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“And cake. I hope it doesn’t suck.” He chuckled, then moved in on me again. “Come here.”
I went into his arms with zero hesitation even though the questions only multiplied. Cash kissed me, but it was a short, controlled kiss, not the twenty-minute meshing of our mouths I longed for.
He glanced around, from the big box on the kitchen counter to the stack of three others in the path to the bathroom to the barren living room. “So this is where you live,” he said as he stepped toward the utilitarian sofa.
“This is my apartment,” I said, because it’d occurred to me over the past few hours that you couldn’t really call what I’d been doing hereliving. “Cash.” There was light scolding in my tone, because he was acting like he’d come from next door, not two thousand miles away. “What are you doing here?”
He turned and faced me, looking suddenly nervous. “Come sit down.”
His seriousness mademenervous, and I wondered if something bad had happened. I went over to him and we both sat on the couch, me with one leg under me, sitting sideways, facing him.
I held still and quiet, watching him, waiting, finally understanding what people meant when they said their heart was in their throat. As he inhaled, his gaze on his hands, which were on his thighs, I said, “Cash!”
I took his hand and held on to it, for me as much as for him if he needed it. He apparently needed it, as he flipped his hand and wove our fingers together.
“I made a mistake,” he finally said, meeting my gaze, and between those hazel eyes and his words, I melted. “I don’t want us to end, Ava. I don’t know what that looks like, but I’m ready to do long-distance when we have to. I can fly here sometimes, and you’ll have breaks between seasons, right?”
I shook my head, trying to let everything he said soak in. Unable to stop the wide grin from stretching across my face, I struggled to decide what to say first.
“You won’t have breaks?” he asked.
“Oh. Yes, I’ll have— I mean no.”Holy crap. “You’d be okay leaving the restaurant for a few days here and there?” I asked, stunned. He’d taken a couple full days off that last week I’d been in town, but as I understood it, those days were rare, usually not consecutive, and he’d never left it for more than a weekend at a stretch in the entire time he’d been an owner.
“To fly out here and be with you? I would. I’ve got Zinnia. She can handle anything that comes up. And I could hire an assistant for her or maybe a clone.” His expression went from determined to solemn. “Unless that’s not what you want. I know we said no strings, but…” He bit down on his words, seemed to gather his courage, then continued, “I want more time with you. I want strings. I fucked it up in the past, and I’ve regretted that for years. I thought the regret was just for being such a bastard with my blindside breakup, but the problem wasn’thowI broke up but that I did. Because you’re it for me, Ava. No one else. I never gave my ex-wife a chance to work out because I think, on some level deep down, I knew it was supposed to be you. It was always supposed to be you. I love you, Ava. I don’t know exactly how we make us work, but the one thing I’m sure of is I want to try.”
My mouth hung open and more tears gathered like an army getting into formation, at the ready. “Really?”
“Really,” he said earnestly. “If I need to, I’ll take a sabbatical from Henry’s while we figure out how to make us work.”
This man…
“Henry’s means everything to you,” I said.
“You mean more.”
That intense, loving look in his eyes slayed me in the best possible way.
My eyes fluttered closed as I was overcome, and sure as anything, the tears poured over the rims.
“I need to know if you want the same thing,” he said, sounding worried, and a laughing sob broke from me.
“Cash…” I quickly said, needing to reassure him but struggling to take everything in. I lifted our entwined hands and kissed his knuckles as tears dropped onto them. “I do. I want the same thing. Well…” I laughed awkwardly. “Not exactly the same thing.”
He squeezed my hand, his face registering distress, and really, could I screw this up any more?
“I want to be with you,” I clarified, sniffling and swiping a finger under each eye in a fruitless attempt to stop the tears. “But I don’t want to do long-distance. I…” I sucked in a belly-deep breath and expelled it, trying to prepare myself for his reaction. “I turned down the Stream job today.”
“Ava, no.”
I smiled, nodding. “I’m moving back to Dragonfly Lake.” I pointed at the boxes.
“You’re…” He studied my face, as though waiting for a punch line.
“Moving home. It turns out I love that little town. And the inn.Myinn. And you. I love you, Cash. I don’t even need the town or the inn if I have you.”
“You have me,” he said, his voice teeming with love and happiness. He palmed both sides of my face, pulled me closer, and we kissed, with me leaning awkwardly on my knees, hovering over him, not caring about anything but that connection, not even when I lost my balance and toppled to the side.
We both laughed, and then I somehow ended up on my back on the couch with Cash stretched over me.
