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Lacey nods sincerely. “Of course, Mr. Maddox.”
“Good. Because leaks will lead to immediate dismissals. I think we can all agree on that, with all that’s happened lately. Second, Dusty has been relieved of her former position as junior analyst.”
What? After everything he just said, he’s still firing me?
But then he says, “With myself and Noah, Dusty will be helping make the decisions about her new role. We’re going to be creating a position for her that suits her capabilities and her vision.”
There are a few murmurs around the room. I’m as shocked as they are.
“It was Dusty who pinpointed and exposed the fraud that almost brought this company down,” Ace continues. “For that reason, and because her talents are clearly being wasted in a junior position, I’ve made the executive decision to promote her. Let me be clear about one thing: she’s not being promoted because I’m in love with her.”
Emma makes a small whimper. Evan, who’s sitting next to her, notices her reaction. In fact, he seems to be staring at her in a way that’s sort of…rapt. Ace’s romantic tendencies seem to be rubbing off.
“She’s being promoted because she’s an asset to IE,” he says. “And—if I get my way, which I’m going to make sure I do, even if it takes me a lifetime to do it—she’ll eventually, as my wife, be a co-owner of IE at the highest level.”
Did he just say wife? is the question that fizzes through my brain at the exact same time Alexander murmurs to Colton, “Did he just say wife?”
“That escalated quickly,” Colton murmurs back.
“He’s lost his mind,” Alexander mutters.
“So it makes sense for her to have a senior role in the company starting now,” Ace is saying. “If it takes a while for me to convince her the time is right for me to close down Tiffany’s for the night so she can pick out the ring of her choice, then so be it. I can be patient. But it’ll happen.”
The reactions around the room don’t really sink in, but I watch as Emma’s eyes glimmer and so do Lacey’s. Penelope’s hands are clasped together with emotion. Colton mutters, “hoo, boy,” and Alexander just shakes his head.
As for me, I don’t know how to react, except to feel equal parts terror and so much love for him I feel almost stricken with it.
“And now,” Ace says, “I’d like you all to give Dusty and me a moment. There are some things she and I need to discuss in private. We’ll meet you in the Sky Bar in a while.”
“At ten in the morning?” Noah asks, to no one in particular.
“They serve coffee,” Penelope points out, and with that everyone shuffles out of the room, some still swooning, others with much stormier looks on their faces.
Once they’re gone and the door is closed, Ace sits next to me and pulls my chair so I’m facing him, between his spread knees.
His blue eyes are soulful. “I’m sorry to spring all that on you like this, but I wanted to take the everyone-thinks-I’ve-slept-my-way-into-my-job element out of the equation once and for all. It’s not something you need to worry about anymore.” Ace takes my hands. “I think I’ve loved you since the minute I saw you, Texas. I’m obsessed with you—in a good way. In a way that’s real and monumental and has basically transformed me from someone who only thinks about work to someone who only thinks about you. And how I might be able to get you to stop running from me.”
“I don’t want to run from you, Ace.”
“But still, you do. Every time.”
“It’s my default mode. My brain tells me to leave before you get a chance to. It’s easier. That way, my heart can remain intact. I’m sorry, Ace.”
“I get it, Tex. Your father was the kind of man who could leave. Who did leave.”
I hold onto his hands more tightly because the words unfailingly hit that deep reservoir of emotion in me that’s my earliest and most primal wound.
“Tex?”
“Yeah?”
“I’m not that man. My father was a tyrannical bastard but he was always extremely present, which is going to be the new normal for you. Well, at least the present part. I’ve spent a long time doing my best to tone down any tyrannical bastard tendencies that might have rubbed off. Anyway, what I’m trying to say is this: I’m the guy who stays, whether you want him to or not.”
His handsome face is blurry now. “You are?”
“Yeah. I am. I can’t guarantee that everything will be perfect every second of every day. Life isn’t generally like that. I can be an arrogant prick and I’m stubborn as fuck. I like getting my way. But I can guarantee that I’ll be honest with you. And I promise you I won’t leave.”
My face is wet with tears. “You won’t?”
