Page 57 of After-Party Consequences

They were so far above the manic energy of Manhattan. He should have been safe here, in the ivory tower he’d built to protect himself from ever needing anyone again.

But she’d breached it, just like she’d breached his heart.

‘Because I was terrified of my feelings for you,’ he murmured. ‘Seeing the baby felt so real, but what was worse was knowing that eventually I would let him down. And you down. I had to leave you first, before you decided to leave me, like she did.’

Charley stood shaking, the emotion coursing through her almost more than she could bear. But then slowly, Cade’s words registered. The fear behind them, but also the simplicity of feeling, the strength of his longing. Like hers.

But she didn’t want to give in too easily. To be that needy girl again who had internalised all the hurt, the longing, the loneliness of her childhood. Now more than ever, she needed to be strong. She wasn’t going to give him a free pass. If he loved her,reallyloved her, he had to prove it to her. She deserved that.

‘But then why did you still close the deal?’ she asked, her voice thick with tears. ‘If you wanted to be with me? If you were simply scared of your feelings for me...’ She let out a heavy sigh. ‘Which I get, because frankly, I was pretty terrified of my feelings for you,’ she added. He finally turned to look at her again, the shame in his expression giving her the strength she needed to say the rest of it. ‘Why did you still claim Helberg?’

He dropped his head, shoved his hands into the pockets of his trousers, his stance so tense she could see what it was costing him to find words for feelings she doubted he had ever confronted before.

He lifted his head at last, his blue eyes dark with the emotion he’d refused to let her see...until now.

‘I thought if I claimed Helberg,’ he said, his words measured, but the tone brittle with self-loathing, ‘I could get back the feeling of being safe again. Of being invulnerable.’ He shook his head. ‘But it didn’t make any difference. Even though I’ve been working to acquire the damn brand for...’ He sighed and looked down at his feet again. ‘A long time.’

‘Why?’ she asked, because she wanted all the answers to questions she’d never felt able to ask him before. ‘Whywas Helberg so important to you?’

He raised his head, the scar on his eyebrow levelling as he frowned. But just when she thought he wasn’t going to tell her, he let out a rough, guttural, hopeless sigh.

‘It’s pretty dumb,’ he said.

‘Not to me it isn’t.’ She wouldn’t let him off the hook.

He looked away, but when he began to talk, she knew the monotone of his voice masked a deep emotion she doubted he had ever revealed to anyone before now.

‘The department store...in Baton Rouge,’ he said, but then his voice trailed off.

‘The place where your mother abandoned you?’ she prompted.

His gaze met hers. And he nodded. ‘It was Helberg’s flagship store in the South. She used to take me there when she wasn’t too strung out. She knew I liked to play in the toy department. And the staff were kind. They’d let us stay for hours and never threw us out.’ He hitched his shoulder, the gesture somehow both wary and ashamed. ‘I loved that place so much. It was clean, and everything was perfect. It’s the only good memory I have of her. She wasn’t much of a mama, but she was so young and messed up. I think, deep down, I figured if I could ownHelberg, restore the brand, bring it back to its former glory, I could prove she had loved me once, too.’

She stood trembling. The picture he’d painted was so sad and so vulnerable. And she realised however much he had tried to leave that boy behind, that abandoned child had always been there inside him. Scared to love. Terrified to ask for more. In case it made him that vulnerable again.

No wonder he had been frightened of the love building between them, too.

She walked to him, banded her arms around his waist and pressed her cheek to the rigid muscles of his chest. ‘Oh, Cade, you idiot.’

He wrapped her in his arms, the deep sigh making his muscles relax. ‘Can you forgive me for being such a dumbass?’

He shifted back, framed her face in his palms, then pressed his forehead to hers. ‘If you’ll give me another chance, I swear I can make it up to you,’ he vowed. ‘Every damn day. I love you, Charlotte, so damn much. I’m gonna sell Helberg. It never meant what I thought it did anyway.’

The hope blossomed inside her, stronger this time. And so much more sure.

‘I don’t want you to do that, Cade. Especially if Helberg is your only real connection to your mother.’

He gave her a weak smile, but she could see the same fierce hope reflected in his eyes.

‘Don’t you get it, Charlotte? I don’t need Helberg now.’ He boosted her into his arms, the smile becoming a grin as she stroked his hair, his cheeks, the rough stubble on his chin, letting him know they were good. They were okay again. That she had already forgiven him. ‘Not if I’ve got you. And our baby.’

She chuckled, elated, as he captured her face and began to kiss her as if his life depended on sealing their connection, exploiting it. And glorying in it.

And as he showed her how much he loved her, she knew exactly how he felt.

Because her life depended on it, too.

EPILOGUE

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