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I know._ He leaned in and brushed his knuckles across her cheek. __nd you can try and pretend it__ okay. That you__e strong and tough and you don__ need anyone. That you didn__ need her. But that__ all bullshit. I know it, and you know it.__avannah stared at Cole.__ou__e so pushy. I told you my story. Why can__ you leave it alone?___ave you ever dealt with it?__he__ spent so many years holding it all inside.____ here right now, aren__ I? I obviously dealt with my past._____ not talking about surviving it. Yeah, you survived it. But you haven__ let go of it._ He rubbed her arm. __hat she did to you mattered. It wasn__ fair.__e was wrong. She was fine. It didn__ matter. She had always shown everyone how strong she was.__how me how you feel, Peaches.__er bottom lip trembled. She got up, walked to the window to look outside, staring at the darkness, not really seeing anything but the years falling away, stripping away the cool, confident woman she was now, revealing the scared little girl she once was. She__ vowed to never go back to that place, to never revisit those feelings again, yet here she stood.Cole wrapped his arms around her. She stiffened.__t__ okay to be vulnerable, Savannah, to let someone see you scared._____ not scared. Not anymore.

She leaned against him, listening to his strong heartbeat as they cuddled together.Maybe he didn__ say all the right things, and maybe he didn__ do it all in the right way, but he was hers, and she was his, and they__ figure it all out together. Because she knew now that both of them were in this for the long haul, and that he__ be there for her no matter what.And that__ what counted the most.

Yet she was so sweet. She wasn__ a hard-ass, wasn__ jaded after all that had been done to her. In bed, she was giving and generous. And she smiled a lot. She seemed to enjoy life.Whereas he__ been nothing but a giant pain in the ass, taking for granted everything that had been given to him. He__ had it so easy, while his parents had struggled to give him a good life so all he had to do was go out and live his dream.He and Savannah were as different as night and day. How could she tolerate being around him? He was nothing but a spoiled football player who craved the spotlight. He didn__ deserve to be sharing a bed with her. She needed someone who cared for her, who thought of nothing but her, who__ give up everything just to give her the kind of life she deserved.He sucked in a breath and realized it was time he made some serious life changes. It was time to go all in and stop hesitating about the things he really wanted in his career. In his life.It was time to start taking some chances.