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“Why would I let you suffer and bear this all alone?”
“I want to, I do, but —”
Brian leaned down and placed a kiss on her forehead. “We can do whatever it is we set our minds to. If the both of us are working together, then there's nothing we can't do. I need you to take my hand, Jessica. I need you to trust me.”
Jessica took a step back out of his arms.
“Trust you? You're the one who has nothing to lose here. I would be foolish to trust you.”
“You're wrong, Jessica. I do have something to lose here. My heart to the woman whom I love.”
“Alright, alright already. It was Ms. Cruz, Ms. Prince’s EA. She wants me to come into the office because Ms. Prince wants me to present to the board. I have to tell you; I was really confused, and I wasn't sure if I was even going to be able to tell you.”
How did a man possibly compete with a dream career?
Chapter Seventeen
It was time to be all in and Brian was scared.
“Jessica, do you care for me?”
She wrapped her arms around his waist and hugged him tightly.
“I care more than I should,” she murmured.
Brian didn’t realize he had been holding his breath waiting for the answer. He thought he had read all of the signs, but nothing was as good as confirmation from the source. He wrapped his arms around her and took a deep breath of her hair.
“I care about you, too. As long as we have this, we can build and protect our relationship.”
“I'm not easy, Brian. I've read the stories and the probability is not high that caring, and love is enough,” she murmured into his chest.
“Whatever you've read didn't include people like us. It didn't include me fighting for something that I've been looking for all my life. For goodness sake, Jessica, you're a genius. I'm a can-do man who gets things done. We're levelheaded, we communicate with each other, and we know how things are adding up. We can work this out. As long as we never forget to talk to one other, okay?”
Jessica lifted her head and looked at Brian. He could see that she wanted to believe what he said but there was still a hint of doubt.
“Okay, I'll do this, but I want you to know that I'm following you.”
Brian cradled her face and then leaned down and placed a kiss on her lips. “As long as we have each other and as long as we talk to each other, we'll be able to make it through anything. Because I don't want to scare you, I'm not going to use the L word.”
“You mean liability?” she said with a smile. As if a burden had been removed, she relaxed against him. He could feel her whole manner shifting and in that moment he made a resolution to make sure that nothing got in the way of their relationship. This was what he had been looking for all of his life. He hadn’t known he was looking for it but now that she was in his arms, he wasn’t going to let her go.
“I won’t keep anything from you. I’m not sure how this job thing is going to work out but no matter what it’ll be us getting through it,” she murmured. “So, not to be the pessimist here but how many relationships have you been in?”
Brian looked into her eyes and smiled wide. “You mean relationships like ours where I “L” you?”
Jessica nodded.
“None. You are my first, Jessica.”
She buried her head in his chest again. “You know the first is usually a comedy of errors. The first kid is the experiment, and the second kid gets the benefits of the first. You know probability says that the first tends to fail at least 79% of the time and —”
Brian tipped her chin up. “We’re curve breakers and outliers. Those rules don’t apply to us.”
* * *
As they were getting ready for dinner, Jessica realized that she was more relaxed than she had been since she had arrived in Peace, and it didn’t go unnoticed.
“So, it seems like you and squeaky are on good terms,” Beth commented.
