Chapter 12
CHAPTER TWELVE
I’d just settled at my desk after leaving my office at the hotel for the peace and quiet of home when I heard the crunch of gravel in my driveway.
My heart stuttered, then kicked into overdrive. I didn’t know how, but I knew it was him.
Gage had come back.
I pushed my chair back and rushed to the window, pulling the curtain aside in time to see him climbing out of the cab of his truck. Even from up here, I could see the tension in his shoulders, the determined set of his jaw as he strode toward my front door.
He looked like a man on a mission.
My pulse hammered in my throat as I left my office and headed downstairs, rushing to the door, pulling it open in the split second before his knuckles met wood.
“Gage.” His name came out as a breathless plea. A benediction. A prayer.
Gage stopped short when he saw me standing there, his eyes burning with an intensity that made my knees weak. He looked wrecked. His hair was mussed like he’d been running his hands through it all morning, and his flannel was buttoned haphazardly so that the buttons and holes didn’t line up evenly.
“What are you—”
“I couldn’t stay away,” he said, cutting me off as he closed the distance between us.
His hands came up to frame my face, his thumbs brushing along my cheekbones.
“I left here this morning, telling myself I’d give you space.
That I’d wait for you to tell me what you need.
But I can’t, Siena. I can’t pretend anymore. ”
My heart was beating so hard I could hear it in my ears. “Pretend what?”
“That this is just sex.” His voice was low and rough. Raw. “That walking away from you is even an option. You’re the first thing I think about when I wake up in the morning, and the last thing on my mind when my head hits the pillow. And I can’t go another day without you knowing that.”
Oh God. Oh God.
“Gage, I—”
“Let me finish.” His forehead dropped to mine, his breath warm against my lips. “I know what we said this is. No strings, no expectations. But I can’t keep lying to you, darlin’. I want strings. I want expectations.”
I couldn’t breathe. Couldn’t think. All I could do was feel—the warmth of his hands on my face, the solid strength of him standing so close, the hope blooming painfully bright in my chest.
“I’m in love with you, Siena Bellrose.” The words tumbled out of his mouth like he’d been holding them back too long.
“And the truth is, I have been since before I even knew your last name. Maybe since that first night, when you looked at me like I was the only man in the world. And I know you might not feel the same way, and I know we’ve got a hell of a lot to figure out, but I needed you to know. I needed to tell you before—”
I pressed my fingers gently over his lips, silencing him with a touch as tender as it was firm. “I love you too.”
The words burst out of me, cutting through his confession. His eyes went wide, hope and disbelief warring across his handsome face.
“What?”
“I love you,” I repeated, my voice cracking as I said those three words to a man who wasn’t my father for the first time in my life.
“I’ve been trying to talk myself out of loving you all morning.
Hell, I’ve been trying to talk myself out of it since the moment you walked in here last night. But I can’t, Gage. I don’t want to.”
A sound escaped him—half laugh, half sob—and then his mouth was on mine, desperate and claiming.
I melted into him, my hands fisting in his flannel as I kissed him back with everything I had.
This kiss was different from all the others we’d shared.
It wasn’t about hunger or heat or the overwhelming need to get closer. It was about truth.
About a promise we were making to each other.
When we finally broke apart, both of us breathing hard, he pulled back to stare at me, his large palms circling my biceps. “Say it again,” he whispered.
“I love you.” The words came easier now. “I love you, and I’m terrified, and I have no idea how we’re going to make this work, but—”
“We’ll figure it out.” His hands slid down to my waist, pulling me flush against him. “Whatever it takes, we’ll figure it out.”
I wanted to believe him. God, I wanted to believe him so badly it hurt. But reality was already creeping in around the edges of this perfect moment.
“Gage.” I pulled back just enough to look up at him. “The hotel opens in five days.”
His jaw tightened. “I know.”
“And after that …” I swallowed hard, forcing myself to say it. “After that, I’m supposed to go back to the East Coast and start scouting locations for our next property.”
Something flickered in his eyes—pain, fear maybe—before his expression hardened with resolve. “But you’ll come back to Bridger Falls?” he asked, his hand tightening on my waist, like he was afraid I might disappear if he let go. “To build your life here? With me?”
“What?”
My knees went weak, and if he hadn’t been holding me, I might have collapsed right there on my floor.
No one had ever wanted me like this—not temporarily, not conditionally, but permanently.
My whole life, I’d been the driven workaholic who was impressive, but ultimately exhausting.
The woman ex-boyfriends treated like a placeholder until something or someone better came along.
But Gage? He was asking me to stay. To build a life. To be his forever.
The tears came without warning, hot and fast, blurring my vision until Gage was just a hazy shape in front of me. Frankly, I’d been holding back so much that it all came pouring out now.
“Hey,” he cooed, pulling me in against his chest again, one hand cradling the back of my head while the other rubbed soothing circles on my back. “It’s okay. I’ve got you.”
“I want to,” I choked out against his flannel, my fingers clutching at him. “God, Gage, I want to so badly. But my job, the company—”
Just this morning, my dad had told me he was going to recommend to the board that I take over when he retired. It was everything I’d been working toward for years. The validation I’d craved, the position I’d fought my brothers tooth and nail to earn.
And standing here in Gage’s arms, I realized I didn’t want it anymore.
The thought hit me like a freight train. All those years of eighty-hour weeks, of proving myself over and over, of sacrificing everything for the next promotion—and now that it was within reach, I wanted to let it go.
“I don’t need to run the entire company,” I said, the words feeling strange but right as they left my mouth.
I pulled back to look at Gage, my vision still blurred with tears.
“I love the work I do—finding the right location, falling in love with a concept, seeing it through from blueprints to opening day. But overseeing the entire Bellrose Group? Managing hundreds of properties I’ll never set foot in? ”
I shook my head, a laugh bubbling up through my tears. “I’ve been chasing that position for so long, I forgot to ask myself if I actually wanted it. But the truth is, I wanted it mostly to prove I was better than my brothers. To show everyone that a girl could beat the boys.”
“And you did,” Gage said softly, brushing the tears from my cheeks.
“Maybe.” I smiled up at him. “But Bryce or Connor would love running the company. They’d work themselves to the bone for it in a way I never would, because it’s not what makes me happy. Creating something from nothing is where my heart is. And I can do that from anywhere.”
I took a shaky breath, feeling lighter with each word I spoke. “I’ll talk to my dad about restructuring my role. Maybe I can launch a new division, one that honors the places they’re in. I can travel when I need to for bigger projects, and you can come with me when your schedule allows.”
My hands came up to frame his face, my thumbs tracing the line of his jaw. “But my home base—my life, my future, my heart—it should be here. With you.”
“Siena.” He brought my hands to his lips and kissed the inside of my wrists.
“I want you here every single day for the rest of my life. I want to wake up next to you every morning. I want to come home to you every night. I want to build something real with you—something that lasts. Are you sure that’s what you want, too? I can wait, darlin’.”
A fresh wave of tears spilled over. “I want you. I choose you. I choose here.”
His breath caught. “Yeah?”
“Yes.” I nodded, laughing through my tears. “Yes, I’ll stay. Yes to all of it. I can’t leave you, Gage. I can’t leave this place. I can’t walk away from us.”
The smile that broke across his face was incandescent. He swept me up into his arms, spinning me around until I was laughing and crying at the same time, clutching his shoulders and feeling lighter than I had in years.
When he finally set me down, he kissed me again—slow and deep and full of promise.
“Come on,” he murmured against my lips, taking my hand. “As much as I want to take you upstairs, we need to sit down. Talk this through. Figure out what this looks like.”
He led me to the couch, pulling me down beside him and immediately tucking me against his side like he couldn't bear even an inch of space between us. I curled into him, my head on his shoulder, his arm wrapped securely around me.
“I talked to my dad this morning,” I started. “Before you showed up. I asked him how he knew he was in love with my mom.”
Gage’s chest rumbled with a quiet hum. “What’d he say?”
“That he couldn’t stop thinking about her.
That she made him feel like he could be himself, without all the expectations and pressure.
” I tilted my head to look up at him. “That’s how you make me feel.
Like I don’t have to be this version of myself I’ve been pretending to be for so long.
That I don’t have to deny the things I really want, the person I am under the suits and the stern glares.
I don’t have to be anything other than just … me.”