“Maybe,” I said. “It won’t happen if I go back to Chicago, though. There’s no room there for me to be anything other than who I am.”
She blinked a few times in rapid succession, her head tilting to one side as she studied me for a long beat. “Does that mean you’re thinking about not going back?”
I heard the secret hope in her voice, and in that moment, I knew for an absolute fact that she was feeling the same way I was. Despite how fast it had happened, this was right.
This, us, it mattered to her as much as it mattered to me. It meant something. To both of us. It definitely meant too much to just walk away without ever knowing where it could’ve gone.
At first, I’d thought that we could just have some fun together, but all along, I’d known there was more to it. More to her.
God, some people spent their entire lives searching for this and never found it.
Others had it and then lost it only because they didn’t have the balls to fight, but not me. I would give it all I had. Determination was practically coded into the Westwood DNA. We didn’t quit. We didn’t give up.
Hell, Zach had waited eight years for Adeline to come back to him. Despite the fact that she’d gotten married to another man at her family’s demand. Despite the fact that she’d had kids with him.
Jesse had flown to France to steal a dog for Jacqueline. Both heandWill had gone around Alex’s plans for them, and yet, they’d gotten exactly what they’d wanted in the end.
“I’m not going back,” I decided out loud, turning to look into Raquel’s gray eyes and absolutely knowing that this was worth whatever price I might have to pay. “I’m staying.”
I loved my family and I always would. I respected our traditions and I didn’t want to disappoint anyone, but I wouldn’t spend my life being pushed around to wherever someone else thought I fit best. Alex had plans for my future, but so I did.
How can I give up my dream girl just because she doesn’t have a fancy last name?Wasn’t it enough that all of my brothers and our sister had followed the family tradition?Why do I have to fall in line too? Why do I have to give this up?
Besides, the Westwood name wasn’t in any danger of disappearing. My brothers were practically building a small army of children at this point. The family legacy was doing just fine.
Hell, Jesse had married Jacqueline and nobody had seemed particularly concerned about strategic business advantages there. If he could do it, so could I.
Especially as I thought about Raquel smiling at me across the shop floor with grease smudged on her cheek. Laughing with her while covered in pink paint. I thought about her ass in her overalls, which really did something for me, and about starting something of my own. Then I imagined feeling her arms around my waist as we rode into the sunset together once my bike was finally running again.
It was everything I’d never even known I wanted, but I couldn’t give that up.
Not for anyone or anything.
Not even for my family.
Consequences be damned.
For the first time in my life, I knew exactly what I wanted and she was lying right beside me.
“I’m staying,” I repeated, then leaned in and kissed her, feeling her lips spread into a smile against my own.
Yeah. This is definitely right, and for as long as she’ll have me, there’s absolutely no way that I’m leaving her behind.
CHAPTER 26
RAQUEL
Life had a way of kicking your legs out from underneath you when you least expected it, and after the last week, I was cloud nine. For one whole, glorious week, I’d forgotten to brace myself for something bad to happen.
I should’ve known that would mean it was right around the corner, but I was too happy to be suspicious of how well everything was going.
A week had passed since the camping trip and I’d spent almost every day with Theo. We worked together on his motorcycle and my house. He took me out on dates that actually required getting dressed up for, which I hadn’t experienced since I’d been a teenager.
One night, he’d even taken me to dinner at a restaurant two towns over simply because he’d heard they had a great chef there. The food had been good, but the company had been even better.
Meanwhile, I took him on cool hikes early in the morning or as the sun set, showing him hidden overlooks and old mining ruins. I’d taken him to every part I loved of Quartz Pass, and somehow, he’d never gotten bored.
If anything, he was only getting more excited about staying and I’d started feeling like something missing had finally been found. After just one week, I shouldn’t have felt as secure in our relationship as I did, but it honestly felt like things were falling into place and I couldn’t stop smiling.
