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I clenched my jaw, mostly to bite back the war raging inside between what experience had taught me and what was in front of me now, with Sawyer. “Your point is?”
“Sometimes you have to go with your gut. And sometimes your instinct will be wrong. We all have those days, but don’t walk away from something that could be good because bad things might happen. What if you don’t get this contract?”
The thought sliced through me from a new angle, and I couldn’t hide the fresh hurt.
“I’m not saying you won’t,” Gage added quickly. “You’ve worked hard, and no one deserves it more than you. They’d be idiots to turn you away. But… the option is always there. You’re trying anyway, right?”
“Of course. If I don’t, I automatically lose.” Fuck. I was pretty sure I saw the parallel he was drawing, and I wasn’t sure I cared for it.
Or maybe I loved him even more for pointing it out. “Are you really telling me to go after another man?” I asked.
Gage parked in front of what looked like an airport hangar or a warehouse in the middle of nowhere—sheet metal walls, a huge footprint, and a high roof.
This was our place.
He turned in his seat, and searched my face. “Yes. I’m telling you to make things right with Sawyer, and I’m telling you I intend to do the same. Weird, right?”
Three people in love, when none of us had managed to make it work with just one other person before?
Not completely true. Sawyer had something incredible before, and he’d put his heart on the line again. For both of us. For two fucked up people who couldn’t tell when someone cared about them.
“Alys makes it work.” That was easier to say than trying to put the other thoughts into words.
Gage grasped my hand and traced his thumb along the back of my knuckles. “Alys is pretty smart. Though not as smart or as pretty as you. But she’s got a good head on her shoulders.”
I did want things to work out with Sawyer. I wanted to try. It already hurt that I’d pushed him away, and if for some reason we crashed and burned…
But we wouldn’t.
And I wouldn’t with Gage either. I wanted him in my life even more than he was now. I was more with him than without him. I should probably tell him, “I love you. I really do, so much. And I don’t know why it’s taken me so long to figure it out, and I’m sorry—”
Gage kissed me. It was a fast dip of his head, then his lips were pressed to mine, silencing my words and my thoughts and searing passion into the space between us. He kissed me until the world fell away and there were no worries, there was just now.
I let out a tiny sigh, contentment mixed with the tiniest disappointment that the moment was over, when he pulled away. There would be hundreds more like this, though.
He kissed me on the forehead and lingered. “Never apologize for that.”
I’d argue that wasn’t what I was doing, but this felt too good to ruin with details.
We sat like that for a moment, but we had an appointment to make. I wanted to call Sawyer, tell him we needed to see him tonight. Maybe he could meet us here. But we were so far from any cell towers that my phone was in Emergency Only mode. I was fairly sure that was like having negative bars.
Gage and I talked to the building operators, and got instructions, then backed his SUV up to the loading docks.
It was a shame Sawyer wasn’t here with us. For the company, but also because he should’ve seen this maiden flight. This happened because of him.
I’d take video, and he’d be here next time. He had to be.
We tested the robot’s weapons against stationary structures—wood piles, pumpkins, and milk jugs filled with water.
It was raw, entertaining-as-fuck destruction. An hour later, when we wrapped up, my cheeks and throat hurt from laughing and shouting so much. This was the best kind of exhaustion.
We loaded the bot back into Gage’s SUV, and headed home.
We were an hour or so into the trip when my phone lit up with a dozen notifications. Most of them from Sawyer.
Gage’s phone went nuts too, and when he handed it to me to check, I saw it was for the same reason—Sawyer’s messages.
I started with my own texts. They all just said Call me now.
