A/n:Well, here's the next part. Read, review, lemme know. Another 10 reviews, and we get a new chapter! :)

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His words rang out in the still night, echoing in his ears, and he watched as she blinked in surprise.

"Oh, great," she said, tentatively smiling. "A friendly drunk."

"No!" he shouted, his chest heaving, pulling away from the hand she reached out.

"Travis?"

"No," he said, shaking his head. "No, this time I'm gonna talk. This time I'm gonna speak!"

She blinked again, her face scrunched up in that cute way she had of doing when she was thinking hard.

He shook his head, not allowing himself to get carried away in her beauty, in any aspect of her.

"Do you know what happened that night?" he asked, fixing his intense blue-grey eyes on her. "Do you have the slightest idea?"

"What night?" she asked, her voice small.

He knew she knew.

"You broke my heart that night," he said, his words suddenly precise, cutting. "Because why? You were tired of waiting for me to say 'I loved you'? Because you couldn't see just how much I did when you looked in my eyes? I've never been a conventional man and you know it!"

She stepped back an inch, her eyes wide.

"You have no idea how hard it is," he continued, "to grow up in a house without love. Hearing those words so few and far between. For a long time I didn't even think I knew what love was. Coming home to an empty house, hearing my parents exchange empty words, and hollow kisses."

She was biting her lip now, and he wanted to reach out to her, tell her not to hurt herself. Despite that, he found the words still spilling out.

"When I met you? I knew. I knew despite all that, what love was. Waking up and counting the seconds until I saw your face again. Holding your hand, touching your skin..." he took a step forward, and placed a finger to her lips. "Kissing you..."

He removed his hand, and stepped backwards again.

She blinked, and tears fell.

"We were together how long? And it was good, baby, you know it was good. We fit," he cried. "We fit. I didn't want to say those words until I knew. And when I knew, I didn't want to say them until the moment was right. Perfect. Make them so you'd always remember them, and the feelings behind them. You'd never have to second guess whether I meant them."

He struggled to swallow, tears freely flowing from his own eyes now. "That night I asked you to meet me? That night in the snow?"

She was shaking her head now.

"The night you broke my heart?" he continued, knowing he was hurting her, wanting to stop, but needing to go on. "You told me you couldn't wait forever. To know that I really loved you, right? Couldn't waste your time in a relationship going nowhere?"

She nodded, almost imperceptibly.

"I had the ring in my pocket. I had the words in my head. I had the greatest love of all in my heart," he said, thumping his chest with a fist. "I was going to ask you if you would do me the honor of being my wife. Of making me the happiest man on the fucking planet by promising me we'd be together forever."

"I should have told you then, should have stopped you from walking away," he said, shaking his head violently. "But I couldn't speak, I couldn't, and I let you go!"

"Travis -" she started.

"I should have spoken up before that, and told you how much I loved you," he cut her off. "But I didn't. That was my mistake. But don't tell me, do not tell me I don't know what love is. Don't for one second think that I never think about it."

He sniffled, his voice breaking. "I think about it everyday. How much I loved you. What I could have done to make things different. How badly I fucked things up."

One step closer, and he could see her eyes, so beautiful, rimmed in red.

"Never. Once."

He turned his back on her, unwilling to let her see the pain in his eyes.

"Never once did I stop loving you."

And he summoned up all his courage, all his strength. This time he would be the one to walk away. He would not let her leave him again.