Page 113 of Someone to Tempt
“Let’s not do this here,” I tell him, not wanting to prolong the agony if that’s what’s coming. Given how we left things, how can I think it will be anything else? I know now he's too decent to just disappear—Jake would want to explain it away to make sure I understand it's not my fault, even though we both know it is. “It can wait for?—”
He takes my hand in his and links our fingers. “I don’t want to wait another minute to tell you that I love you, Iris.” His eyes swirl with emotions—hope, joy, and uncertainty. “I want to be with you. Give me a second chance. I’m not saying I deserve one. I’ve been a fool and a coward and an idiot.”
“A pigheaded idiot,” Gilbert clarifies as he joins the group of people surrounding us.
Jake grins sheepishly. “All those things and much more. Well said, Gramps.”
Murmurs of agreement come from my book club friends.
“No one needs to offer more,” I call out, raising my free hand. Jake also captures that one, lifting it to his mouth to brush a soft kiss across my knuckles.
“You love me?” Something fragile flutters in my chest, a glimmer of hope I'm almost afraid to nurture. That simple question feels too big for this moment and yet not enough.
“Probably since we were seventeen, but I was definitely too much of a fool to do anything about it then. You taught me to be brave and embrace every part of my life. But none of it matters without you, Iris.”
A champagne fountain of emotions erupts inside my heart. I’m fizzy and light, as if I could float away in the crisp autumn air. He fills every hollow place I thought would stay empty. This is what I want, who I want, but?—
“You’re going back to Austin.”
“Not if you say yes.” He shakes his head. “Skylark is my home.Youare my home. I never knew my place could be a person—until you.”
I blink. “I have an interview next week in Seattle.”
“You have a job offer right here,” Sally shouts from the back of the crowd.
“More than one,” Jake’s grandpa says as he steps forward. “We have an open position at the foundation for a program manager to work in Skylark and the surrounding communities. You’d be perfect for that role, Iris.”
I feel my mouth drop open, and I’m not sure how to react.
“Will you give us a chance?” Jake asks. “I know it might not be easy, but I don’t want easy, Dixon. I want you and me. The messy, beautiful, imperfect everything. All of it as long as we’re together. Every version of life I can imagine is better when I’m with you.”
“Yes,” I whisper as my heart fills. It might not be easy, and I might not have all the answers, but I know I want to figure them out with Jake.
This is my future, and I’m not going to let it go. Not this time.
I don’t realize I’m crying until he brushes a thumb across my cheek. “You mean that?”
“Yes,” I repeat. “I’ll give you—us—all the chances we need.”
I wrap my arms tight around his shoulders and kiss him.
“Then you’re stuck with me, Dixon. Forever.”For the first time, forever doesn’t feel scary. Because I know I’m exactly where I’m supposed to be.
“Forever,” I whisper with a soft laugh. My heart is overflowing with happiness knowing Jake and I will figure out how to make our future everything we want it to be. Not because it will always be easy, but because it will always be us.
Every step forward with him–dancing or otherwise–is the home I want. A home where I can be fully seen and completely myself, a love that shows up in every moment, and the promise that we’ll always choose each other.
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