Page 49 of So Wrong It Must Be Right

“I know you said no promises, but—”

“I know you need your certainty, Dinah. I get that, and I’ll even try to match it. It’s going to be great and everything will work out, but . . .”

“Certainty doesn’t havebuts.”

He cracked a smile, but it faded rather quickly. “On the tiniest off-chance that it doesn’t work, I need you to understand that’s okay.”

“How is that okay?” she demanded. He kept saying he understood how important this was, but she was having a hard time believing him.

He took a deep breath and let it out. He shook his head and she knew he didn’t have an answer. Just likeshedidn’t have an answer. Because if this venture didn’t go through, she would still have to work on finding a way to buy his land. No matter how horrible it made her feel, that’s what she’d have to do.

Gallagher’s was her soul and her life, and nothing was going to change that. Not even possible love-type feelings.

What did romantic love—if that’s even what this was—have over centuries of family and roots and importance? What did feelings have over the knowledge and the surety she belonged here—in this neighborhood, making a difference with Gallagher’s Tap Room?

“We need to get moving.”

“Dinah . . .”

“I know this is what’s best for Gallagher’s,” she said. If she focused onthat, and not what she might feel for Carter, or what might happen if she failed, she could get through this in one piece.

“So you keep saying.”

“I just need you to have half as much certainty as I do,” she implored as they made their way to the door.

“I don’t know shit about Gallagher’s, Dinah. Maybe it would be helpful to them, but maybe it wouldn’t.”

“What about you? Aren’t you certain it’ll be helpful to you?”

He sighed. “I think . . . I think it could be good, and I think it could be a challenge that I would really enjoy. But it isn’t necessary, and the more you make it seem necessary, the more uncomfortable I get.”

Dinah frowned as they walked out of his house. She tried to come up with a response as he locked the door and they moved toward the gate, but she didn’t know how to deal with her certainty causing his uncertainty.

That’s where she kept circling back to with the whole feelings-for-him thing. She didn’t always agree with him, and she didn’t always like what he felt or said or wanted to do.

But no matter how she wondered over it, herfeelingsfor Carter dominated. The flutter in her chest, the painful desire to be with him when she wasn’t, the way he made her laugh or sigh or just . . . relax.

She couldn’t think about love right now. She couldn’t think aboutCarterright now. She had to think about Gallagher’s, and only Gallagher’s. Her entire life had been navigating the weirdness of running a business with family and people she loved. This shouldn’t be a new thing, all in all.

In fact, it should be comfortable and old hat. But Carter wasn’t like her family. She and Carter didn’t have a common good to rally around. She needed Gallagher’s to succeed. He needed his farm to succeed. While she had found a way for them to do that together, it wasn’t the same as having that same goal.

But as they walked toward Gallagher’s, Carter did what he so often did when they were walking together. He took her hand in his, linking their fingers.

She’d never been with someone who was so effortlessly affectionate. Even her family wassonot that.

Gallagher’s loomed in front of them—her home, her heart, and a threatening tower of brick, all in one.

“We’ll just go do everything like we practiced,” he said, sounding sure for the first time.

She realized clearly in that moment that he said it for her. And for him. It hit her, harder than she’d allowed it to yet, that he was doing this because of her. Just as she had come up with the idea because of him.

She wanted to make this work beyond almost anything else. Which was intimidating and made this whole thing that much more complicated. But she had never been afraid of complication, and she’d never been afraid of a challenge, and she wasn’t about to start now.

“We’ll blow them away. And when they agree, we’ll celebrate in grand fashion.”

“Oh, baby, your grand fashion scares the hell out of me.”

She laughed because he probably should be scared by her idea of celebrating. They were so different. She didn’t understand what it was about him that worked, or even what about her attracted him. All she knew was being with him made things feel comfortable andright,even when they weren’t.

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