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“I guess I do.”
“Wow. Honesty.” Chloe closed her laptop and stood up, deliberately keeping her desk between them. “Why are you here, Liam?”
“Your place looks nice,” he said, clearly stalling as he looked around the redone office.
“You didn’t come here to talk about the building,” she said flatly. “So why did you come?”
“You want honesty there, too?”
“That’d be nice, yes.” God, why didn’t her black slacks come with pockets? What was she supposed to do with her hands? She crossed her arms over her chest and realized she probably looked defensive. Well, good. She was feeling defensive.
“Okay.” He walked farther into the room, letting the door close behind him.
He looked good. No surprise there. Black jeans, white long-sleeved shirt with the sleeves rolled back to the elbows. He pulled his Stetson off and held it in one hand while he looked at her.
“Here’s honesty for you.” He took a breath, held her gaze and said, “I love you, Chloe.”
“What?” She shook her head to clear it, because she couldn’t believe what she was hearing. That, she hadn’t been expecting. Dreaming about, hoping for, sure. But she’d thought what they had was over, so this complete 180 had her spinning in place. Still she couldn’t really accept this so she said, “Say it again.”
“I love you, Chloe.”
Tears filled her eyes but she blinked them back. This moment was too important for blurred vision. Her heartbeat raced, pounding so hard in her chest it was a wonder he couldn’t hear it.
“I’m not done.” He took a step closer, tossed his hat onto her desk and said, “I do love you. But I want you to know that I also trust you, Chloe. I respect you. I know who you are and I believe it. I believe in you.”
She pulled in a deep breath, hoping to steady herself, but it wasn’t working. Nothing could have. He was giving her everything. She almost pinched herself to make sure she wasn’t dreaming. “What happened, Liam? What made you...”
“You left,” he said. “Simple as that. I thought I could handle it, that it would be better for both of us. But then, I realized that when you left you took so many pieces of me with you, I couldn’t breathe.”
Her heart was galloping and her blood was rushing through her veins. She fought for breath and watched his lake-blue eyes, and she saw the truth of what he was saying written there. He meant every word, and that was better than any dream she’d been chasing her whole life.
Liam smiled. “Just this morning, Sterling told me that if I found a woman who could make me complete, I should never let her go.”
“Sterling Perry?” she said on a laugh of surprise.
“Yeah, shocked me, too.” He came around the corner of the desk, but stopped just short of touching her. His gaze moved over her face, then back up to her eyes. “He was right. I don’t want to go through my life wondering what might have happened if I’d taken the chance. If I’d trusted my gut.”
“Your gut?” she repeated.
“Yeah.” Liam finally touched her, lifting one hand to her cheek, and Chloe closed her eyes briefly to let that tender caress seep into her bones.
“From that first day with you, Chloe, I knew you were different than any woman I’ve ever known.” He sighed and shook his head. “I didn’t want to believe it because then I’d have to risk everything again.”
He dropped both hands onto her shoulders and pulled her in closer. “But the bigger risk is living without you. Don’t think I could do it. And I know I don’t want to try.” He slid his hands up from her shoulders to cup her face and tilt it up to him. “So instead, I’m here, apologizing for being a damn fool—”
“You actually haven’t apologized yet,” she interrupted, because she was feeling so happy, so relieved, she wanted to laugh.
Wryly, he said, “Well, I don’t do it often, so I’m not very good at it.”
Chloe actually did laugh then and felt good for the first time in days. “We’ll come back to it then.”
“Woman,” Liam said impatiently, “if you’d just let me get this done with...”
