Some people were made to love each other.
Others were made to destroy each other in the process.
He was never mine. Not in the way I wanted. Not in the way that mattered.
He was mine in stolen moments.
In slammed doors and whispered apologies.
In the breathless quiet of 2 a.m. when the rest of the world was asleep, and it was just him and me—breaking all the rules we swore we'd never cross.
Zac Carter was the kind of man who made chaos feel like comfort.
Who kissed like a threat and touched like a promise.
And every time he looked at me like I was something he couldn't have... I let him have me anyway.
Even when it hurt.
Especially when it hurt.
Because I'd rather be bruised by him than untouched by anyone else.
He was my brother's best friend.
My forbidden temptation.
My first everything—and the last person I should've trusted with my heart.
And still, I did.
Over and over again.
I kept letting him in, knowing he'd never stay.
Kept holding on, even when he slipped through my fingers like sand.
Because Zac didn't belong to anyone.
Not to me.
Not to the girls before me.
Not even to the future he pretended not to want.
He belonged to the ache.
To the maybe.
To the lie we both lived in every time our bodies collided and pretended it was just lust.
But it wasn't.
God, it wasn't.
It was more.
It was the way he looked at me when no one else was around—like I was the only thing tethering him to this world.
It was the way he knew how I took my coffee without asking, the way he pulled me back every time I tried to walk away, the way he whispered my name like a prayer he didn't believe in.
And it was the way he let me go anyway.
Because almost love is still a kind of love.
It's just the kind that doesn't choose you back.
I was the girl he didn't know how to stop needing.
He was the boy I never stopped waiting for.
But even I had a limit.
Even the girl who swore she'd wait forever eventually learns to pack her own damn bags.
And when I finally walked away—
I didn't look back.
He taught me how to love hard.
I taught him what it felt like to lose something you never thought could leave.
Now he's back.
And this time, I'm the one with someone else's ring on my finger.
Someone safe.
Someone good.
Someone who doesn't make me cry just by saying my name.
But Zac?
Zac is the storm.
And part of me still wants to get caught in the rain.
