“Fine,” she relented.
I texted my pilot and gave him the details as I waited for Tori to drop Reid off. The sound of her heels coincided with my last text. She stayed quiet as we waited for the elevators, and I wasn’t sure if she was mad at me for my insistence or if it was something else. Squeezing the bridge of my nose, I tried to calm the nerves that were drilling into me with the thought that I’d screwed this up.
She stepped into the elevator, and I followed, the silence remaining until the door closed.
“Tori, I…” I started, but she stopped my words with a kiss that seared away the doubt. Hands wrapping around her waist and bringing her further into me, I deepened the kiss.
The ring of the elevator informed me we’d arrived, and she untangled herself from my arms, smoothing her coat down just as the doors opened. With a glance back, she threw me a mischievous grin and walked off.
Shaking my head, I didn’t bother hiding my smile when I followed her. She swiped us into the office space, giving Paula a bubbly hello before heading to her office. I stopped to get my messages, saying good morning to Paula and attempting to get the heat of that kiss from my mind so I could function the rest of the morning.
Liv hadn’t arrived yet, but that wasn’t abnormal. She was usually the last one in, making her own hours. I honestly wasn’t sure if she’d worked more than two hours a day since my father had left.
Logging in, I stood over my desk, rolling out the tension in my neck. The sound of my door closing had me lifting my head to see Tori strolling into my office. I gave her a sheepish grin, still reeling from her kiss.
“Come with us,” she said, and my grin faltered.
“Where?”
She swallowed, and I followed the movement of her hand as it nervously brushed a hair from her cheek. A tremor, barely noticeable, accompanied it. “To my parents’ place.”
The floor dropped from under me like another nightmare stretching to engulf me. I was certain her family hated me. Fully expected her brother would punch me if he could get a good hit off before I countered it. There was no prospect that me going with her would have a good outcome. But she was there, asking me, nervously awaiting my response, and I didn’t want to let her down again. Not ever again.
I walked around the desk and over to her. Taking her hands in mine and seeing the shake in them, I asked, “Is it important to you that I be there?”
She nodded, her eyes tinged with emotion.
“Then I’ll go.” And suffer the consequences of my decisions…again. I didn’t think I would ever stop facing them. It was mypunishment for leaving her, and if accepting it kept her by my side, then I would gladly welcome it.
Relief splashed across her features. “Are you sure?”
“Isn’t that what I should ask you?” I smoothed my finger over her thumb. “I’m sure I’m the last person your family wants to see.”
“I want you there. And I want you to tell them what you told me. All of it.”
My hold tightened on her hand. “Tori, I can’t.”
“You can, because they need to know, just like I did. Then they can judge you themselves.”
“And if they still hate me?”
She shrugged. “It won’t matter because I don’t.”
“You really don’t?”
“Not anymore. I did. For a very long time, but the love was still there, like an annoying gnat I couldn’t kill.”
Narrowing my eyes at her, I said, “That’s not very nice.”
“But it’s the truth. I tried not to love you, Gabe, but I couldn’t. You embedded yourself too far into my soul, and I couldn’t free myself of you.”
“And now?”
“Now…I don’t know. I still love you. The hate is gone, but the hurt isn’t, and that’s why we need to take this in steps.”
I nodded, understanding and knowing I’d give her as much time as she needed. “With kisses like the one you gave me in the elevator, slow is going to be tough,” I teased.
“I never said it would be easy to win me back.”
