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“You were wrong for letting me go in the first place.”
A collective gasp fills the room, and two of my aunts glare at me from the tea table.
No one in this family, and I do mean no one, ever dares to tell her that she’s wrong when it comes to anything about this estate. If she were to say that the sky above it shines in purple, we would all agree.
“You cost me two and a half million dollars in wedding revenue.” She grits her teeth. “If anything, I should’ve let you go when it was only half that amount.”
“You never even asked me why I ruined those weddings.” My voice cracks. “You never thought there was a reason?”
“What does this have to do with you lying about a fiancé and wrongfully gaining ownership of everything I’ve worked for, Georgia?”
“Both grooms were as shitty as Dante is.” I hiss. “I caught them both cheating on their brides in different ways. And the Grandma Hattie I know wouldn’t want any woman to make a lifetime commitment in her estate to someone she couldn’t trust, ‘Stay out of the guest business’ policy or not.”
She stares at me, her expression stoic.
The aunts who were glaring at me before are shooting me sympathetic looks.
“I’m sorry I lied about Dante being ‘Dominic,’ but there’s nothing more I’ve ever wanted to do than run this place, and Dominic and I do have a real history. It’s just— ”
“A lie.” Dante interrupts me. “You’re a liar who knows that homemade crafts and people-pleasing is all you’ll ever be good at in you life. You have no idea what it means to be loyal to anyone outside of herself. As a matter of fact, when I was dating you—”
“You fucking cheated on her,” Dominic’s deep voice is suddenly behind me, and I feel him wrapping an arm around my waist. “But you’re right about most of the stuff you said earlier, minus a few bullshit points.”
“No one asks for your opinion on this,Mr. Reiss.”
“What makes you think anyone wanted yours?”
The room is so silent that the pelting snowdrops echo against the windows.
“Mrs. Hattie, Georgiawasmy former employee, we did spend hours and plenty of nights together, and I’ve wanted her since the moment I met her,” he says. “If I could go back in time, I would’ve asked her to be nine months before Dante came along and messed everything up.”
“See?” Dante points at Dominic. “See?”
“We’ve been talking to each other ever since she came back home, and the only reason I didn’t fly to see her sooner was because she mentioned wanting to show her family how serious she was about becoming the manager.”
“That’s the only reason?” Dante can’t shut the hell up. “Are you sure about that.”
“My apologies to the Grey family,” Dominic says. “This really isn’t how I wanted to do this, but…” He kisses my cheek before getting down on one knee.
Pulling a black velvet box from his pocket, he flips it open to reveal a massive princess-cut diamond ring.
“I will forever regret hiring you at my company.” He smiles. “But not because of your record of employment. It’s because we wasted too much damn time not being together when there’s no one else who I can spend endless hours with quite like you.”
Dante crosses his arms, but a few people push past him to get a better look at the sparkling jewel.
“I wish you had called to ask me for a favor instead of going throughThe Office Guest, but you wouldn’t be who you are if that was the case, so, I can live with that.” He caresses my hand. “There’s a lot more I want to say, but I don’t want to go into another year without you being mine, and I want you to know that I love you…”
“Georgia Grey,” he says, “Will you marry me?”
I stare at him in disbelief, unable to decipher which part of his speech is real and which part is fiction. “Yes. Yes, I’ll marry you.”
“Seriously?” Dante fumes. “You two are still trying to convince everyone to buy into this charade? If anyone in this room is dumb enough to—”
“If you say one more word, I promise every single Grey will fuck you up.” Taryn cuts him off. “It’s you versus her entire family, so you must not understand how math works, and you can’t be as good of a ‘businessman’ as you claim.”
He looks around at my glaring family members and takes several steps back.
I overhear someone saying, “Cancel his reservation and get him the fuck out of here,” and I’m pretty sure Taryn says, “Let’s go beat his ass anyway.”
