He moves forward, wrapping his hands around mine, lifting them between us. ‘That’s because of what we are, what we mean to each other. That’s not going to happen again.’
‘You can’t promise me that.’
‘Promise you’ll never have a reason to doubt me?’
‘It wasn’t your fault.’ A tear slips out of my eye. ‘That’s not why it hurt so much.’
Sympathy twists his features. ‘Yeah, that’s true.’ He lifts one hand to my cheek, strokes his thumb over my tears. ‘You were in love with me, and I kept saying stupid shit about this thing running its course, and that we were just sleeping together. I couldn’t have been more of a jackass if I’d tried.’
I can’t smile. Tears keep falling from my eyes. So, he knows. He’s seen inside my heart, read the truth there.
‘You were being honest about how you felt.’
‘No, Bailey. I was lying. To myself, and to you. Ash was right. I push everyone away, and I was trying to do that, right to the end, telling myself you were no different, that this thing with us was just temporary and casual, like we’d agreed. But that’s so stupid, and so wrong.’
‘Then what is it?’
‘Hell, I’ve never told a girl I love her before, and this is not the kind of place I would have imagined doing it,’ he mutters, glancing around at the city streetscape, then back to me, his lips tilting with the hint of a grin. The kind of grin that lights up his beautiful face. ‘I love you. And it doesn’t matter where I say it, where you are, where I am, I will always love you, more than anything else on earth.’
My lips part on a rush, my heart bangs into my ribs. The caution that has kept me safe for three years, that always tells me to run away, rushes through me, but I ignore it. I don’t need it now.
He stares down at me, eyes boring into mine. ‘The last line in your article?—’
I remember it vividly.
‘That’s what really got through to me. You were right about almost everything in my life, but not this. I was still running scared from you, Bay Jay, like I could control this. Like I could ever get over you.’ He rubs his thumb over my lower lip. ‘Only, that’s never going to happen.’
Finally, I let out a soft laugh, and my body relaxes with absolute sheer relief. ‘You have no idea how glad I am to hear it.’
He looks at me, something like doubt on his features, and I realise he’s done almost all the talking, all the guessing about my feelings. I realise I haven’t actually told him he’s right.
‘Falling in love with some cowboy was not on my bingo list for the year, you know.’
The hint of a grin on his face turns into a full-blown Beau Donovan trademarked smile, and my pulse goes into overdrive. ‘So you do love me,’ he says, like he needs to hear it again.
‘I can shout it from the rooftops if that makes you believe it.’
He draws me against him. ‘Or scream it at me later?’ he suggests, dropping his mouth to mine. A familiar stirring of need washes over me, vying for attention with the love that’s surging in my body.
‘Later?’ I murmur. ‘What’s that expression? There’s no time like the present …’
His eyes flare but he throws a glance toward my building. ‘After work?’
I shake my head, press my hand to his chest. ‘I was only going in for a meeting. To resign, in fact.’
His expression is cautiously guarded. ‘You’re quitting?’
‘Calm down, cowboy. It has nothing to do with you. My editor put me on another BS sports article. I’m never going to get to cover Washington if I stay here.’ I don’t tell him that after years of chasing that dream, I no longer know if it’s right for me.
‘What are you going to do?’ he asks.
I shake my head. An idea has loosely formed in my mind, but it’s too embryonic to share. ‘I’m not one hundred per cent sure yet.’
‘So you can take some time to work it out?’
‘I mean, I have savings,’ I say. ‘I learned that the hard way—always have a get-out-of-town stash.’
He nods, expression serious. ‘So you could just … travel around for a while.’
