Page 161 of Dear Grumpy Boss

“It was the pickles that did it.”

His head cocked. “Not the hours and hours of planning that went into restructuring my executive team?”

My lips twitched. “That was a little bit of it.”

“Are you…?” He held my face, stroking my chin and bottom lip with his thumbs. “Are you coming back?”

I kissed his thumb, and he went still. “You light me on fire, Weston.”

His brow pinched. “I want that to be a good thing, but I’m not sure it is.”

“You scare me. That’s the truth. But your brother said a few things to me yesterday, and I can’t really stop thinking about them.”

“I’m not sure I want to hear anything Miles had to say.”

“Well, it’s part of why I’m here, so…”

“Ah, damn.” He scowled at the door. “Will I have to thank him after this?”

Despite everything, Weston’s innate grumpiness still made me laugh. “I don’t know. Maybe.”

“Come here.” He pulled me over to his bed, sitting on the end of it, and tugged me down next to him. “Tell me, baby.”

Weston’s eyes were pinched and tired, but hope was dawning behind them. The scruff on his jaw was thicker than usual, and his hair was wild like he’d been yanking at it all day.

My heartstrings were being plucked hard, and the urge to skip this conversation so I could lean into him and tell him everything would be okay was almost overwhelming. But not talking had gotten us here, and I never wanted to be here again.

“Miles said if a couple brave cavemen hadn’t conquered their fear of burning alive, we’d still be in the dark. I don’t want to be in the dark, Weston. So, I have to get over being afraid of the way you light me on fire, because I want the light, and I want you.” He opened his mouth to speak, but I pressed two fingers to his lips. “But this is it, you know? This has to be it. Don’t take me back if you can’t live up to your end of the deal.”

“I’ll live up to it,” he swore, kissing my fingertips before taking my hand in his. “Plans are in motion. Change doesn’t happen overnight, not for a company the size of Andes, but it’s happening. It should have happened a long time ago, but I never had a reason. Work was my life.”

“Impossible to compete with.”

“There’s no competition, Elise. My life now revolves around you and what we’re going to build together. For a while, I lost sight of my goal. A long time ago, I vowed to be nothing like my father. To be better than him. That pushed me to build Andes and watch it flourish. But I don’t only want to be better at business. I want to be a better man than him, to take care of my family and put them first. You’re my family. You’ll always come first.”

“Weston—” This man, he knew exactly how to love me.

He took my chin between his fingers, tipping my face to his. “I don’t want to live through the last few weeks again.”

“It would kill me if I had to,” I told him.

The look he gave me was filled with promise and determination. “I won’t let that happen. I never want to live another second where you’re not mine.”

“I’m yours.” Had I ever not been his in one form or another?

“We belong to each other, and I will do everything in my power to watch us flourish.”

“I will too.”

His exhale hit my lips moments before his mouth did. Soft and sure, we melded into a kiss that felt like it had been decades coming. His fingers were in my hair, and I grasped his shirt. We did nothing more than kiss and kiss, so much relief pouring between us. Being apart had been as unnatural as breathing underwater.

This was right.

Weston close, loving me like forever, me loving him right back.

His forehead rolled against mine. Our lips separated by a breath.

“I love you,” I told him.

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