Page 61 of Just One Chance

"Have you talked about it?"

I chuckled. "Other than keeping our relationship separate from work and only getting together at night?"

"Yeah."

"That's what we're doing for now," I said, sensing that was the right move.

He tipped his bottle back and drank. When he lowered it, he asked, "You okay with her leaving?"

A sharp pain settled in my chest. "I don't want her to go, but I don't see how I could get her to stay."

"You gotta tell her how you feel."

"Like you did with Clara?" I remembered that they had a fight about him leaving when his consulting work was completed around Christmas last year.

"Don't screw up like I did. I was used to moving from place to place so I wouldn't get attached to anyone. I didn't want to get hurt. But when you meet someone and fall in love, what other choice do you have? It would have killed me to leave. I wasn't protecting myself by doing that."

"That's a good point." It was going to hurt when she left. "But I don't know what she wants."

"That's why you have to talk to her, tell her how you feel."

I let out a breath. "I'm not even sure what I'm feeling right now. I enjoy spending time with her, but our lives don't really line up. She travels for work and lives in Miami. My business and family are here."

"You don't think she'd move here?"

I chuckled. "She owns a condo on the beach. I got the impression she's really proud of herself for getting that. I don't see her giving it up anytime soon."

"Who says you have to give anything up? Maybe you can both have what you want."

"And that's the question; what do I want? What does she want? And do those things line up?"

"It sounds complicated until it's not. You get to the point where you're in love with them and nothing else matters."

I frowned. "I'm not there yet. My business is here. I can't just start over in Florida."

"You said yourself you haven't made a real go of it here. It's just word of mouth. What would you be giving up?"

I gestured at the building. "My workshop. The house."

"The house you haven't built yet? The workshop that can be anywhere? I'm sure it would be harder to start over in Florida, but you could do it."

"I don't know. I never imagined living anywhere else but here on this property with my family. It's always been my future."

"Things change. People want different things. That's all I'm saying."

He was saying that love changed everything. If I was in love with her, I'd want to move. But that wasn't the case, so I must not feel that strongly for her.

"I appreciate you stopping by to talk about it. No one else knows."

"Are you planning to keep it that way?"

"That's for the best. She's worried about her reputation. She dated someone at work once before, and it ended badly. She doesn't want a repeat."

"She has baggage."

I nodded. "Yeah."

"Her walls are up."