“But I… we… this…” The paper trembled in her hand. “It’s twenty-five thousand dollars. Is your hotel worth that much? And even if it is, how do you know this isn’t another ruse?”
“I was hoping for more along the lines of twenty-two thousand, so I won’t complain about twenty-five.” He hooked a thumb in his belt loop and rolled back on his heels.
“But… it’s your hotel.” She shoved the message back at him, her hands still trembling. “You can’t sell it. It’s the only means we have of providing for the family. Don’t you want to keep it? It’s the reason you left when you got that telegram after Christmas, you had to save your hotel.”
He slipped the paper back into his pocket, then stepped closer and covered her hands with his own. “I thought I wanted to keep it too, until I realized I was treating the hotel like it was more important than you or the girls.”
Tears brimmed in her eyes. “You never did that.”
“Didn’t I? I left you alone so I could try to save it, when you were the one in danger, not my hotel.”
“You thought your hotel was at risk. It’s perfectly understandable.”
“Perhaps, but on the road to Calumet, I realized that I’d spent five years of my life pursuing money and success before you. I turned around the moment I understood what I’d done. That’s why I came back in time to save you from Ebberhard, and I don’t want to walk down the path of making other things more important than you again.”
She shook her head, her jaw trembling now along with her hands. “You didn’t put those things before us, you were workingon the hotel because of us, remember? When you first came back, you even said?—”
He leaned forward and covered her lips with his own, her hands still clasped in his. He lingered there only a moment, just long enough to silence her and taste the sweetness of her breath. “But I put the hotel between us when I came back too. If I’d told you I’d follow you to Chicago, here, wherever, whenever, whatever you wanted, I’d have had your heart back in a week’s time.”
She tugged one of her hands from his and pressed her fingers to her mouth, as though trying to savor his kiss even though he’d gladly give her another anytime she wished. “I don’t know if it would have happened quite that quickly, but… I would have been more willing to hear you out, less afraid of what was going to happen with you back in our lives.”
He squeezed the hand still left in his. “The truth is, I could have left Deadwood numerous times to come and ask your forgiveness during those five years I was gone. I didn’t because I’d convinced myself that earning money, building a grand hotel, was somehow just as important as having you and the girls in my life.”
“Are you sure you want to sell? Because I’ll go with you to Deadwood, Thomas. I promise I will. There’s nothing left for us in Eagle Harbor now anyway, and I don’t even know why I was so stubborn about?—”
He pressed a finger to her lips. “Yes, I’m sure. I wired Bernard and Sheriff Haynes in Deadwood the morning after I returned to find Frank Ebberhard trying to kill you.”
She blinked. “But that was a week ago.”
“I didn’t want to say anything until I had a buyer. Could have been the hotel was for sale for months and we still went to Deadwood come spring.”
She pulled away from him and paced a few steps one direction before pivoting and turning back the other way, shaking her head all the while. “I was supposed to be the one working on being less selfish, yet you’re giving up things for me instead.”
He caught her hand as she tromped by. One swift jerk, and she was pressed up against his chest—right where she belonged. He tilted her head back and stared down into pale blue eyes the color of the harbor ice, but so much warmer than when he’d stood before her two months ago. “There’ll be plenty of time for you to be the selfless one, because I’m not leaving your side again.”
“But are you sure about selling the hotel?” Each word sent a puff of warm breath against his chin.
“I am.”
She wrapped her arms around him, her gaze not leaving his. “What do you plan to do then? Where do you want to go? I’ll follow you anywhere. Even to a mining town in California.”
“I don’t want to go to California.”
“No?” Her brow drew down. “Back to Cornwall with your family?”
“I was thinking more along the lines of a big city on the southern shore of Lake Michigan. One that’s in need of a ladies’ fashion designer and a dress factory.”
She sucked in a breath, quick and sharp. But he laid a finger over her lips before she opened her mouth.
“Selling my hotel will give us the money we need to start a factory right away instead of just a small dress shop. I want you to have your dream, Jess. And truth be told, I like the idea of providing jobs to women who need solid work over selling people a place to sleep for a night.” He leaned down to plant a kiss on her forehead. “The more I think of it, if we’re serious about letting God rebuild things between us, then we both needa fresh start. No Deadwood for me and no Eagle Harbor for you. We need to go somewhere we have memories of being together instead of apart.” He moved his lips to her temple and kissed her there.
Tears glittered in her eyes. “I love you, Thomas.”
He didn’t deserve her love, not with the mistakes he’d made, not with the way he’d put money and success before his family. “I love you too.”
She closed her eyes, leaned her head against his chest, and drew in a long, deep breath. “This is better than I dreamed.”
He rested his chin on the top of her head. “No, it’s exactly what you dreamed, and I count it a blessing that I can give it to you.”
