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“For you.”
“But your mom. Your friends.”
“What if we moved all three of you to La Jarra?”
“And abandon Ensley? And Garrett? And how would we pay for ourselves? Rely on you? I can’t do that. Lila would definitely never do that. We’re used to making our own way.”
“I could hire you. I have paperwork on my end to do showing I tried to fill the job locally, but it should work out. Labor like ours is hard to come by.”
I turn to face him. “But then Lila and Rosie are relying on my job. What if ...” I don’t want to say it. It’s not the right thing to say.
But apparently, he knows. “What if we don’t work out?”
I nod. “Ensley had the same issue with Drew. She realized working for him wasn’t smart. She tried at first and they had a big fight and then he fired her. She didn’t return to helping out at his veterinary clinic until they were engaged.”
He draws in a breath, and I quickly sit up. “Now don’t go proposing.”
He holds up his hands. “I wasn’t going to!”
“You weren’t?” I smack him with a pillow. “Why not?”
“Because I knew you would hit me with the nearest object!”
“Good thing it wasn’t a vase!” I smack him again.
“Hey!” He tries to pin me down, but I squirm away from him. “But a telephone will do!” I reach for the side table.
“Oh no you don’t.” He picks me up and tosses me back to the center of the bed.
Then he’s on top of me, all his warm skin pressed against mine.
And for some reason, this is the moment the dam breaks. The tears start coming and they refuse to stop.
He pulls my head to his chest, his hands in my hair. “Tillie, it’s all right. We’ll figure it out.”
But will we? My options are to work for him or to marry him. Neither makes sense for someone I’ve known three weeks, especially not with a sister and niece in tow. And Lila doesn’t even want me to be with Gabe. This can never work. Never, ever.
“This trip was supposed to fix this,” I tell him. “I thought you would meet Anita and somehow it would all magically fall into place.”
“Maybe I did, too.”
“So it was for nothing. You coming here didn’t change anything.” Tears fall fast and furious down my face.
He kisses my wet eyelids, brushing away the tears on my cheeks. “I’m glad I met my birth mother. I’m glad you convinced me. That mattered. You got me to do something I could never face before.”
“I did. And I’m proud of you.”
“Another week with you wasn’t nothing. It’s been everything.”
I nod and grasp the back of his head, bringing his mouth to mine. And we go back to where we were, our bodies in sync, a frenzy of mouths and fingers and connection.
Tomorrow will have to take care of itself.
Then all the days that follow.
Chapter 34
GABE
