Her eyes were shining with unshed tears. "You're really staying?"
"I'm really staying. If you'll have me."
"If I'll have you?" She laughed, and it came out half sob. "Dustin, I'm in love with you. I've been trying not to be, but I am, and I don't know how to stop."
"Don't stop." He kissed her then, deep and thorough and full of everything he'd been too scared to say. "Never stop."
When they broke apart, she was crying for real now but smiling through it. "What about Jake? Oklahoma?"
"I'll call Jake and tell him I'm out. He'll be pissed, but he'll get over it." He wiped her tears with his thumbs. "And Bill needs an answer by end of week about the partnership, but I already know what I'm going to say."
"The logistics though. How does this actually work? Where do you get the money for a partnership? What about Thunder? What about—"
He stopped her with another kiss. "We'll figure it out. Bill's fronting the investment. Thunder can come to the new facility once it's mine. And we'll take it one day at a time, like normal people building a life together."
"Normal people." She shook her head, laughing. "We're not normal people."
"No. We're better." He pulled her closer. "We're brave enough to take a chance on each other."
She looked up at him, and he saw everything he needed to see in her eyes. Love. Fear. Hope. Trust.
"Okay," she said. "Okay, let's do this."
"Yeah?"
"Yeah." She kissed him again, softer this time. "But I still have to go to this interview. The consulting firm is supposed to call this morning with a decision, and I need to see what the other firm says before I make any choices."
"Fair enough. Want me to drive you?"
"I think I need to do this one myself. Clear my head, figure out what I actually want career-wise now that..." She gestured between them. "Now that everything's different."
He understood that. Sometimes you needed space to think, to process, to figure out your own path forward.
"Call me after?"
"Promise." She stood on her toes to kiss him once more. "And Dustin? Thank you. For choosing us."
"Always," he said. "From now on, it's always going to be us."
After she left, he picked up his phone and called Jake.
"Finally," Jake answered. "Please tell me you're on your way."
"I'm not. I'm out, Jake. I'm not going to Oklahoma."
Silence. Then: "What the hell, man? You've been cleared by your doc for weeks. Your ankle's fine. What's going on?"
"I'm staying here. Bill's offered me a partnership on a training facility, and I'm taking it."
"A training facility. You're giving up competing for a training facility?"
"I'm not giving up anything. I'm choosing something different." Dustin moved to the window, looking out at the house where Vanessa had been living for two years, building a life. Where he'd been living for three weeks, falling in love.
Jake was quiet for a long moment. "This is about that woman, isn't it?"
"Her name's Vanessa. And yeah, it's about her. But it's also about me finally admitting I don't want to do this anymore. Idon't want to live out of motel rooms and chase prize money until my body gives out."
"So that's it. Ten years, and you're just done."
