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I pressed a kiss to the top of her head. “I know. I’m sorry too. I hate that I walked out on you. Definitely one of the biggest regrets I have.”

“You had every right to leave. I was awful.”

“You were scared. There’s a difference.”

She lifted her head to look at me, those blue eyes still a little glassy from everything we’d just shared.

“I can’t promise I won’t make mistakes again. I’m going to screw up. Probably a lot. I’ve never done this before. The real relationship thing. I don’t have a playbook.”

I slid my fingers over her arm. “Neither do I. Not for something like this. But I can promise I’ll try. Every day. Even when it’s hard. Even when we’re both being stubborn idiots.”

“Especially then,” she said with a small smile.

“Especially then.”

We lay there listening to the sound of the ocean through the open window.

“So,” I said eventually, my hand still stroking her shoulder. “What happened with the CEO job? Your dad called me, but he didn’t give me details.”

Darcy let out a long breath. “I went back to the office,” she said. “My father was waiting for me. They were ready to make it official. Announce their support for my appointment.”

“That’s good, right?”

“Would have been. Except I wasn’t there.” She laughed, but it was bitter. “I was in a hotel room with you while they were trying to celebrate my success. A few of them started having doubts. Questioning my judgment. My commitment.”

I winced. “Shit.”

“Yeah.” She traced a pattern on my chest, her fingers light. “My father wanted me to fix it. Do another event, make a public statement, jump through more hoops. And I just snapped.”

“Snapped how?”

“I told him to fuck their doubts.”

I couldn’t help it. I laughed. The image of Darcy telling her father and the board to fuck off was too perfect.

“It’s not funny,” she said, but I could hear the smile in her voice.

“It’s a little funny. What did he say?”

“He was shocked. I’ve never talked like that to him.” She propped herself up on her elbow to look at me. “I told him I was tired of not being good enough. And I was done jumping through hoops. And then, get this, I told him I wasn’t sure the company was good enough for me.”

I stared at her, genuinely impressed. “Damn, Darcy.”

“I know. It was a lot.” She bit her lip. “I walked out. I haven’t been back since.”

“Shit.”

She’d been in a worse way than I had been.

She lay back down, her head finding its place on my chest again. “My father apologized.”

That surprised me. Lou Corwin didn’t strike me as the apologizing type. “He did?”

“He admitted the board had been unfair to me.”

“That’s actually kind of huge.”

“It is.” Her voice was quiet. “He also said the job is still mine if I want it. He’s got enough influence to make it happen, doubts or no doubts.”