believe him, but I’m so afraid. “What’s changed?” I ask because I have to know.
He breathes in and breathes out. “I was afraid of you putting your career on hold for me. My mother ended her career to be with my father. He wasn’t worth the sacrifice. I’m not either—”
The offensive words sting like a slap. “Beau, how can y—”
“Let me finish,” he says, but his tone is gentle. “I’m not worth the sacrifice if I don’t help you achieve your dreams. Grant Landry hijacked Gina Hebert’s dreams, and twenty years later, he left her with next to nothing.”
Beau’s eyes burn with resentment and pain. I want to reach for him, to comfort him, but I hold myself still.
“If I am to be the man I want to be, it’s my job to lift up the woman I love and help her grab the life she’s always wanted—”
Frustration makes my skin feel too tight. “But don’t you see? You did that even before we broke up. You did that before we were ever a couple,” I say, my words tripping over each other. “You did that when you gave me the courage to stand up for myself.”
He nods emphatically. “Exactly. How could I let you risk everything you’d won for yourself by taking time off to be with me?” he asks, conviction swelling in his voice. “I would be just like him if I let you do that.”
I shake my head. “No, you wouldn’t—”
“I would. It just took me a while to realize that letting you go didn’t make me a better man,” he says, giving me a sad smile. “Just a broken one.”
My breath catches. ”Your uncle said you were miserable.”
His rueful grin makes an appearance. “I was. He told me you’d called.” Beau raises a brow. “He also told me I was an idiot.”
I try to smother a rogue laugh, loving Mr. Hebert. I press my lips together, sadness tugging at my heart. “I hated hearing that you were miserable.”
He shakes his head. “I got exactly what I deserved. I should have known that even if I wasn’t worth the sacrifice, you were worth anything. Anything I had to do to be with you.”
“Beau,” I argue, unnerved by the nonsense in his words “You are worth any sacrifice.”
“No, Iris, I—”
I reach over and take his hands, silencing him.
“Now you let me finish,” I add for good measure. “You helped me to see that I could have the career I wanted—exactly the way I wanted it. That I could deal ethically. That I could do comedy. That I could be free from harassment, and just so you know that I get it, from abuse.”
His face hardens at the reference to Moira.
“You helped me to claim all of that.” I lift one hand off our joined ones and gesture around the room. “This home. A job I love. Real food,” I add, eyeing him wildly and earning a chuckle for my effort.
His laughter gives me confidence. And hope.
“But just so you truly know your worth,” I say, squeezing his hands. “Even though I have all of this—all the things I ever wanted out of my career—I’ve been broken too. I’ve been miserable and empty.”
I stare into his eyes, hold his gaze, so he can see I mean every word.
“Without you to share them, all those victories are hollow.” And then I say the thing that nearly kills me. “But if you’re going to walk away from me again and disappear from my life, I need you to do it right now. Right now. Not tomorrow. Or Monday. Or even five minutes from now.”
Beau’s eyes narrow, but not before they sear me with heat. “I’m not going anywhere.”
And then his mouth is on mine.
None of my reunion fantasy kisses even comes close. This kiss is fevered and feral. It’s as wild and as alive as anything I’ve seen on the AT. It’s more mystical and spell-binding than any magic Raven Blackwell performed. It’s stormier than Hurricane Addie.
It feels like I could float up to the ceiling. To make sure I don’t, I grab Beau by the collar and tug him on top of me.
His familiar weight chases a sob from my chest. The relief of it is too much. My eyes leak. My lungs burn. Still I kiss him.
“Iris, my love, I’m not going anywhere,” Beau promises, stamping kisses along my jaw. Down my neck. I know he’ll have to leave at some point, but maybe this means we’ll figure out