Mine to Treasure

<p><strong style=color: rgba(15 17 17 1)><em>What happens when the one woman you've loved for the last ten years runs out of excuses as to why you can't be together?</em></strong></p><p></p><p><span style=color: rgba(15 17 17 1)>I've been in love with a man I couldn't claim as my own for ten years.</span></p><p><span style=color: rgba(15 17 17 1)>Instead of giving into my heart's desire I broke his and married another.</span></p><p><span style=color: rgba(15 17 17 1)>Now I'm divorced and the owner / operator of a kennel catering to military members. I've recruited most of the K9 handlers I served with-all of whom are now veterans-to come partner with me as we build a premier working dog training facility.</span></p><p><span style=color: rgba(15 17 17 1)>Last recruit on my list: the man whose love I refused.</span></p><p><span style=color: rgba(15 17 17 1)>Our on again / off again affair was a secret or so we thought.</span></p><p><span style=color: rgba(15 17 17 1)>To say there is tension in the office is an understatement but I hope Saint takes solace in my self-imposed misery. Truthfully I got more pain than I deserved and while I'll never be able to take back the heartache I caused him I can offer him the opportunity to be part of something bigger than all of us.</span></p><p></p><p><span style=color: rgba(15 17 17 1)>He should hate me. I certainly do and have the scars-internally and externally-to prove it.</span></p><p><span style=color: rgba(15 17 17 1)>Except he says he not only doesn't hate me but still wants me.</span></p><p><span style=color: rgba(15 17 17 1)>After all of these years all this pain I don't understand why but I've run out of excuses as to why we can't be together and he knows it.</span></p><p><span style=color: rgba(15 17 17 1)>Maybe I'm heading into an emotional trap one where he exacts his revenge by making me fall in love with him so he can break my heart? Jokes on him I never stopped loving him.</span></p><p><span style=color: rgba(15 17 17 1)>If admitting my feelings gives him the closure he needs to let go of his lifelong demons and start this next phase with a clean slate I guess that's what I'll have to do.</span></p><p></p><p><span style=color: rgba(15 17 17 1)>If it destroys me in the process so be it.</span></p><p></p><p><span style=color: rgba(15 17 17 1)>The possibility terrifies me but letting him love me scares me even more.</span></p><p></p><p><span style=color: rgba(15 17 17 1)>He says he treasures me but can I be the prize he says I am?</span></p>