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“You invited me,” he said simply.
That was not an explanation.
Her dad cleared his throat as if to remind them of his presence before extending his hand. “Good evening. It’s Reynolds, correct?”
“Yes, sir,” Reynolds said, taking his hand. “Reynolds Cavanaugh. Sorry about the deception at our last meeting, but it was necessary.”
“Certainly. How can I complain about the results? Now if you’ll both excuse me, I need to go attend to my guests.” With a slight nod to Waverley, he left them alone.
“I’m sorry if you felt some obligation in coming tonight,” Waverley said, her composure coming back to her now that the shock of seeing him was wearing off. She could be reasonable and polite. “But after our last conversation, I wasn’t left with any expectation you would be here. So if there isn’t anything else, I need to go say hello to a few people.”
He stepped forward, blocking her path. “There is something more. And I can’t leave here until I’ve at least said it. Said what I should have said to you before.”
She looked around, aware that their interaction had drawn some attention as those immediately around them were watching them, their own conversation stalled.
“Why don’t you call me later, then? This isn’t really a good time.”
“Waverley, I lied to you before. You asked me if you had ever meant anything to me, and instead of telling you the truth, I hedged. Because the truth is, no one has ever meant more to me than you have. And that scares the hell out of me. It leaves me feeling…vulnerable. That’s not an emotion I usually wear.”
“Sure. No one likes feeling vulnerable. I get it. I put you on the spot, made you confront something you weren’t ready for. But you didn’t have to come all the way here to tell me that. You could have texted me.”
“There’s too much to be said for a simple text. I was stupid and scared, but the past few days without you have made it more clear to me that I want you in my life. I need you in my life.”
Waverley clutched her hands together, squeezing them tight as she worked through her emotions. Maybe if he’d told her this that day, she might have been able to work with that. But it was too late now. She couldn’t go back. “I’m sorry, Reynolds. I just can’t do this anymore. I can’t just jump in again only to have you bail in a few days or weeks when things get too intense. I need someone who’s going to be there for me, not someone with one foot in and one foot out the door at all times.”
He paused, looking anguished as his jaw flexed. “I’m never going to ever bail on you again, Waverley. What happened before had nothing really to do with us. It was about me and my fear. At first I blamed it on the fact we come from two different worlds, a world where I wasn’t smart enough, rich enough, or cultured enough to fit in.” He stepped back and looked around. “You come from a world where champagne is as plentiful as water, where people collect houses and cars like they’re trading cards, where nights at the opera are more common than afternoons at a ball game. I didn’t know how I was ever going to fit in a world like this and thought that one day you’d wake up and feel that way, too.”
“Haven’t you figured out by now that I don’t care about any of that?” she asked, her voice soft in disbelief. “I would give all this up in a heartbeat, and in fact, I did.”
“I know you did. But then this new opportunity opened for you designing beautiful clothes and your money was getting returned to you. I thought it was inevitable that the draw of your old life would pull you in, and I’d be holding you back.”
She remembered his reaction that day when Nina appeared, talking about designs and coming to Denver to work on her line. Of her own excitement about getting an apartment in the city, all things that she could see, from his perspective, might forge a gap between them.
Like it had when he’d returned to Blue Haven five years ago and his girlfriend chose a life in the city over him.
“You would never hold me back. None of those things were ever going to mean anything to me if I didn’t have you to share it with.”
“I know that now,” he said, taking another step toward her. “I’m sorry that I was so focused on trying to avoid the pain of losing you that I pushed you away. Thought somehow that I could still get out with my heart intact. But the truth is, I started falling for you the first time I saw you, sitting alone in your kitchen like the weight of the world was on your shoulders. Since you waltzed back into my life with a can-do spirit and unwillingness to take no for an answer, I’ve only fallen harder and deeper. There’s no going back now. I’m wholeheartedly in love with you. I love the woman you were before, and I love the strong, beautiful woman you are now who embraces life and doesn’t run from it. I’m in this now, Waverley, wherever it takes us. Be it here in Denver, back in Blue Haven, or hell, even New York if that’s what you need. I love you. And I’m going to be there by your side fighting for us until I stop breathing. I just hope you might give me one last chance to prove it.”
He took her hand, and immediately its warmth and comforting weight seemed to break through the last of her resolve, and she felt the tears welling up.
“Can you forgive me for being so stupid? Letting fear get the best of me so that I almost lost you?”
She nodded, her heart swelling with all the love she could have for this man that didn’t seem possible to be contained in one person. “Only if you forgive me for letting my own fears get in the way of thinking a person like you could ever love someone like me. Maybe if I’d known my own self-worth, I would have pushed you harder to admit all of this, and we could have saved us both a lot of pain.”
“How about we both work on that together?” he said, wiping away the tears that she couldn’t stop from slipping from her eyes. Then, just as gently, with his hands framing her face, he pressed his lips softly to her mouth.
And like that, the fire gripped her belly, and audience or not, she leaned into him and deepened the kiss, wrapping her hands around his waist and holding him against her.
This man, this rock, loved her. Maybe even as much as she loved him.
She pulled back, fluttering her eyes until she could focus again, and stared into his warm gaze. “Say it one more time. Say that you love me.”
He smiled. An actual smile that took her breath away all over again. “I love you, Waverley Abbott. And I’m going to go on loving you always.”
She ran her palm along the bottom of his jaw and looked up into the fierce face of a man who was filled with stubbornness, strength, passion, and undeniable love. “I love you, too. Always.”
* * *
