Page 156 of Dear Grumpy Boss

“You’ll never be chosen second again.” I reached for her hands, but she yanked them back, cradling them to her chest, protecting herself.

From me.

“I love you, Elise. I love you more than Andes. I have missed you like an amputated limb. None of this makes sense without you.”

“We’ve had this conversation before, Weston. You made me promises after the gala that you broke so easily. Why would I believe anything has changed?”

I felt it. The ephemeral hold I had on her was slipping away. All the hope I’d been pinning on this one conversation was hanging in mocking tatters. But I’d been stupid to think a conversation would fix weeks of neglect and unfulfilled promises.

“Because I lost you.” Staggering to my feet, I backed away from the table, no idea where I was going. If I sat still for another second, I’d explode. “I lost you, and I can’tbreathe. I’ve never cared at the end. Not once. But I know I’ll follow you to the ends of the earth. There’s no one else for me.”

Her only reaction was to stare at me, slowly blinking, picking at the last scraps of label on her full beer bottle. With her chin tipped, the hanging twinkling lights glinted off her face. The sorrow pulling at the corners of her mouth and the redness outlining her eyes shattered me. Fury aimed at myself, at my actions, ignited at the base of my spine. My bottle exploded on the ground before I even realized I’d thrown it.

Elise jumped, whimpering with fear. Then she was on her feet, tripping backward to get away from me.

“Tell me you’ve stopped loving me,” I pleaded, following her footstep for footstep.

She shook her head. “Don’t.”

“I know you love me. You wouldn’t have asked me to meet you if you didn’t.”

“It doesn’t matter. Ican’tlove you.

“It does matter. That’s all that matters.”

I had closed the distance between us in a second, winding my arms around her in a breath. Cradling her head in my palm, I buried my nose in her hair and breathed for the first time in weeks. She mewled but didn’t push me away. She was limp in my arms, letting me hold her, but making no move to hold me back.

I was losing again, and I had no idea how to stop it from happening.

“I love you.” I kissed her silky hair. “I love you the most.”

“Stop it,” she whispered.

“I know you don’t want me to talk about Andes anymore”—she stiffened when I said it. God, how I’d messed up—“but there are steps I’ve taken this week to ensure nothing like this will ever happen again. Concrete, measurable changes. If you don’t want to hear them now, I’ll email you what I’ve done and you can read it when you’re ready.”

“I don’t think I’ll ever be ready.”

“Then I’ll be waiting forever.” My lips lingered at her temple. “I love you, baby. You are my destination. It’s why I came to you in the middle of the night and why I’ll keep coming back, even if you push me away.”

Finally, her arms moved. She grasped my shirt, her nails clawing my back as she clung to me. I held her tighter, her soft body sinking into me.

“I don’t know if I can believe you, Weston.”

I nodded against her hair. “I know. But I’m going to keep coming until you do.”

“You should let me go.”

“I can’t.”

She allowed me to hold her as she trembled. There was a chance this would be the last time I got to do this. We both knew it, but neither of us spoke it.

“If I could go back to that night, I would have told you everything,” I murmured. “I would have let you in.”

“I wish you had.”

The sun was almost beyond the horizon when she stepped out of my arms and got on the elevator alone. I stayed on the roof to watch the stains of orange and pink fade to black.

Then I went back to the penthouse and into my office. I had an email to write and the love of my life to convince I was worth one more chance.

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