Page 74 of Sugar Coated Lies
“You should know something first.”
He tenses under my touch.
“I don’t regret anything we’ve done here. It’s been the best week of my life, and considering what brought me here, that’s saying a lot.”
“Why does this sound like goodbye?”
The worry in his eyes has me leaning forward and kissing him. “I don’t know what the future holds for us. I would stay here forever if I didn’t have obligations that need to be taken care of. But I’m not the only one with a life to get back to. You have the farm to run and I…” My chest tightens, but for the first time, tears don’t burn my eyes when thinking about home and what I’ve lost. “I have a lot to do.”
He presses my hand flat against his chest and beating heart. “I would stay here forever, too.”
“You would?”
“Yes,” he says, like it’s obvious. “Things have changed between us and they’re not going back. I don’t want to lose you. I want to help you do whatever you need to do, and I want to make it easier for you however I can.”
“You have. This entire week has been everything.”
“Are you going to sell the house?” he asks abruptly.
“I can’t see myself living there now.”
“You said you like it here.”
“I do.”
“We could take care of things in Honeycomb, and you could move here.”
“I don’t have a job here. It’d be easy to get one, though, and Sadie is here, so that’s a plus, but I don’t know…”
“What don’t you know?” He brushes my hair from my face, his fingers sweeping across my cheek.
I consider what a life here would be like. “I’d miss the farm. Is that silly?”
“Not at all. You fit in there nicely.”
“I’d miss Millie and the café and having lunch on the back porch. It’s so peaceful.”
“It is peaceful. We can always build a place there and live here at the condo. We’d have to commute between the farm and here like I do now.”
“We?” Is he offering me to live with him? I thought he was just suggesting Atlanta for me as an alternative.
“What about the employee dating policy? If we live together, it won’t be a secret. Easton will know.”
“I want them to know. You’re mine, Everleigh.”
You’re mine.Those two words cause a mixed reaction inside me. Part of me loves them and the possessive gleam in his eyes. But another part wants to run.Never trust a rich guy. The advice I gave myself a year ago returns to my mind. And here I went and fell for one. But Daire is nothing like the manipulative Benedict.
“This is fast.” I avert my gaze. “I’m scared. I can’t lose anyone else right now.”
“You won’t lose me.” His finger slips under my chin as he tips my face so I look at him. “I love you.”
Panic and elation charge my overwhelmed heart. Daire loves me? I feel the same words at the tip of my tongue, but I can’t say them aloud. Not yet. Once they’re out, my heart will be his, and I’m not sure if he’s speaking in the moment or if he means what he says. Love shouldn’t be this confusing. But hasn’t love been this way for me ever since my parents died?
Fear can be powerful.
I might not be able to say the words to him, but I can show Daire how I feel and hope that’s enough for him to understand.
We make love before falling asleep that night, and I whisper everything I love about him and what he does to my body without confessing the three most important words of all.
