Page 81 of Unravel You

“Did you track Bridget too?” She glanced up at me. Bridget was the last piece in her puzzle.

“No.”

Her brown eyes were deep pools that made me ache for her. The question I wanted to ask siphoned all the oxygen out of the room. Valentina was free of Alex. Where did that leave us? In the time since we got engaged, she had gotten to see a side of me I’d wished didn’t exist. Success, the top, was a lonely place for a reason.

“Bridget thinks you used her. Used her, then tossed her to the curb.” She moved away from me.

I fought the urge to reach for her, to pull her closer to me. “I can see why she would think that. And I wish I could say she was the only one who felt that way about me. I’m not a saint, Valentina. I never said I was.”

“I know that. I never expected you to be one.”

“I’ve spent the last seven years of my life working toward a single goal. To make my company what it is today. Bridget wasn’t the only person I trampled over to get here. Not even Mom was exempt from that.”

“She’s in love with you.”

“I’m in love with you. This thing with Bridget. Our relationship. It was convenient.”

“Do you think if Bridget had stayed the faithful wife, you’d still be conveniently married?”

Of all the things I thought she’d be mad and disappointed about, I never would have guessed my previous marriage would make the list. “The truth? Maybe. I don’t know. What I do know is that when I’m with you, I’m a better version of myself. Before you, I didn’t care what went on around me because all I wanted to do was work, win. With you, I want to live. My life is one sunny summer day when you’re in it.”

“I didn’t know who you were when I accepted the job offer at your company.” She drew her knees up to her face. “It would have been crazy to meet you there instead of at the coffee shop. To see you every day as the boss and not be able to have you.”

This would be a good time to have Tyler in here with me to explain what she was going through as she tried to sort through the kidnapping and where it left her. “Now we’re going into the realm of alternate realities. It’s impossible for us to know what would’ve been or could’ve been.”

“I know. I’m trying to figure it all out. Bridget was in pain.”

I cupped her face with both hands to make her look me in the eyes. “I am sorry for what happened between Bridget and me. I promise you that won’t be us. But after all you’ve seen, after all I’ve put you through here, if you want to postpone the wedding…indefinitely…I’ll understand.”

The idea of letting her go cut me. In a flash, I could see my life spent in boardrooms, going from one business deal to the next without real purpose, going home to an empty house. Surrounded by so many people and yet alone. She deserved to be happy. If she didn’t think I could do that for her, it would be unfair to keep her here.

“I don’t want that. I want to be with you.” Tears streamed down her cheeks. “That will never change.”

“Then marry me.”

“Are you proposing or breaking up with me?” She laughed.

That sweet sound hit me square in the chest. “How ’bout this? I’m confirming the engagement.”

“So we don’t have to rush off and get married in a few weeks?” She cocked an eyebrow.

“A week, a year, a lifetime. I will wait for you as long as you need me to.”

She tucked her legs under her butt, leaning toward me. Her hand snaked around my neck and fisted a bunch of my hair. “The wedding cake is almost as tall as me. We can’t send it back.”

“That’s a lot of cake.”

She nodded, her cheeks red and her eyes still wet from crying. The air shifted in the room, charged with a raw energy. The same energy that had been there between us since the day we met at the coffee shop at the edge of campus. How we felt about each other was separate from everything else in our lives. Our love would never change.

“We can’t let that go to waste.”

“You’d marry me just to save a cake?” I pulled her onto my lap.

“That. And also, I want to spend the rest of my life with you.”

“I love you.”

“I love you too.” She pressed her mouth to mine. Her salty kiss was soft and tentative. When her skin grew hot under my touch, she tightened her grip on my hair and slipped her tongue past my lips. “Derek.”

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