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“Dad needs to start thinking about stepping back some. That probably means Nick will take on more.”
A look of disappointment appeared in those soft brown eyes. “So you’re going to be giving Nick more responsibilities?”
“Not me, Dad. If Mom and I can talk him into it.”
She smiled softly.
“I haven’t been able to stop thinking about you, Bri. About us. The other night. How much I want a fucking do-over.”
“A do-over?” she asked, her brows pulled in tight. “What do you mean?”
“We didn’t exactly end the night how I wanted to.”
A flush spread over her cheeks. “No, we didn’t.”
I pushed off the counter and set my beer down. I slowly moved over, stopping in front of her.
“Anson,” she whispered, “all these feelings are rushing through me, and I don’t know what to even think about any of it.”
“Why do we have to think about it at all?”
She smiled. “Because, right now, you’re living in a bubble, but you’re going to leave for Nashville again. Then what?”
“Then, we figure out how to do this. I don’t have to live in Nashville full-time, Bri. I told you that.”
Her eyes widened in shock. “What are you saying?”
I cupped her face in my hands and smiled down at the woman I was madly in love with. “I’m saying I want to be with you. I want to make this work between us. Yes, I’ll be gone some, but I don’t think that should be a deal-breaker. Why can’t I—I mean, we—live in Comfort and in Nashville?”
“You want to live…in Comfort?”
Laughing, I shook my head and leaned down to kiss her. She practically melted into my body. When I pulled back, she looked up at me.
“I just got you back, Bri. Do you really think I’m going to walk away now?”
A wide smile spread over her face. “I could always come stay with you for longer bits. A couple weeks or so. I’d have to hire some additional people to help out at the tea room when I was gone, but I trust Terry and Mama to run things with me not there. And once I can afford to hire someone else to help out, I can make Terry a manager, give her more responsibilities.”
It was my turn to smile. “What you’re saying is, you’d be down for giving this a try?”
She worried her lip for a moment as she looked down at my chest, then back up into my eyes. “I think we need to talk about a few things first, but I don’t want to give you up either, Anson. The other night—I don’t know how to explain it, but I felt so alive for the first time in years. I felt whole.”
“Complete.”
We had both spoken at the same time, and Bristol laughed. “Yes. Complete.”
I took her hands and led her back into the living room.
“Let’s talk then,” I said as we both sat down.
Bristol drew in a deep breath and let it out.
“The first thing I wanted to tell you was I’m sorry about Josh.”
I shook my head and held up my hands. “No. Bri, don’t. You had every right to move on, and I guess if you were going to move on with someone, I’m glad it was a friend of mine. As much as I want to pound his face in for touching you, I get it. I walked away from Comfort, and for most folks it was like a slap in the face. That includes Josh. I never kept in touch with anyone back home. It was just a whirlwind for me in Nashville after I signed that record deal.”
“Anson, you have to know that Josh and I didn’t have anything like what you and I shared. He knew there wasn’t a future for us. But he did look at rings, and he was going to ask me to marry him. When I found out, I broke things off with him immediately.”
“Why didn’t you think the relationship could be anything more?” I asked.
Her eyes met mine, and she let out a small laugh. “That’s easy to answer. He wasn’t you.”
My heart jumped in my chest, and I pulled her onto my lap so that she was straddling me.
“I’ve missed you so fucking much. I don’t care about the past, and I don’t want to talk about it anymore. We both did and said things that we can’t change. We went about doing things completely backassward. I think we both realize that.”
She nodded.
I pushed a piece of her hair behind her ear. “I want to focus on what’s ahead for us. What we can be together.”
Her teeth dug into her lip, once more. I saw the uncertainty in her eyes. I just wasn’t sure what she felt uncertain about. The look left as quickly as it had showed up.
When she wrapped her arms around my neck, we both smiled.
