That’s what Tate said.The thought set off an unpleasant reaction inside her.
Unaware of her inner turmoil, he continued, taking her hand back in his. ‘Move in and let me prove it.’
‘I’ve got Gran’s place sitting there,’ Bel managed, still reeling from his unexpected offer.
‘What’sreallystopping you?’ he asked quietly.
‘God, Dean, so many things,’ she said, putting a hand to her forehead and briefly closing her eyes as she tried to make sense of the storm inside her. ‘I don’t want to make another mistake.’
‘The mistake being us, I take it?’ he asked in a quiet, clipped tone.
‘I jumped into a relationship with Tate, thinking I knew exactly what I was doing, and it turned out I had no idea. I’m afraid of jumping into something else too fast. I didn’t come back here to find a relationship.’
‘Sometimes we find what we want when we least expect it,’ Dean said matter-of-factly.
She opened her mouth to reply but was interrupted by her phone on the bench, ringing. ‘It’s Em,’ she said, picking it up. ‘Hey—’ she started before being cut off quickly.
‘We’re coming home!’
For a while, she’d been able to delay deciding on her plans, with no firm end date on when she’d be able to leave Fernvale. Now, suddenly, the sand of the hourglass was beginning to run, counting down. And she still didn’t know where she went from here.
