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Will hung his head, seemingly unable to reply. It wasn’t lost on me that he’d had other reasons, too. He wanted to get far away from this town and the bad memories it held. It was all so fresh back then. But knowing what I knew now about his feelings for me and the fact that he hadn’t acted on them, it would be pointless to assume I had nothing to do with it.
“Now that we’re finally together, I can’t imagine being apart,” I said. “So it’s settled. When you get orders, I’ll come too.”
His gaze traveled over the property again and he sighed. “You’ve worked so hard on this place. You can’t just leave.”
“I can, actually. Because I’m more than my venue.”
“What do you mean?”
I lifted my hands and let them fall onto my lap with a soft smack. “I’m a wedding planner with an incredible resume. Wherever you go, I’ll be able to find another venue that’d be happy to have me. I know I can.”
“And what about the B&B? What about your business?”
“I’ll have to do some research, but I imagine I can hire someone to take my place and oversee it from wherever we are. It could be kind of cool, actually. Like an extra income stream, depending on how I structure it.”
He blew out a long breath as he thought about it, his eyes on the porch between us. “I was ready to tell you I’d get out if you wanted to stay here.”
“You were?”
“Yeah. Because you’re right. I can’t leave you again.”
A faint smile kissed my lips as I blinked at him. “As sweet as that is, I wouldn’t let you do that. This is your career.”
“It’s yours too.”
“Yes, but mine is a lot more flexible.”
True happiness lit his eyes then. “You’re pretty freaking impressive, you know that?”
I shrugged and tossed my hair over my shoulder. “Yeah, I know.”
He chuckled, then jerked his head. “Come here.”
I rose from the chair without even thinking about it and crossed the porch to stand in front of him. My torso fit between his legs like a puzzle piece as he wrapped his arms around me. “Thank you.”
“For what?”
“For being you. For pushing me into being honest.”
I snuggled closer, feeling so warm and loved and whole that it almost brought tears to my eyes. “Thank you for finally letting me.”
We stayed like that for what felt like a long time, just holding each other as the evening grew darker around us. I focused on the lighting bugs flashing in the grass as I listened to the steady beating of his heart.
“We should probably go,” he said, his tone suggesting he didn’t really want to.
“Yeah, we should. Gotta get this first family dinner out of the way sooner or later.”
“Do you think they’re gonna freak out?”
“Probably not worse than Paul did,” I replied with a teasing smile.
“I sure hope not.”
“Really, though, my mom said she’s always wondered if this would happen.”
His brows arched. “Really?”
“Yep. Right before I dropped those dang plates all over our feet.”
