Page 54 of Dare to Need

“I like the sound of that.” I twisted the front of his shirt in my hands and breathed him in deeply.

A bolt of longing shot straight through me as he planted a kiss on my lips. “There’s one more thing I want to tell you.”

“Well, you’re going to have to stop kissing me if you want to continue this conversation.” I play-shoved him in the chest, but his body bounced right back against mine, his arms wrapping tighter around me. “I’m about to strip all your clothes off and throw you onto that bed.”

Laughter, thick as sweet honey, rumbled around me as he said, “I promise I won’t taunt you much longer. But there really is something else I want to tell you.”

Tilting my head back, I looked up into his ever-changing eyes with my brows raised, waiting for him to go on.

“When I spoke with Lucas, and then my brother, they both helped me to see that although my father’s illness has helped to show us both that we need to work on our relationship, it doesn’t mean that I should sacrifice my own happiness to settle an old feud. I know it was exactly what you were trying to show me as well, but I think I needed to hear it from others who were more separate from my immediate experience.”

My cheeks hurt from the intensity of the smile I held. “I don’t care how you got to the conclusion, Garth. I’m just happy that you finally see that your worth should not be tangled up in what your father used to expect of you. If Garrett and Lucas were able to help you see that, then that’s all that matters to me.”

“It probably helped that they practically smacked me over the head with it. I don’t think either one of them would have let me follow through without literally giving me a kick in the ass to wake me up. I can be stubborn sometimes.”

“So I’m learning,” I giggled.

Garth guided us over to the breakfast table, each taking a seat next to one another. “Does this mean you will be able to get your slot back at Studio 628?”

He shook his head. “Unfortunately, once you burn a bridge in this industry, it’s insanely difficult to rebuild the relationship. But that’s not what I wanted to talk to you about.”

He raked a hand through his dark brown hair and for the first time since I met him all those months ago, he looked nervous. I’d seen a lot of versions of Garth, especially over the past several days, but there was never a time when I saw him chewing his bottom lip like a schoolboy with his knee bouncing up and down.

“What is it?” I asked, rubbing the tops of his thighs vigorously, trying to get his nerves to calm.

“Ever since I was nineteen and left my home to go to Parsons, I promised myself I wouldn’t touch my trust fund. It was a decision made out of spite. I was just a punk kid who didn’t want to give his father the satisfaction of my needing to lean on him. But after talking things out with Lucas and Garrett, I realized that the only person I’m really hurting is myself.” His knees started bouncing again as a shy smile danced along his lips. “I’m tired of playing small, Eva. And I’m tired of avoiding the truth of who my family is. My parents came from nothing and have built a multi-billion dollar empire together. I shouldn’t be ashamed of that; I should be proud.

“So I’ve decided to use some of my trust fund money to open my own gallery in Orlando. A place where I can house my own pieces, as well as art from the up and coming generations. I can use the fortune I was granted to help others pave their own way in this world by giving them a safe space to display their art without them being worried about overhead costs or me taking something from them.”

His knees stopped bobbing and a subtle shift flowed through him as he finally spoke the words I knew he’d been dying to tell me. An air of confidence and determination seeped into him that I hadn’t seen since the first time I woke up in his loft to find him painting one of his favorite pieces.

Garth was finally himself again, yet he was different—all the insecurities that stemmed from the discord between him and his father were pacified. He could finally move forward…and so could we.

I launched myself at him, almost tipping us both out of his chair. He caught me with strong arms as he buried his face against my neck.

“I’m so proud of you, babe!” I exclaimed, peeling myself back to look him in the eyes. “All this time I was hoping there was a grander reason for the pain you were going through. That somehow everything would work out for the best and you wouldn’t have to sacrifice the most important parts of yourself to rebuild the relationship with your father. I was so scared, Garth. I was fucking terrified that you were going to throw everything away just to please him.” I rubbed the tip of my nose against his, scrunching my face. “I’m so proud of you.”

And I truly was.

“Thank you for saying that.” His lips brushed against the tip of my nose and the butterflies that took up a permanent residence in my stomach fluttered around.

“I’ve also learned something over the past few days.”

“Mmhmm?” Garth started planting kisses along my jaw and down my neck making it insanely difficult to concentrate.

“You’re not helping,” I teased, shoving against his chest.

He threw his hands up in mock surrender. “I’ll let you finish this time, I promise. But as soon as you’re done, you’re all mine.”

My core turned molten from the look he gave me and I almost said ‘to hell with it’ and let him continue what he’d started.

But I steeled myself against the need to reach out and touch him so I could say what I had to tell him. “When I saw you crumble to the floor when your mom told you the news about your father, it was unlike anything I’d ever experienced before. Fear of losing you grabbed hold of me and it wouldn’t let go. I kept thinking back to when we first met and how you helped me come into my own.” I nervously tugged at the bottom of my hair. “I know that eventually, I would have been able to get myself out of that mess because I’m strong. But I also know it would have taken me a lot longer, years maybe if you wouldn’t have helped me see that strength sooner.

“And that’s what I wanted to do for you. I wanted to help you see your worth and for you to understand that no matter what happened in the past with your father, you would find a way to make things better without compromising the best parts of yourself. But that wasn’t for me to do,” I said more to myself than to Garth. “All I needed to do was love you through it.”

“And you have,” Garth said as he entwined his fingers through my hair. “I think we’re both starting to understand that love isn’t an easy fix for every problem we are bound to have. Love is a choice. A decision we have to make over and over again, every time we wake up in the morning. We choose to stand by one another through the good times and the bad. Even when it pains us to be around one another, we still choose to walk forward, hand in hand.”

“And you choose me?” I breathed.

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