Page 61 of So Wrong It Must Be Right

Chapter 17

Dinah had an idea. It had popped into her head sometime between his saying he cared about her and he loved her.

Loved.

She didn’t want to give this up. She didn’t want to sacrifice one dream for another, so she wouldn’t. Compromise. All it would take was a little bit of compromise, and phrasing this the exact right way.

“What kind of ultimatum, Dinah?”

“Let’s sit down. Do you want something to drink? I could—”

“Dinah.”

He wasn’t giving her any time at all to think, to plan, to prepare, but she couldn’t exactly leave him hanging either.

He loved her.Love. He’d offered her a hug and wanted to comfort and support her without even knowing what was going on. She owed him something, and she could think quickly on her feet.

She met his worried gaze, and it wasn’t hard to see the toll his heart had taken in a lifetime. Losing pieces of himself and fighting his family to keep them, he was braced for the worst.

She wouldn’t let this be the worst. “My grandmother doesn’t approve of you.”

“My shock, it is huge,” he intoned, sarcasm dripping from every syllable.

“She said if I would cut personal ties with you, she would recommend me for the director of operations position over Craig.”

Finally, he sat, reminding her of a big tree falling over after having been cut. Her couch even let out an audible groan at the sudden influx of weight.

“Well, you could have mentioned that before we started talking about love.”

“No, because they are two separate things,” she said firmly. Two different wells of love, and she would find a way to drink from them both, damn it.

He shook his head. “Dinah, come on. They are not twoseparatethings. Not in your world.”

“We found a way to get around the whole buy-your-land thing. This will be easy compared to that.”

“No, it won’t. This is pretty clear. To get what you’ve always wanted, you’ve got to kick me to the curb.”

He seemed so certain, but he didn’t understand. If only he’d given her more time, she would have had the perfect spiel to convince him. She couldn’t give up, though. She had to keep trying to get him to understand. “You’re what I’ve always wanted too.”

He sighed, raking his hands through his shaggy hair. “That doesn’t make sense.”

“Yes, it does. Despite everything that’s happened, Iknowthere was a time when I was growing up that my parents loved each other. I saw my grandparents love each other.” No matter what Grandmother said. “I have seen love in action and I’ve always wanted that. I don’t believe I have to sacrifice one dream for another. I refuse to let that be true.”

He looked at her, not as though he believed her, or even as though he wanted to, but with a pained kind of expression in his dark eyes. “I know that you . . . God knows you can make miracles happen, but I don’t think this is one of them.”

“But I do. I believe that this is definitely one of them and I can accomplish exactly what I want to. You know why I keep being able to do that?”

“Luck?”

“Determination,” she returned firmly. “Because I don’t give up. Because I believe. All it takes is that belief, and hard work, and no matter what the setback, you can get where you want to be. I believe that. I have to believe that.”

“I don’t know how to believe that, Dinah. I have done those things, I have believed and worked my ass off and hoped so hard, but I have lost. Repeatedly.”

“Then you fell in love with the right person. I will believe enough for the both of us.” She knew he didn’t see it. He didn’t believe it. She could even understand that. He’d had a lot of crap happen to him and it hadn’t worked out.

But she had to believe that meant he hadn’t tried hard enough. He had given up too soon. She was going to make this work because she wouldn’t give up. Period. Nothing could stand in her way.

“How exactly are you proposing to get the director job and have a relationship with me when your grandmother gave you such a clear ultimatum?”

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