Page 119 of The Candlemaker

He took a step toward me, and I tensed like a deer in headlights, prepared to bolt the second he got too close. I’d walked away from him once, and in the last five days, being alone with all the reminders and memories and messages from him, I knew I wasn’t strong enough to walk away a second time if he touched me.

I thought I was strong. Determined. Resolute. But so help me, I missed his embrace. I missed waking up next to his warmth and spice. I missed working all day in the comfort ofhis presence and spending all night exposed to the heat of his touch. I loved him, and I hated that I had to break my own heart because I loved him too much.

“I won’t either, Frankie.”

I shook my head like my emotions were dust I could shiver off. “No. You can’t say that. You left again. For your business—because of your father?—”

“I walked away from it, Frankie.I gave…I restructured the arrangement with my half-brother; I’m giving them back the properties I acquired so they can stay in business.”

“What…” My head was swimming. I couldn’t believe what I was hearing.

“Taking over it wouldn’t make me better, Frankie, it would make me the same as him. A man who destroyed things,” he rasped. “And I don’t want that to be my legacy.”

“But your business…” I was rapidly losing my foothold in resistance.

“I’m walking away from all of it. I should’ve walked away a long time ago when Mom got sick. I don’t need the money. Haven’t for a long time.”

My heart pounded like a jackhammer on cocaine, blood humming in my ears. “What?” I shook my head. “No. You can’t. It’s your business, you can’t walk away from it. I would never ask you to. I have my own business, I know how important?—”

“No, Frankie. Your business is your passion. My business was a weapon. A tool to gain wealth and power to prove I was better than my father. You started your business to remind people of the pieces of the world they love; I started mine to prove why the world should love me,” he insisted, and even though I was shaking from the sincerity in his words, I was frozen in place as he moved toward me. “But I don’t need the world to love me, Frankie. I just need you to.”

My finger buttoned over my lips as soon as a cry escaped them. I didn’t even feel the tears in my eyes until blinking sent them racing down my cheeks.

“Chandler…”

He unfolded something in his hand; it took longer than it should’ve to recognize his label from Gigi because my eyes swam with tears.

“You’re my freedom, Frankie. The reason I have a future. A life. The reason I have to smile,” he said low, and I couldn’t stop myself from sobbing. “You’re the reason I have to love.”

“Chandler, please.” I begged for mercy as he came to stand in front of me, his big hands framing my face.

“I love you, Frankie. And if you’ll at least hear me out, I have a new deal I’d like to offer you.”

I only had to breathe him in to know I would say yes to whatever it was.

“A new deal?” I managed to rasp.My mind was so scrambled by his presence—his proximity,his scent.

“The last time we were here, we agreed to one week to prove the inn was haunted.”His hand cupped the side of my face. “This time, I’d like to propose something a little more permanent.”

I should’ve seen it in the bright embers in his eyes or heard it in the husk of his voice when he said the wordpropose, but Chandler Collins had always been an expert in surprising me.

My jaw lowered along with him until he was on one knee in front of me.

“Francesca Kinkade, I’d like to propose a new deal,” he said and materialized a ring box from his pocket, drawing the lid open. “Forever with me so I can prove how much I love you.”

The sight of him swam in front of me, tears obscuring everything except the unimaginable swell of happiness in my heart.

“And if I say no?” Even my tone betrayed that impossibility.

A small smile tugged at his lips. “Then I have a lot of candles here to help convince you to say yes.”

I shivered and laughed. “Resorting to threats to get me to marry you?”

“It could be worse. I could be resorting to ghosts.” His grin softened and then disappeared. “Will you marry me, Frankie?”

I bent forward and brought my face to his, the flicker of the candles turning into a glowing haze around us. “Yes, Chandler. I will marry you.”

His mouth claimed mine, firm and demanding, and the instant explosion of electric heat made my knees tremble.

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