“Say it,” he says quietly. “Whatever’s rolling around in that pretty head making you look like you’re about to bolt.”
I take a deep breath.
“Tony… I don’t know if I want to live with you.”
His face doesn’t fall. Doesn’t shutter. Doesn’t shift the way I expect. He just watches me steadily.
“I don’t know if I want to live alone either,” I continue. “I just… don’t want to be apart from you.”
His jaw flexes. “You don’t have to be.”
“But I don’t want to lose my independence. I don’t want to move into someone else’s world and disappear in it. I want… both. Space and closeness. Freedom and safety. I don’t even know if that’s possible.”
Tony sits up, resting against the headboard. His expression shifts—not softer, exactly, but clearer. Decisive.
“I never asked you to move in,” he says. “I brought you here because you were in danger. When you weren’t, you were still welcome, but that’s not the same thing as expecting you to share my life.”
“But I?—”
“Holley.” He catches my hand, thumb brushing my palm. “I don’t want you to disappear. I don’t want you dependent on me. I don’t want you trapped in my world. I want you choosing to be in it.”
My chest aches.
“And if part of you choosing me means having your own home, your own income, your own damn door you shut when you need space? Good. Do that.”
My eyes sting. “You mean that?”
“Yes,” he says simply. “I won’t build the kind of cage you just escaped.”
I look down at our joined hands.
“I don’t want to go back to the mountains,” I whisper. “honestly, I don’t feel safe there anymore.”
“Then don’t live there,” he says. “Keep it. Rent it out. Income stream. Or keep it as an escape. Hell, sell it and buy something closer. Whatever you need.”
“But,” I hesitate. “The job. The dental office is a mess.”
Tony smirks. “That place was held together with duct tape and prayers.”
“Pretty much.”
“You want work?” he asks. “Work with me at Honey’s Hot Rods.”
I blink. “What?”
“Honey’s Hot Rods,” he says. “We need a shop secretary. Tiffany keeps trying to do intake paperwork between oil changes and tune-ups, and it’s a mess. She hates people in general. She wants more time on the cars. You want more independence. Solve two problems at once.”
I stare.
He’s serious.
“You want me to work at your shop?”
“Yes.”
“And live where?”
He tilts his head. “Where do you want to live?”
