Page 56 of My First Mistake
I pull open the door and my heart stops beating. Because it’s better than all of the above by a country mile. “Chase?”
He smiles and those mesmerizing blue eyes twinkle brighter than Christmas lights. “Hey, Firefly.”
“W—what are you doing here?”
“I told you I was going to make this work, didn’t I?”
“I know you said that, but…”
He frowns. “You didn’t believe me?”
“Not exactly. But what about your job? You’ve been so busy.”
He takes my hand and pulls me out onto the porch and the doors close behind me with a soft click. Then he opens his thick wool coat and wraps it around me, until the two of us are inside it and I’m squished up against his chest. “There’s a reason I’ve been so busy, baby. I’m sorry I wasn’t able to talk as much as I wanted to, but I had to tie up a few loose ends before I could get here.”
That makes my heart hurt for him. “I love that you did that, but I don’t want you killing yourself just to be able to spend a few days here with me.”
“I’m not here for a few days, Firefly.”
Now my heart hurts for me too. Not even a few days? “So, how long are you here for?”
He runs his nose over my jawline, a deep animalistic growl rolling in his throat. “I don’t want to spend another second of my life without you in it, Addison Kinsella. I love you. Always have. Always will.” He presses a soft kiss on my lips and I melt into him like the snow in the first rays of the winter sun.
“I love you too, Chase. But…you live in LA.”
“I’m moving home to Juniper Ridge?—”
“No, I can’t ask you to do that.”
He chuckles softly. “You didn’t ask me, baby. Did you even hear what I said?”
I did. He called Juniper Ridge home. “You actually want to move back here?”
He nods.
“But what about your job? Your clients?”
“I’ve had a reshuffle. Promoted a couple of my best project managers to VPs, so I can take more of a back seat and focus on the design, which is the part I love anyway. But that’s where we might need a little compromise, Firefly.”
“What kind of compromise?”
“You’re going to have to move too.”
I blink. “Me move? But if you’re coming home to Juniper Ridge, and I already live here, why am I moving?”
“I can work remotely for the most part. There’ll be a little travel involved when I inspect sites, but most of what I do I can do from anywhere. Most of my clients already travel across the country for my services. It shouldn’t matter if they have to come to LA or Juniper Ridge. But for that I’ll need an office space. And ideally one on Main Street. And there are none available right now.”
“I still don’t understand.”
“I wondered if maybe you’d be willing to share yours?”
“You want my store?” Technically, he owns it so he could take it if he wanted to, although I know he never would. But I rack my brain for how we might make that work. We’re so short of space already and Emma and I work hard to make the best of what we do have. It’s perfect as it is, but for him…I guess I can make room, seeing as he’s moving his entire life for me. “We could move some stock upstairs, I suppose.”
Chase shakes his head. “I would never ever ask you to give up your store, and I made sure your lease is ironclad, baby. Nobody could ever take it from you. But I was thinking more like the space above it…”
“You mean my apartment?”
“Yeah.”
