in reserve. You just had to trust that the other person would give back what they took.
It was a big risk. One he had spent the better part of his life avoiding. Because...well he’d never seen it. Never experienced it. For all he knew, what he wanted didn’t exist.
But he looked at Colton and Sierra...the happiness they had with the people in their lives and it made him hope.
And Rebecca felt worth it.
Hell, Rebecca didn’t even feel like a risk.
If she could only forgive him for everything he’d done. That was a risk. But it was one he was willing to take.
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
REBECCA WAS JUST about to close the shop for the night when she heard the bell above the door. She let out a long, exasperated side. She really wasn’t in the mood to deal with seeing anyone. She just wanted to go home and crawl under a blanket.
In the overall scheme of things, she supposed she was doing well. She had ordered a bunch of things for her house that she had put in her store, and it was starting to come along nicely. Operation “turn her house into a home” was a step in the right direction.
In the small, personal scheme of things that had to do with the state of her heart and whether or not it was broken into a million tiny pieces, she was doing pretty badly.
Someday, she would emerge from this stronger. She was confident of that. Mostly, she wanted to lie on the ground and howl. This was heartbreak. And it was terrible.
She looked up, ready to snarl at her customer and let them know she was about to close. Okay, maybe she wouldn’t snarl. She would keep her feral on the inside.
Then, she realized it was Gage. Her breath caught, her heart slamming against her breastbone. What was he doing here? It was too mean. It was way too cruel. She couldn’t see him again. She just couldn’t.
“I thought you were going to give me papers to this place and get out.”
He pushed his hat back with his knuckle, then shoved his hands into his pockets. “And I thought you didn’t want them.”
“I don’t,” she said, busying herself with an imaginary task. “But since when have you ever given a damn about what I want?”
Gage started to move toward her, his blue eyes intense, his beautiful, sensual mouth set into a firm line. She still wanted to touch him, to put her hands on his face, feel his rough stubble beneath her palms. She wanted to melt into him.
It wasn’t fair. It wasn’t fair that he could say all those things, all of those terrible things, and she could still want him like this.
And then, even more unfair, he wrapped his arms around her and pulled her toward him. Then, he put his hands on her cheeks, held her still, studying her face. “I care,” he said, his voice rough.
“Maybe you would care if you loved me,” she said, shooting his words from yesterday back at him.
“You know what, Rebecca, I am damn glad I didn’t tell you that I love you yesterday.”
She wiggled out of his hold. “Really, asshole? Did you really come to add insult to injury? Just because you don’t have a heart, because you can’t feel love and pain doesn’t mean that I can’t. I feel it. You broke me.” A tear slid down her cheek and she did nothing to wipe it away. “So if you came back for more, you’re too late. And, you’re terrible. Just terrible.”
He tightened his jaw, a muscle there twitching, his face looking tortured. He reached out for her again, cupping her chin, sliding his thumb over her cheek, wiping the tear away.
“It’s a good thing I didn’t tell you I love you yesterday because I didn’t know what it meant.” Those words sounded pulled from him, like they had come hard won from the very depths of his soul. “I’ve spent years running so that I never had to ask myself any questions. So that I never had to love anyone, answer to anyone. So that I never had to spend more than one night with a woman. So that I never had to make a friend that was close enough to count on me. So that I never had anyone that I counted on. It was easier. Easier than hanging around my family home being everything my father wanted me to be, then desperately acting like everything he didn’t