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I shook my head. I had kept things from him, but it hurt. “I trusted you, Leo.”
“I know, angel. I’m so sorry. When I saw Colin and the report and everything snowballed, I just thought—”
“Thought the worst of me,” I muttered.
“No.” He cupped my face. “I thought I was losing you.” Tears trailed down my cheeks, hitting his thumbs. “I can’t explain. It just felt like you were slipping away, that everything we’d had was too good. For months I’d been fighting myself. I knew from the beginning I didn’t deserve you and when everything happened at the meeting, I just lost it.”
“Wait,” I gasped. “You think I’m too good for you?”
He smiled. “You’re perfect, angel. From the moment I met you, I knew. And I’ll make it up to you, if you let me. Prove to you I’m worthy.” He pulled a folded piece of paper from his back pocket and handed it to me. “Here.”
“What’s this?” I asked, taking the paper. Water lined my eyes as I unfolded the document and realized there were two letters.
“This one here”—he pointed to his extensive resume, the stated objective being to win Paige Levine’s heart—“is pretty persuasive on why you should give me another chance.” He smiled a little. “I will forever put your needs first”—his finger slid to the top—“and here you’ll see I hold the record for highest jump in a bouncy castle.” I laughed, and Leo went on, “But this letter is the one I really want you to see.” He gently grabbed the second piece of paper and placed it on top so I could read it.
It was my letter of recommendation.
My lips parted on a strangled breath when I realized what he’d written.
Sentence after sentence of all the things he loved about me.
“Paige Levine, you are the strongest, smartest, most incredibly fierce woman I’ve ever known. You don’t need my recommendation, angel. You’re beyond anything I could ever hope to measure up to.”
I laughed and sobbed at the same time. The tears crashed even harder. This whole time I’d felt I didn’t fit into Leo’s world, and he had been thinking the same about me. Only he thought the best of me.
“You believe me then?”
Leo nodded. “I do. I found out that Colin set up everything. He used you to get to me. Kyros admitted he’d accidentally let word about the slip . . . slip.” Leo’s charming smile was almost enough to make me forget the heartache pulsing in my chest. Almost.
“I don’t know if things can go back, Leo.”
“I don’t want them to go back. I want them to go forward. Us. Together.”
I shook my head. “There’s so much between us. What you want and what I can give you are two different things.”
“It doesn’t matter. I want you. That’s it.”
“You want a family.”
He nodded and pulled me closer. “I want you to be my family.”
Guilt and sadness raced through me because I never wanted Leo to resent me. Now or later. “I don’t think I’ll be enough for you.”
“Yes you are, damn it. I love you.” Something like honest-to-God pain came over his face. “I didn’t want to, but I do, so much. I know better. I know what it feels like to put your trust into someone and they break it. When I realized you were gone, I knew how badly I messed up.” He placed his forehead against mine and whispered, “I’m so sorry.”
My chin quivered and those tears came crashing again. “You make me weak.”
He nodded. “You make me weak too.”
“I don’t like it,” I said. “This was supposed to be temporary.”
“We were meant for many things, Red. Temporary isn’t one of them.”
“What about your deal?”
He smiled. “Are you always thinking about work?”
“Well”—I shrugged and wiped my eyes—“we worked hard on that. Did you get the slip?”
