but I couldn’t help it. I was half smiling half-crying by that point.
    “I kinda’ figured you’d stop by that night.” He blew out a shaky breath. “I was at Murphy’s when Bethany threw herself at me, and I sure as hell didn’t take her home because I liked her if that’s what you think, Rox. Ain’t no woman on this planet that could ever compare to you, but I just figured at the time it was what I needed to do. I was drunk and stupid, and I wasn’t thinkin’ clearly about how much it would hurt you. I don’t think there’s anything I can ever do or say to take away that hurt from you. I wish there was. The only thing I can tell you is that I never wanted her. I kicked her out right after you left, and I haven’t spoken to her since. I haven’t been with anyone since, matter of fact, because it just don’t feel right if it ain’t you.”
    The tears welled up in my eyes, and they were too powerful to stop. And as soon as Bentley saw me crying, he pulled me into his arms and sat us both down on the sofa.
    “I’m so sorry, Rox,” he whispered. “I really am. If I could take it back, I would. I would do anything not to have hurt you that way. All I can do now is prove to you that I’m a better man. That I love you more than anything, and I want you in my life.”
    He rocked me back and forth in his arms until I was all cried out, and then he just held me tight, waiting for me to say something. Everything he’d told me wasn’t anything I didn’t already know. I knew Bentley was hatin’ on himself for some reason, which is why I was always complementing him. And I knew that he’d been with Bethany that night to hurt me, but he didn’t know about her and Corey, or just how much it would devastate me.
    It still hurt like hell, but truthfully, I wanted to forgive him. To forget all of it and move on. If only it were that easy. I decided while we were having a heart to heart to just put myself out there on the line too.
    “You know you were only my second,” I said. “Corey was my first, but I always wanted it to be you, Bentley. You just never gave me the time of day.”
    He stared at me with pain filled eyes, squeezing me just a little bit tighter.
    “I