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“Uh…I mean, yes, they’re fine for a couple of hours, but—”
“Good.” She reached out and took my hand and I stood, a myriad of emotions battling inside me. Joy. Confusion. Sadness. Longing. Peace.
“Where are we going?” I asked as I started walking toward the car with the three Buchanans.
Lexi linked her arm with mine. “You’ll have to trust us. I know we didn’t earn it yet, but hopefully you can find it in you to extend some anyway.”
“Well, I’m pretty untrustworthy at the moment too,” I said on a laugh. “So maybe we can all take a leap of faith.”
Lexi laughed as Gage’s parents both smiled over at us. “I was hoping you’d say that.”
The Rolls Royce pulled up in front of the old Calliope Savings and Loan, the one where Gage had taken me what seemed like a lifetime ago, the place we’d discovered we no longer had to attempt to ignore the sizzling chemistry between us. I gazed out at it, the memories mixing with my confusion. “Why are we here?” I asked, and even I could hear the tremble of hope in my voice, the ideas that were forming that I was too afraid to acknowledge in case I was way off base.
“You’re on your own from here,” Lexi said, patting my knee. “Go on.” She inclined her head toward the building, a small, secretive smile on her face. “There’s someone waiting for you.” I glanced at Mr. and Mrs. Buchanan in the front seat, both of them wearing similar smiles.
I took in a deep, fortifying breath and then I opened the car door and stepped out. I only looked back once when I made it to the front door of the old bank and saw the black car pulling away. Whomever was waiting inside, I’d been left in their charge. The door was unlocked and let out the same long squeak as it had the first time I’d entered this building. My heart pounded in my chest, hope leaping in my veins and making my blood rush faster. I felt lightheaded and so scared I hardly felt my legs as they somehow carried me into the dim space where treasures and stories had once been left here for safekeeping. And now one more was unfolding too—mine. And God I hoped against hope it had a happy ending.
The footsteps sounded first, and I brought my hands to my mouth, holding back the sobs that threatened to burst forth. I knew those footsteps. I knew how the body moved that created just that cadence of sound. And he was coming toward me.
He rounded the corner and for a moment we simply stood there, staring at each other. “I didn’t go,” he said after a moment.
I dropped my hands but wrapped my arms around myself to attempt to calm the shaking. “I see that,” I said breathlessly.
He nodded, his lips tipping ever so slightly as he moved closer. “Rory—”
“What about all the plans? London—”
“London’s fine. There are very capable people who are going to make sure the project in London goes off without a hitch, including Blakely who’s there doing…something or other with my father’s social media.”
“Oh,” I breathed. “Okay. But…why didn’t you go?”
“Because I don’t want a life without you, Rory. I don’t want to exist without the passion you bring into every moment of every day. I don’t want to live without passion anymore at all.” He paused, a frown marring his face. “I only really know two things in this moment. One, I want to turn this into a restaurant.”
I nodded, letting out a soggy laugh as a tear spilled over and tracked down my cheek. “I know,” I said. “I know you do. I knew it the first time you brought me here.”
His smile was soft. “You did, didn’t you? You knew so much about me, right from the start, things I’ve kept locked down for so long, dreams I’ve been afraid to acknowledge because there was no way they’d ever come true. You shook me up. You exposed me to my own dreams. You asked the question I really needed to answer—what I was trying to silence when I stared into space. I’ve been thinking about that over these last couple weeks. It was a voice, Rory. My own. And zoning out helped me ignore it.” He glanced around, craning his neck as he looked up at the vaulted ceilings. “I’ve got the whole menu in the back of my head. I have for years.”
“Oh, Gage,” I breathed. How hard it must have been to carry his dream around like a secret. One that he nourished and grew anyway, despite the belief that it would never see the sunlight.
“I bought this building from my father,” he went on. “He offered to be an investor, but I declined and took out a loan. I wanted this venture to be mine and mine alone.” He brushed a piece of hair off my cheek. My God. Both of us had been busy taking those first steps toward fulfilling our dreams. I could hardly believe this was happening. “So I stepped down in my role at my father’s company, and I won’t be taking over when he retires. I’ve decided to go a different route, one that most likely won’t make me a mogul, but one that I’m so eager to begin I can barely sit still.”
I let out a sniffly breath of laughter. I could see that. He was radiating with happiness and anticipation. It was starting over though, mostly from scratch. And I understood the bravery it had taken.
“So, that’s one,” he said. “And the only other thing I know for sure is that I love you so much. I want to go on adventures with you, both big and small for the rest of my life. I want to cheer on your business because I’m so damn proud of you and I can’t wait to watch you living your dream too. I want to continue to live in this beautiful town that I love with all my heart. I want to learn how to live with all the emotion you do. I want to laugh, and I want to be ridiculous sometimes too.”
He breathed out a small laugh and I did too, though it was more of a sob than anything. I couldn’t hold myself back anymore and I launched myself into his arms, crying and laughing and gripping him so tightly.
“I love you too,” I said, so overcome with elation I needed him to hold me up. “All those things I said at your party—”
“Rory, I know. I heard about how you were confronted. I’m so sorry about that. And also, you’re a terrible liar. Once I allowed myself to take a step back, I realized everything you said was out of self-preservation. I understand. I do. But please, say it again anyway.”
I knew the part he wanted to hear repeated. “I love you. I love you so much, Gage Buchanan.”
“No one—not a single person—will ever speak to you with disrespect in this town, Rory. Ever.”
I nodded. I believed him. He’d sent his entire family to reassure me of that first and then to deliver me to him because he knew how much family meant to me. It was the very reason I’d arrived here in the first place. To complete my own.
He released a breath and closed his eyes, bringing our foreheads together where we simply existed for a few joy-filled moments where the biggest obstacle of all had been overcome. Everything else would fall into place. His body was so warm, his arms so solid. My heartbeat slowed, breath coming easier.
