Page 169

I swallowed hard, my heart hammering in my ears. My arms fell to my sides.

“You think you’re just my employee? That this was all just some passing thing for me?” He let out a shaky breath. “Rose, I wake up in the morning and the first thing I do is look for you. I go to bed at night thinking about what I’m going to say to make you smile the next day.”

I sucked in a breath, caught completely off guard by the honesty in his words.

“You brighten my life,” he continued. “You brought meaning back into it, even when I didn’t know I needed it.”

My chest ached. I wanted to hold onto my anger, to the sharp edges of my hurt, but they were slipping through my fingers like sand.

“I didn’t realize how empty things had gotten before you showed up. How much I’d let myself settle into a life that felt dull. And then you came along, with your stubbornness and your smart mouth and your ridiculous coffee order, and suddenly my life was in full-color.”

A shaky breath left me.

He stepped closer, and I could see it—the raw, unguarded truth in his eyes. “I adore you, Rose. Every single thing about you. I don’t care if that scares me. I don’t care if I don’t deserve you.” His voice was barely above a whisper now. “I just don’t want to lose you.”

Something cracked in me.

I wanted to be strong. I wanted to hold onto my pride.

But Wells had just laid his heart bare in front of me and I felt every word.

I hesitated, my fingers twitching at my sides.

His fingers barely grazed mine before he closed the space between us in one swift step.

Warm, calloused hands cupped my face, tilting my chin up until I had no choice but to look at him. His emerald eyes burned into mine, raw and pleading.

“Sunshine,” he murmured, his thumbs brushing against my cheeks, his touch gentle despite the storm raging between us. “If you’re going to be anyone’s problem, be mine.”

My breath hitched.

I wanted to shove him away. To keep my pride intact. To tell him that words weren’t enough, that he couldn’t just say pretty things and expect me to fall back into his arms.

But his touch, his voice, the way he looked at me like I was the only thing in the world that mattered was undoing me.

I gripped his wrists, my fingers curling around them, as if holding on would steady me. As if it would stop the way my heart was slamming against my ribs.

“You don’t get to say that now,” I whispered, my voice betraying me with the way it wavered.

His gaze softened, but he didn’t let go. “I should’ve said it sooner.”

I squeezed my eyes shut. “Wells—”

“I mean it, Rose.” His voice was steady, sure. “You’re not just some passing thing to me. You never were. You’re my everything.”

I opened my eyes, my resolve splintering.

Because damn him, he meant it. Every word.

My fingers curled tighter around his wrists, my pulse racing beneath my skin. Wells’ hands remained on my face, steady and warm, like he was holding me together when I felt like I was unraveling.

I hated how much I wanted to lean into him. How much I wanted to believe him.

But belief meant risk.

And I was so damn scared.

“I don’t know how to do this,” I admitted, my voice barely above a whisper. “I don’t know how to trust that this isn’t going to fall apart and leave me feeling like an idiot.”