TWENTY-THREE

Autumn POV

AS I WALKED TOWARDS HIM, I started to feel nervous. Perhaps I shouldn’t do this. The look on his face was full of hope and the last thing I wanted was to turn it into sadness. The last thing I ever wanted was to break his heart. But at the same time, I knew this was the right thing to do—that I needed to do this for both of us to move on.

Tyler hugged me the second his eyes met mine. I let myself relax in his embrace. This would be the last one. After a while I stepped backward, his hands dropped to the side of his face and when our eyes finally met again, I knew that he knew. He knew what I was going to say. I could see it in his eyes, feel it in the air as I watched his expression turn sour.

“You don’t want to start over,” was all he said. “After all the things we’ve been through, you refused to give me another chance. Even after everything, Autumn? Really?”

“Look, Ty, I really don’t want to do this but I have to.” I took a deep breath and tried my best to ignore the