I wanted her close and I was willing to make those changes to have it happen.
Better?
Thought so.
I moved out of the apartment above the pub and it actually stood vacant right now.Brenna stated her living arrangements worked for her and Con and I didn’t exactly want a stranger living up there.
So I vacated the apartment.
I gave Con my news.
And I hopped on a plane.
Arizona was warm in the early spring, not much different than San Diego, but I didn’t find myself sweating over the heat as I stood outside the house my GPS brought me to.
No, I was sweating over fucking nerves.
How would she react?What would she say?Should I maybe have called instead?
Probably.
Fuck.
She’d go and probably say how self-assured I was, when really this was the most fucking vulnerable I’d been inyears.
When the little white Fusion came pulling into the garage, I walked around, wanting to see her.I didn’t intend to scare the girl and when she gasped, I took a step back and held up my hands.“It’s just me, Em.”
She dropped her chin and frowned.“Rory?”
Her hair was pulled up on top of her head so I couldn’t get my fill of that.Instead, I was able to appreciate just about every other facet of her.She wore white shorts and a flannel, and was sexy as hell in the ensemble.
Arizona looked good on her.
“Hey, Emily.”
Hey, Emily?
You mean to tell me, after all the thinking on the plane and the drive over here, all I could come up with wasHey, Emily?
She dropped her backpack to the ground beside her and, still frowning, made her way toward me.“What are you doing here?Why aren’t you back home?”
“I don’t currently have a home.”Hey, it was the truth.Go big or go… Well, you know.
If anything though, her frown deepened.I reached out and smoothed my thumb over the ridges.“That’ll get stuck, Em.”
She shook her head, which had me pulling my thumb away, but she didn’t look pissed.No, she looked confused.“Why are you in Arizona?Why aren’t you back in San Diego?”
I took a deep breath and launched in with the words I wanted to say.“I have tried really hard over the last year, year and half, to be the type of man you could count on.You don’t need a man, hell, you’ll probably tell me you don’t have time for a man, but I want to be there for you.I want to show you I’ve changed.I want to hold your hand.I want to make you dinner on those nights you’re scrambling to figure out how you’re going to juggle food and work and studying and walking the dog.”
“I don’t have a dog.”
I grinned and held up my finger.“We can take this at your pace, Em, but this is something I want to do.A journey I want to take.Please give me that opportunity.”
She was quiet, staring at me.I had the gut sinking feeling she was going to say no.
Conor would take me back.Hell, he’d probably welcome me back with open arms.Brenna had taken some of my responsibilities, but I wasn’t sure how that would pan out in the end.I also had a place to live above the bar.
But what was life without the person you had a feeling you were meant to spend it with?
