Relief crashes through me so hard my knees buckle. I grip the porch railing to stay upright, eyes burning.
“But if I’m being completely honest.” Ryder leans forward, elbows on his knees, hands clasped between them, and my heart plummets.
He stares at the porch floorboards as if they hold answers he can’t find anywhere else. “I don’t know if I can be with you.”
The words open a tight crack under my ribs. “Why?”
He looks up, and the vulnerability in those twilight eyes guts me.
“Because I’m not convinced a small life like the one I can offer you in Blue Crescent Harbor will ever be enough for you. I already had a partner leave me for that reason. And I won’t go through that pain again. Or risk it for Rhys.”
“Ryder—”
“You’re used to LA, Faye. To money, success, to building empires. You ran a company worth billions. You’ve lived a life I can’t even imagine.” He scrubs a hand over his face. “And now you’re teaching first grade, living in a cottage, pretending this is enough. But what happens when it’s not anymore? When you get bored? When you realize you’re wasting your talent?”
“Ryder, I love my job.” I point vaguely toward the town behind me. “Those kids brought me back to life after I’d sunk into the darkest black hole you can imagine. Just because I’m not making a bucketload of money anymore, it doesn’t mean I’m not fulfilled. I have enough money to choose a job purely because I love it, and I love teaching. If you don’t want to be with me, okay, but what’s the real reason? Because me leaving isn’t it.”
“I’m terrified, okay?” The confession spills out of him as if he can no longer hold back. “I already was before, but now I’m convinced you’re too good for me. That you’ll wake up one day and see what Abigail saw—that I’m a simpleton farmer stuck in a small town with too many responsibilities and not enough to offer. I’m terrified of loving you and losing you and ending up broken again. And I can’t—” His voice breaks. “I can’t do that to myself. Or to Rhys.”
The pain in his voice shreds me.
I push off the railing and cross to him, wedging one leg between his knees, forcing him to look up at me. I cup his face with both hands, thumbs brushing over the scruff along his jaw.
“I’m not asking you to believe me on my word when I say teaching is my passion. That my students are my joy. That this life”—I gesture around us, encompassing the porch, the farm, the town beyond—“is more than enough for me.”
His eyes search mine, desperate and afraid.
“But I’m asking you to give me a second chance to prove it to you.” My voice steadies even as tears slip down my cheeks. “Every single day. Let’s go back to the plan of taking things slow. Of getting to know each other before we decide if we want to be together or involve Rhys.”
I lean down until our foreheads touch.
“I messed up, Ryder. I know I did. But I’m staying. And I want to spend every day for the next year—or however long it takes—showing you that I’m not going anywhere and that you’re the person I want to build a life with.”
His hands come up, wrapping around the backs of my thighs. Warm and sure and grounding. “Are you for real?”
“Yes. Though my pride is hanging by a thread right now, so a little reassurance would be great.”
He smiles then. That devastating, heart-stopping smile that transforms his entire face.
“You want the truth, trouble? Fine, you had me at the line dancing.”
A laugh bubbles out of me.
He pulls me closer, settling me more firmly between his legs. “Actually, you fucking had me the first time we spoke. And slow or not, right or wrong, I love you, Faye.”
The words hit me like lightning.
He loves me.
The tears come harder now, streaming down my face in hot tracks I don’t bother to wipe away.
“Hey.” He stands, pulling me into his arms, one hand cradling the back of my head. “Why are you crying?”
“Because I was so scared.” The confession gets muffled against his shoulder as he pulls me close. “I’ve been heartbroken all week, Ryder. You weren’t answering my texts, and I thought—I thought you were done with me.”
“I’m sorry.” He presses a kiss to my temple. “I was being stubborn and hotheaded, and I couldn’t see past my own hurt. I promise I’ll get better at handling my temper.”
“And I promise I’ll never hide anything from you again.” I pull back enough to look at him. “No more secrets. No more half-truths. And just so you know, I got into a spat with Liam Rockwood the other night and told him he’s gonna have your land over my dead body.”
