Page 176 of One Wrong Move

“Harper,” he interrupts, his voice serious. “I never want to hold you back. If you want to move to Paris, I’ll come with you. To Tokyo, too. If you want to get a dog, we’ll get a dog. If you never want to get married at all, we’ll never get married. Our relationship doesn’t have to be like your last.”

The picture he’s painting seems too beautiful to be real. Could it be? I thought he’d be on a set timeline, have expectations. A man like him…

But he’s never once made me feel like that.

Never once hinted at having suffocating demands.

“We can make our own rules,” I say.

“We can make our own rules,” he repeats. “And then, we can break them. There’s no right way to be together. I certainly don’t know of one. We can figure it out, build it. Together.”

I turn my hand around and grip his fingers with mine. They’re warm, holding me steady amid the emotional storm raging inside of me.

“Want to know a secret?” he says. “I’m terrified of this, too.”

I look up into his eyes. “You are?”

He nods. “I’ve wanted this for so long. Want it still, more than ever, and I love you, Harper. But I never want to hurt you again. Never want to let you down, or be less than what you deserve.”

Something inside of me aches, and I tighten my hand around his. “You could never let me down,” I say. “And as for hurting me… you weather the hurts when you care about one another. That’s a relationship. All the good, and a little bit of the challenging.”

The corners of his lips tip up into a half smile. “I suppose. But I’m going to try my damnedest to never have it happen again.”

I smile at him and steel myself to say the next part. It needs to be said. “The money to Dean, my debt… I don’t want to be beholden to you for something that happened before us, before this. Can I pay you back?”

“You’re not beholden to me.”

I forge ahead as if he hasn’t spoken. “While I can’t pay it all back right away, maybe in a few months? Now that I have a full-time position.”

He starts to shake his head, but then he stops. Makes himself nod once. “Yes, if you’d like. It’s your choice. But it’s not necessary. I used the weekend to run some numbers. You actually don’t owe me any money at all. And, if you want it, you’re well on your way to never needing a man again. Independence. Right?”

He squeezes my hand, releases it, and opens up the laptop. There’s a spreadsheet primed on the screen.

I recognize the names in the right column. Artists. Some of them are my favorites. It’s a list of purchases… The prices are in another column. It’s his entire art collection, listed out in a neat ledger.

“I purchased forty-two pieces in the last four years, all on your recommendation,” he says.

My mouth drops open. I’d known there were a few. But not this much. The numbers on this sheet… I knew, of course. Had lived in that townhouse for months amid all the beauty.

But still.

“I had them all appraised over the weekend. Consulted two independent art experts. I also got an estimate of what I would have paid to you as an art adviser had you been under contract.” He scrolls down, to where a sum is highlighted in red.

A pretty large sum.

“That’s your commission fee. A fee I never paid you. I used your services without giving you a dime.”

“I wasn’t consulting officially,” I protest. “I was just talking about my favorite artists! Giving you advice and a few recommendations when you mentioned being interested in starting a collection.”

“Exactly. Giving advice. My collection has appreciated significantly since I purchased the works. You’ve made me money, in effect, and gained nothing from it yourself. Not even professional credit.”

“Nate, I?—”

“I’m not wrong here,” he says. “I understand if this isn’t your cup of tea, but it’s an undeniable fact that you should have been paid. Let me deduct what I paid Dean from this amount… and put it into an investment account in your name.”

I press my hands to my cheeks. It’s all too much, and yet it makes sense. Of course, it does. That’s the hardest part. I want to protest, but I understand where he’s coming from. And the logic is sound.

“I’ll help you long-term with investing and financial planning, if you’d like,” he says. “Or I can recommend where to start if you want to do it yourself. Point being, you can build real independence with this. You wouldn’t ever need to stay at someone’s house. Although I desperately want you to live in mine. But it’s your choice, Harper. I want you to be happy and independent. And then, I want you to choose me, too.”

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