Chapter 2

Tristan POV

A little while later, Rory and I were stretched out on her couch. I couldn't believe that I finally had her back in my arms. As I laid there and lightly rubbed my fingers up and down her arm, I couldn't help but think back to the weekend that we'd spent in Boston.

***Flashback***

I was sitting in a coffee shop waiting on Christopher to show up. He'd called me and told me that he was having lunch with his daughter so he would be late. I suggested meeting at a coffee shop knowing that he might need a pick me up after lunch. However, I was completely shocked when I saw him walk into the coffee shop with the blue-eyed brunette that I'd been in love with since I was seventeen. He saw me sitting at my table and I waved at him. She looked at me before she looked back at him and said something. Then I watched them walk over. "Tristan. I want to introduce you to my daughter." He said. Daughter?

"It's okay Dad. Tristan and I go way back." She said. Christopher looked confused.

"We went to Chilton together." I said.

"Pre-military school." She said, giving me a half smile.

"Ah. Well, I'm going to grab me and Rory some coffee. Is it okay if she joins us?" Christopher asked me. I simply nodded.

I waited until Christopher had gone to order before I looked back at Rory. "What are you doing here?" I asked her.

"I had an interview with the Boston Globe." She said, sitting down at the table. "What about you?" She asked me.

"Working for my father. He's convinced that I can get your dad to agree to a merger." I said.

She nodded. "Good luck with that. Grandma will never agree to it. Neither would I." She said. I looked at her confused. "I own 60 percent of the company." She said looking down.

"You're the Hayden Heiress?" I asked.

She nodded. "Gilmore too." She said.

I looked up and saw Christopher was heading back. "Can we catch up later? Just the two of us?" I asked.

She looked back at me. "Sure. I'd really like that." She said.

After Christopher and I had talked, he said that he had to get back to the office, leaving Rory and I alone. After he left, I looked at her and smiled. "It's really good to see you Rory." I said.

She smiled back at me. "It's good to see you too. How have you been?" She asked me.

"I've been good. After military school, I went to Harvard and then Harvard Law. While I was in Law school, my father moved his law practice here. He claimed it was because he needed to get away from Hartford but I really think that it was so that he could keep an eye on me. I don't think that he really believed that I had changed." I said.

"And have you?" She asked. I guess I had a confused look on my face. "Changed. That is."

I nodded. "Yeah. I have. I owe you an apology, Rory. Back at Chilton, I was a jerk to you. I'll admit, when I first met you, you were a conquest. But then I quickly realized that you were different than the rest of the girls there. Then I started to notice little things about you and the next thing I knew…we were sitting at Madeline's party and I was kissing you. I'd never felt anything like it. And I haven't since." I said, trying to gauge her reaction. "When you asked me if I wasn't over Summer, I lied. It was you that I had in my head. When you said that you hated me, it nearly killed me. That was when I started hanging out with Duncan and Bowman." I told her.

She sat her coffee down and reached across the table to touch my hand. "I never hated you." She said.

"So it really was because of Dean then?" I asked her.

She shook her head. "It took me a long time to realize that my mom, Dean…hell even Paris had been right all along. I'd had feelings for you…and I wasn't sure what to make of it. Dean had been my first boyfriend, and then you came along. I didn't know what I was doing." She said.

We finished our coffee and decided to take a walk through the park. We started walking along one of the paths and she linked her arm with mine. "How long are you in Boston?" I asked her.

"Just the weekend. I have to get back to Hartford. My mom's engagement party is this weekend." She said.

"Wow. I bet that's exciting." I stupidly said. She laughed.

"It's been a long time coming that's for sure." She said.

I stopped walking. I turned to face her. I pulled her to me. I looked down at her. "If I kiss you, you promise not to cry?" I asked her. She nodded. I leaned down and crashed my lips to hers. I had wanted to do since the first time that I'd kissed her all those years ago. It felt the same but yet it felt so much better at the same time. When I pulled back, I leaned my forehead against hers. "I should have done that when I left that night." I said.

She smiled up at me through her eyelashes. "I wish you had." She said.

We spent the rest of the afternoon, catching up and talking about our lives. We talked about everything. She told me about her time at Yale. Why she picked Yale. I told her that I looked for her at Harvard. She told me about her time with the Life and Death Brigade. She told me about interning for Uncle Mitchum. Then I found out that she'd dated Logan. I felt conflicted. Logan and I'd always had an agreement that we'd never date each other's exes. This completely complicated things. I'd told her that Logan was my cousin. She said that it actually explained a lot of my behavior when we were at Chilton.

That night after we had dinner together, we'd gone back to my apartment and we'd had a couple of drinks and ended up making out on the couch. When she'd pulled back, I couldn't help but stare into her eyes. "Rory?" I said.

"Yeah…"

I wanted to tell her that I was in love with her. I wanted to tell her that I wanted to be with her. I wanted to make love to her. But I couldn't. The only thing I could say was, "You're so beautiful."

"Tris?" She said.

I reached up and brushed a piece of hair behind her ear. "Yeah?"

"I love you. I have for a long time." She said.

She said the words that I'd wanted to hear from her for so long. I put my hand on the back of her head and pulled her back in for another heated kiss. I'd loved her for so long that I had started to think that I'd never get this chance with her.

One way or another I was going to figure out how we could be together

***End Flashback***

I laid there with her and smiled thinking about that weekend. Rory sat up so that she was straddling me again. "What's with that smile?" She asked me.

I sat up a little bit. "I was just thinking about our weekend in Boston. It was the best weekend of my life. Until you had to leave that is." I said.

She smiled. "That was a great weekend. It was that weekend that I realized just how much I love you." She said. She leaned forward and kissed me.

I wrapped my arms around her tight, pulling her as close to me as I possibly could. "So, you know how I told you that your Dad hired me." I said. She nodded. "Well, he's decided to move the firm back to Hartford, essentially making me a partner…on one condition."

"And what condition would that be?" She asked me.

I smiled at her. I was hoping that she was going to be happy about what I was going to say. "He told me that the only way that he was going to hire me would be for me to move to Hartford and reconnect with you…getting you back in my life." I said.

Rory stood up from my lap and went to the kitchen. She came back with two beers, handing me one. She opened hers and took a drink. She sat down on the other end of the couch. "So, you're really back for good." She said and I nodded. "And you've come back to win my heart?" She asked me. I nodded again. "So, what's your plan?" She asked me.

I groaned quietly. I knew that this wasn't going to be easy. I had known that when I told her that things were going to be complicated not only because of Logan but because of the distance that if we ever found ourselves in the same city again that it would be a long shot for me to win her back.

I thought back to my conversation with Logan a month ago.

***Flashback***

I'd been sitting in my office, staring at my phone. Christopher had told me that he'd hire me if I got Rory to take me back. Mainly because he knew how much I loved her and how much she loved me. But I knew that there was one other person that I needed to talk to before I made the trip to Hartford for the reunion knowing that Paris would drag her there.

I picked up the phone and dialed the familiar number. "Huntzberger." He said when he answer.

"Hey it's me." I said.

"Tristan? Everything okay man?" He asked.

I rubbed my hand over my face. "I don't know but I need to talk to you. Do you have time right now?" I said.

"Yeah. I got a minute. What's going on?" Logan asked.

"Alright, so do you remember the girl that I told you about? The one from Chilton?"

"Yeah, I think so. She kept turning you down but you swore that the two of you were meant to be together. Right?"

"Yeah, that's the one. Anyway, a couple of years ago we ran into each other in Boston. She was visiting her Dad. Anyway, we spent the weekend together. But I knew that the timing wasn't right because of a couple of complications." I said.

This wasn't going to be easy. He might even get pissed. "What kind of complications?" Logan asked.

"Well the first was the fact that we live in different cities. The second is her ex. I know him. I know him really well." I said.

"Well, how long have they been apart?"

"Going on ten years…maybe a little longer." I said.

"Well, in my opinion that's a moot point." Logan said.

"Really?"

"Yeah. I mean they clearly have had enough time for closure and to move on with their lives. I mean hell, maybe they're like me and my ex." He said.

"What do you mean?" I asked him. As far as I knew he and Rory hadn't talked. Or at least that's what I'd heard.

"Well, we ran into each other six months after we broke up and cleared the air. Then a few years ago, she called me. This guy had completely broken her heart and she needed someone who would know what she was going through. We hung out a little and I'd told her that if things were meant to be that they'd find their way back to each other." Logan said. "Why are you asking? You thinking about moving closer to her."

"I'm not sure yet. But there's something I need to tell you about the girl." I said sounding a bit cryptic.

"Okay…"

"It's Rory." I said.

There was silence for a minute. "What do you mean it's Rory?" He asked me.

I let out a sigh. "Couple years ago, I was working to try and merge with another high profile law firm on behalf of my father. Turned out that it was Rory's family firm, only I didn't know that at the time. Anyway, he came in to meet me for coffee and Rory was with him." I told him.

"Rory was in Boston?" He asked.

"Yeah. It surprised me too. She said that she was in town for an interview with the Boston Globe. So the three of us had coffee. When her Dad left to go back to the office, Rory and I spent the afternoon together catching up. We had dinner together that night and ended up spending the weekend together." I told him. He didn't say anything so I continued. "When she got ready to leave at the end of the weekend, she told me about you. Didn't specifically say your name, but I knew that it was you."

"Why are you telling me this?" Logan asked.

"I'm in love with her. I have been for a long time. You and me we've always been close. I need you to tell me that it's okay. I need to know that you're okay with me being with her if I move back to Hartford and she forgives me." I said.

There was silence for a minute. "Earning Rory's forgiveness isn't going to be easy. I know that firsthand. But I also know what it's like to be loved by her. In the time since Rory and I broke up, I have come to know her in a different light. If she forgives you, yeah I'm okay with it. But having her love and her loyalty…it's the greatest thing in the world." Logan said.

"Thanks man." I said.

***End Flashback***

"My plan is to love you for as long as you will let me." I said. Rory didn't say anything or move. I sat up so that I was facing her and I grabbed her hand. "Rory, please forgive me and give us a chance. I'm not gonna screw it up again. I promise you."

She looked deep in thought. "You have a lot of groveling to do." She said.

I couldn't help but smile at her words. She sat her beer on the coffee table as I pulled her back into my lap. "I will." I told her as I leaned in for a kiss. "Let's go to bed."

"I'm not sleepy." She said.

"Who said anything about sleep. I have groveling to do." I told her.