Total pages in book: 133
Estimated words: 128156 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 641(@200wpm)___ 513(@250wpm)___ 427(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 128156 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 641(@200wpm)___ 513(@250wpm)___ 427(@300wpm)
He loses his control, his arms coming up around me as he tugs me close, pulling me down and cradling me in to his chest.
I go willingly, needing this. Needing him.
His heart pounds against mine, and I know he’s fighting with his emotions, just as I’m fighting mine.
“I’m so sorry,” he murmurs into my hair, his voice thick. “I never wanted you to worry. I wanted to handle everything before you got home and then you came early and everything got out of control before I could fix it.”
I lift my head from his chest, my fingers gripping the fabric of his shirt. His hands find my face gently, shaking as the warmth of him presses into my skin, like he expects I’ll pull away, like he thinks I should. I don’t. I won’t. I’ll never have even a moment of doubt again and I hate that I ever did when I knew better.
“I love you,” I whisper without hesitation. “I love you, Chase. Truly. Deeply.”
His limbs are trembling, and his forehead meets mine. “I do not deserve you.”
“Yeah, you do, but we’ll work on that,” I rasp. “Because we have now, and five, and twenty-five years to look back at this and I will keep reminding you of all the reasons why you do deserve me, this place being one of them.”
A shuddered breath leaves him, and he grips my face tighter, a devastating hope shadowed by heartbreaking despair staring back at me, like he just can’t bring himself to believe but physically can’t fathom the thought of not. “Baby.”
“I’m keeping you, Chase Harper. Now. Always. So if you could please kiss me now, because I’ve missed—”
He cuts me off with a swift press of his lips. One of his hands sinks into my hair, his other tugging me impossibly closer, his fingertips trembling as his body sags in relief. I’m where he needs me most—in his arms, close to his heart.
This kiss is different. It’s old and new and us.
It’s hard. Deep.
It’s final.
CHAPTER THIRTY-SEVEN
Chase
It turned out I was right.
Prescott was an innocent party when it came to the mess Grant was making by inserting himself in his granddaughter’s relationship. Guess Grant came clean all around because not a month later, the dude drove out to Oceanside and waited in my driveway for me to get off work just so he could apologize. He offered to take me out to lunch, and even claimed he’d let me pick and pay. We had a good laugh over that.
In the end there were no hard feelings and I was surprised at how nice it felt to clear the air. I didn’t think I gave a damn, but it was good to be acknowledged and treated with respect for my place in her life. I even agreed to let him attempt to convince me golf isn’t the most boring sport out there.
Grant, though, is a different story, but I’m trying. I’ll keep trying and I will continue to be polite for Paige’s sake, and maybe one day I will be able to forgive and forget. Today isn’t that day but it’s not worth being angry over.
No, the anger faded pretty fast. Ironically enough, it’s the trust and loyalty that I’m struggling to see in him. But he knows it and continues to try to make amends.
He even went back to the school and paid for my last semester. Again. But he was out of his mind if he truly thought I would allow that. I didn’t, told him to go and try to get his refund, but I think the refund period had passed by the time he made the payment. If it did, he never mentioned it, especially not after Paige read him the riot act for putting himself in my business again, even if he sort of did have better intentions that time. Or maybe it was just guilt.
Paige, the sweetheart she is, has chosen to put everything behind her for the sake of the relationship she wants to have with him, but I know it will always be in the back of her mind, and I think he knows that, too.
She did agree to be a part of his company, though she won’t be as hands on as he originally had hoped. At least, not anytime soon anyway, but she did sign the contract, just in case. That way, if something were to happen to him between now and when she’s ready, no one can take or threaten what is and should be rightfully hers, wanted or not.
Turned out, that marriage clause he threw out at me that day was tricky of him because I found out she never had to marry someone of his choosing. It was her choice all along, who that man would be.
That man is me because I am going to marry this girl the second she lets me, but we’ve already got two weddings coming up, so I will wait until it’s our turn.