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“What?”
“Between the two of us,” he clarified. “I’m referring to our relationship with one another. Do you believe that we are doing what we can to build ourselves up to a future together?”
“I hope that’s what we’re doing,” I answered honestly, unsure where he was leading the conversation.
“Great. Then I hope you can understand that I don’t want you to ever feel like you can’t ask me a question about things happening at Westwood’s. I don’t want you to think it’s not your business, because if things go the way I want them to go between us, the way I hope you want them to go, too, then those things absolutely would be your business,” he declared.
I offered a slight nod in return. My intention hadn’t been to upset him when I asked what I did the way I did, but it wasn’t as though we were already married. This relationship was still new. Plus, there was one other factor in this particular scenario. “I wasn’t trying to upset you this morning, Wyatt. The question just sort of spilled out of me, and I guess I’m a little worried that you might be upset about me asking how that specific project is going when I’m the reason there’s more to be done on it. Work that’s likely to cause your family a lot more money.”
Wyatt and I were on our sides, facing one another, and after I’d stopped speaking he placed one hand on the side of my face, stroked his thumb along the apple of my cheek, and said, “I don’t hold any grudge against you. Nobody in my family does, either. You have valid reasons for wanting to protect your family’s land. It’s okay, Rhea. Honestly.”
I let out a sigh. “I don’t regret making the decision I believe I had to make for my family, but I’ve noticed these feelings of guilt popping up for me. You know I judged you in the beginning, and it never dawned on me then that your family would be all that they are. Now that I’ve gotten to know you and them, I guess I’m just hoping that I haven’t made things extremely difficult for all of you. I mean, are you expecting to be able to start on the actual construction any time soon?”
Wyatt sat up and moved to get out of the bed. He started to pull on his clothes and said, “Let’s not worry about the details. I don’t want you to feel guilty.”
This was the first time Wyatt had ever reacted like this to any question I’d asked him. He never rolled away or got up to get himself dressed. He always took the time to talk to me. And now that he’d told me it was okay to ask questions and was suddenly pulling back on that, I had to believe I had every reason to feel guilty.
It wasn’t so much that I’d suddenly go back and do the opposite of what was best for my family, but I didn’t like the way it felt.
I sat up in the bed, clutching the blanket to my chest, and stared off into space. Hurt moved through me.
“Fuck,” Wyatt clipped.
My eyes went to him. “What?”
He returned to the bed, his shirt in his hand, and sat down in front of me. “You’re upset.”
I shrugged. “You’re not talking to me, which only makes me believe the worst about the situation.”
His shoulders fell. “I just don’t want you to get yourself upset about it. This is business, and sometimes, these things happen.”
“But I care about you and your family, so it still bothers me.”
Recognizing where my head was at, Wyatt finally shared, “We aren’t likely to be able to start the project this year.”
“What?”
“All the approvals we had with the town’s zoning board were based upon having that piece of your family’s farmland,” he revealed. “It was the easiest means to make the project happen, and we never thought we’d have a problem acquiring it. That was foolish on our part. All of that to say, Cooper and Liam are back to working with the engineers on this, so they can figure out another way to make it happen. It’s not a simple fix, unfortunately.”
“Now I know why you didn’t want to discuss it,” I murmured.
“Babe, please don’t be upset about this,” he begged. “I don’t want that for you or for us. Westwood’s will figure it out. It’s just going to take time.”
I nodded my understanding, because I simply didn’t know what to say. I felt horrible. “Giving up my family’s land isn’t an option, but I feel bad, and wish there was something I could do to help. I wish there was another way.”
His fingers curled around the back of my neck and gave me a squeeze. “There is another way. My brothers and the team they’re working with will make it happen. The way you can help is to make sure you don’t allow yourself to feel so much guilt that it weaves its way into our relationship. That project no longer has anything to do with you or your family. Please let it go.”
I could hear just how much my despondency was affecting him, so I acquiesced, “Okay. I’ll try to let go of the guilt.”
“Good.” He pressed a kiss to my forehead and released his hold on me. Then he stood and said, “I’d love nothing more than to stay here all day with you, but I do have to get into the office today to take care of a lot of things. And you have ice cream to make and sell.”
“Yeah, I do.”
“Let’s grab a quick breakfast and enjoy these last few minutes we’ll have with each other before tomorrow morning’s run,” he urged me.
With that, I tossed the blanket back from my body and got myself dressed. Then, Wyatt and I went downstairs for a quick breakfast.
Barely twenty minutes later, I’d walked out onto my porch with Wyatt so I could kiss him and say goodbye.
