Chapter 22 #2
She was still fast asleep, her hair fanned across his pillow while the early-morning light made a soft halo around her face. It took all his willpower not to brush a kiss across her lips. But he didn’t want to wake her.
He quietly went to the kitchen, where he made a pot of coffee. While he poured himself a mug, she came out of the bedroom.
“You’re here.” She blinked up at him, trying to clear the sleep from her eyes. “I thought you were going to stay overnight in LA…come back today.”
“Change of plan.”
They both stood there awkwardly when he decided to take the bull by the horns.
“This isn’t going to work for me.”
She looked down at herself. “Me staying here and sleeping in your bed?”
“No, you not sleeping in my bed.”
He ate up the distance between them with two long strides, took her arm, led her to the living room sofa, and without any fanfare laid it out for her.
“I’m in love with you.” He waited a beat for that to sink in and continued, “If you’re not in love me, then we don’t have much to talk about.
But if you feel even half of what I feel we need to figure out how to make this work.
LA’s where your company is…where you make your television show.
I get that. So I’ll split my time between here and there. ”
She stared at him with her mouth agape, saying nothing.
“Gina?”
“I thought you were trying to fight this thing you and I have for each other.” She waved her hand between them. “I think your exact words were, ‘I’m falling for you and I don’t like it.’”
He scrubbed his hand over his unshaven face.
God, had he actually said that? For a professional wordsmith he had no game.
“At the time I said it I was scared shitless. Now, I’m scared shitless of losing you.
” He took in a deep breath. “These last two weeks have been hell, Gina. I’m so crazy in love with you that I can’t sleep.
Can’t eat. Can’t work. Can’t think of anything but you. ”
She leaned into him and stared into his eyes. “I came to tell you the same thing.”
“Yeah?” His heart did a two-step. He got up, lifted her, and sat down with her in his lap. “So you and I…we’re a thing now, right?”
“I think we’ve been a thing for a while and we didn’t want to admit it to ourselves. We’re kind of stupid that way.”
He chuckled. “You know us cowpokes. We’re dumber than dirt.”
“Nope. Smartest man I ever met.” She laid her head on his chest and burrowed in.
“Look, I know it’ll be difficult having me live here and you in LA. Maybe once we get this ranch project up to speed I can move to Los Angeles. In the meantime, I’ll come as much as possible.”
“You’ll hate that.” She traced his lips with her finger. “The ranch is where you belong.”
“Not if it means being without you.” He’d go to the ends of the earth if it meant being with her.
“Uh-uh.” She shook her head. “That won’t work for me.”
His mouth grazed her ear. “You have a better suggestion?”
“I do. I came to walk it through with you.”
“Start walking.”
“I move here. Live with you in this excellent loft apartment, where I have unlimited access to your kitchen.”
He did a double take. It was the last solution he expected. “What about your show? Your business?”
“I’ve spent a lot of nights thinking about just that.
My future. Because you…this ranch…have changed me in ways I never thought possible.
The last couple of weeks without you have been miserable.
I want a whole new direction, Sawyer. I want to cook again.
I want to have friends…family. I want my time in Dry Creek to be my forever. ”
She took a deep breath and pushed forward.
“I can run everything from here, including the frozen food and kitchenware divisions. Our processing plants are in the Central Valley, so I’m actually closer here.
The housewares are made overseas and are distributed out of New York, Chicago, and Los Angeles.
I have good people for that and am only a plane ride away if they need me.
These days, with a computer and high-speed internet, you can run a business from anywhere. ”
While it sounded doable, he was surprised. How long until she missed the bright lights of LA and all the bennies that came with it? “What about your show?”
There was a long pause, then, “I’m not sure I want to do it anymore.”
He lifted her chin with his finger. “Why? I got the impression the show was important to you…that being on television propelled everything else.” And being a television celebrity was wrapped up in her self-worth, which Sawyer didn’t think was altogether healthy.
“It certainly made the brand. But that’s not why I did it.
My whole life I felt like I had something to prove, something to show Sadie DeRose that she hadn’t made a mistake by adopting me.
She’d wanted to be a movie star, so I followed in her footsteps, doing the closest thing I knew how.
I may not have been a leading lady on the silver screen, but television launched me into homes across the nation.
Soon, I was a household name and face. I was famous.
I was what my mother had always wanted her—and then me—to be. ”
“And now?”
“I don’t need it to define me anymore. I guess it took me thirty-seven years to figure out that I was so busy trying to prove myself to my mother that I forgot to live for myself and do the things that truly make me happy.”
He liked what he was hearing. Not because it benefited him, but because Gina had grown. So had he. Sawyer supposed love did that to a person.
“So what makes you happy, Gina DeRose? Besides me, of course.” His mouth split into a smile.
“Having a man who loves me, even when I’ve been falsely accused, on the brink of a professional meltdown, and stripped of everything.”
Sawyer waggled his eyebrows. “Especially when you’ve been stripped of everything.”
She laughed. “You’ve got a one-track mind, Dalton.”
“Yep.” His hands inched up her camisole and she slapped it away.
“I was just about to get to the best part.”
He kissed her belly and tilted his head up to look at her. “This isn’t the best part?”
“I want to do the restaurant.”
Taken aback, Sawyer stopped kissing her. Gina was full of surprises today. “Here?”
“At Dry Creek Ranch.” A smile spread across her face, transforming her from gorgeous to radiant.
“A steak house that would feature the ranch’s beef.
It could be the anchor. We could also do the country store.
Chock-full of my products, of course. And the butcher shop, a Dalton beef exclusive retailer. Or we could go nationwide—your choice.”
Damn, he liked the sound of that. All of it. But it had to be real.
“You seriously want to do this…a restaurant? What made you change your mind? Because, Gina, I don’t want you to do anything you don’t really want to do. We’ll find our anchor. You do what makes you happy, not what you think will make me happy.”
“You make me happy.” She reached up, pulled his head down, and covered his mouth with hers.
When they finished kissing, she said, “Cooking makes me happy. Feeding people makes me happy. And someone once told me I had to stop being so critical of myself. That I had to start believing in myself. I’d say opening a destination restaurant is a good step in that direction, don’t you?
” She took a deep breath. “I won’t lie. I’m scared to death.
Scared I’ll fail…become a laughingstock.
But I’ll never know if I don’t try, will I? ”
“Only if it’s what you want.”
“It’s what I want. And you, Sawyer Dalton, is who I want.”
He held her so close he could hear the beating of her heart. “Right back atcha, baby.”
“Shall we take a walk and tell everyone?”
“Soon.” He lifted her off the couch. “First, I want you all to myself.”
She stared into his eyes and his pulse picked up, doing that two-step again. Forty-two days ago, Gina DeRose had taken over his house and now she owned his heart.
“How soon can you move your stuff here?” He carried her inside the bedroom.
She touched her hand to his chest. “Soon as I can hire movers. Do I get dibs on the closet?”
“As long as I get dibs on you.” He started to undress her. “At some point, though, we’ll have to discuss your choice in luggage.”
She rolled her eyes. “Oh shut up, Sawyer Dalton, and kiss me.”
“Will kiss for food.” He laid her gently on the bed and came up alongside her.
“You’ll get plenty of both. Now love me, cowboy.”
“With pleasure.” And with that, Sawyer did what he was told.