Page 79 of His for the Holiday

He frowned. “What, what?”

“You’re coming back?” I felt my heart thrumming in my throat. “What about your company and⁠—”

“Sutton,” he said, his voice quiet but filled with amusement. He finally pulled his hands out of his pockets and stepped into me. “Shit, apparently, none of that came out right. I’m taking over my dad’s company.”

“Sure. I got that part.”

“I’m not going to be running it from LA, which is why I have to go back there to put all the final details in place. Gold Star’s headquarters will remain in California for now, but I’m also going back to oversee all the logistics of moving my base of operations here.”

My mouth dried up. Everything he was saying was exactly what I’d been dreaming about hearing, but it felt surreal. I couldn’t wrap my head around it. “You’re moving home?”

“Eventually.” He reached for my hands and twined our fingers together, tugging me into him as he gave me a beautiful, amused smile. “You thought I was leaving for good? Just like that?”

I held his gaze, too afraid that he would change his mind if I so much as moved a muscle. “Well, I mean, I hoped you wouldn’t, but I didn’t know for sure what was going on and your life is there and⁠—”

“Was there,” he corrected lightly. “My life was there, but it’s here now. I want to be with you, Sutton. I want to make it official. I want you to be my girlfriend and I want us to build our lives together. I thought I told you that.”

“Yeah, you did, but I…” I didn’t have a clue how to react, so instead, I simply peered up at him. “Are you sure?”

“About what?”

“About us, Hawk.” I lifted both my eyebrows, clinging to his hands but still not really able to believe that this was happening. “I’m a divorcee who comes with a kid. I’m working at my family’s bookstore and I’m planning on doing that for at least the next year while I figure out how to support myself and Winnie and to get on my own two feet again. I’m not exactly a catch.”

“I suppose it’s a good thing you’re not a fish then,” he joked, leaning in and bringing his forehead down to my own. “As long as you and Winnie will have me, I want nothing more than to have you both in my life. I know that me having to go back to LA makes things a little more complicated, but it won’t be for too long. I’ll be here again before you know it, and in the meantime, we’ll talk every day. We’ll text. We’ll do video chats. I…” He trailed off, inhaling deeply as he gazed at me like I was all he could see. “I wouldn’t be leaving Portsmouth if I didn’t have to, but I’m not leaving you, Sutton. Not unless you tell me that you don’t want the same things I do, and even then, I’m hoping we can work it out.”

As I looked back at him, part of me wondered if I was setting myself up for heartbreak again. Here was a man saying he wanted to be with me, but he was also jetting off to sunny California any day now and he didn’t know when he would be back.

When he got there, he’d be surrounded by glitz and glamour, those parties and clubs he’d mentioned before. He’d be living in his four thousand square feet of awesome again, and once that happened, there was no guarantee he’d want to come back to live the quiet, domestic life with Winnie and me here, in Portsmouth.

There would be supermodels and socialites to entertain and great business deals to be done. All of which he’d admittedly gotten caught up in before.

As much as all of that was a possibility, however, I smiled and took his face between my hands, completely confident in my answer as I brought my lips to his. “We’ll be right here, waiting for you.”

Sliding my arms around his neck, I kissed him and he kissed me back, slanting his mouth over mine and deepening the kiss until it stole the breath from my lungs and my heart had climbed right back into my chest.

Despite everything that could happen, Hawk wouldn’t break my heart again. I didn’t know how I knew that, but I did.

Ever since we’d re-entered each other’s lives, he’d been trying to make up for what had happened before and to earn my trust back, and he’d done it. I trusted him enough to give him my whole heart unreservedly because, while he was a man who’d be jetting off to California soon, he was also the man I loved.

The man I’d always loved.

I had fallen in love with him as soon as romantic love had become something I’d realized I could feel, and while life had happened for a while, I knew now that I would always love him. We’d both gone our separate ways, but fate had brought us back together, and now that it had, I was never letting him go again.

Well, except to California. He does need to go there.

Groaning into my mouth as he slowed the kiss to a natural end, his palm rested on the side of my throat as he opened his eyes to look into mine. “Talk to Winnie and let me know what she says, okay? Good night, Sutton.”

“Good night, Hawk.” I tipped my head back and he dropped another quick kiss on my lips, but then he tore himself away, striding over to the kitchen door and opening it for us both.

Feeling like I was floating on air, I let out a dreamy sigh and wrapped my arms around myself, desperately needing a moment alone to attempt to process all this. As I turned to follow him inside, however, I noticed my mom and Winnie in the kitchen.

They were standing at the window, and judging by the disgusted look on Winnie’s face, they’d been there for a while. My heart dropped, my stomach suddenly swirling with nausea. I almost tripped over my own feet in my haste to get inside, stumbling into the kitchen just in time to hear Winnie’s comment to my mom.

“Mam has cooties now.”

Hawk chuckled and ruffled her hair as he walked past her. “Good night, Win. We’ll talk soon, okay?”

She beamed at him, clearly not afraid of catching his cooties as she launched herself at him for a hug. He laughed and scooped her up once more, holding her close for a moment before he set her back down on her feet and waved at my mom.

“Good night, Mindy. Thank you for an incredible meal and a wonderful day. We owe you. Next year is on us, okay?”

“That’s what Emery said too,” I said but Hawk just laughed and nodded, blowing me another kiss before he walked away.

I grabbed onto the closest counter to steady myself, my knees much weaker than they should’ve been. Mom glanced at me with love and laughter in her eyes before she smacked the side of my thigh with a dishtowel.

“Come on, lovebird. We’re almost done here. Then we’ll go sit down and you can tell Winnie and me all about it.”