Chapter 17
SATURDAY
TAYLOR’S HEART TRIPPED when Chelsey sighed as he lifted her head.
Now was the time to ask her to go with him.
He wanted to spend the rest of his life with her, but with her new promotion, he wasn’t going to kid himself about her moving out of Juniper anytime soon.
At the very least, he could talk her into traveling with him for a few weeks a year, right?
Would she turn his idea down? Only one way to find out.
“Lookie!” Heather ran to Chelsey and stopped right before she bodily ran her over. She held out her hand for Chelsey to examine the ring. “I’m going to be Mrs. Heather James.” Her cheeks blushed a deep red that rivaled the temporary strawberry tattoo on her left cheek.
While Chelsey oohed and aahed over the diamond, Taylor shook Rodney’s hand. “That was awesome, man. Congrats.”
Rodney’s eyes were wide and a bit dazed, his strawberry-themed bowtie was a little crooked, and he only nodded and stared at Heather with a perma-grin on his face.
“Let’s go show our families again.” Heather took her fiancé by the hand and led him away. Before they stepped out of the shadows, Rodney pulled Heather in for a sweet kiss.
Taylor glanced at Chelsey as she watched the engaged couple. Her face softened as families and friends gathered around and congratulated them. Janice and Gage held hands and Taylor wondered if theirs would be the next engagement announced.
A text came through on Taylor’s phone from Derek.
Did you play the song yet?
Not yet. Wish me luck.
LUCK.
The area quieted as silence fell over him and Chelsey. He was ready to go the next step with her. He had no idea what she wanted though, if the electricity between them was any indication, she still had feelings for him.
Taylor took Chelsey’s hand and kissed the back of it. She met his gaze, eyes questioning.
“I’d love to show you some of my favorite places I’ve visited.” He squeezed her hand. “Come with me.”
Chelsey blinked.
There was a ripple of surprise. But not rejection. That knowledge bolstered his confidence to keep going.
“Overseas,” he added, quieter now. “A few weeks. Maybe longer.”
He watched the shift on Chelsey’s face happen in real time. Not outwardly dramatic because Chelsey wasn’t the type. But he’d learned her tells. The way her fingers curled slightly when she needed grounding. The way her gaze dropped when she was sorting through more than she wanted to say out loud.
“That’s…not a small ask, Taylor.”
He almost smiled. “I figured.”
Silence stretched, and he let it. This wasn’t something to rush. If he’d learned anything about her, it was that pushing only made her retreat further into that carefully structured world she’d built.
“I just…” She hesitated, and his focus sharpened, as the rest of the area dimmed. “I just got my footing here. Or I’m trying to. This whole CEO thing has thrown me.”
Right.
He exhaled slowly, adjusting something in his expectations without letting it show too much. Of course she wouldn’t walk away from that easily, even for a few weeks. It wasn’t just a job—it was hers. Something she helped build from the ground up.
Still, her voice had softened at the end and that was good, right?
“I’m not asking you to give anything up,” he said, choosing each word carefully. “Just to see what the world holds for you.”
“And what is it, exactly, that you think could come from this?”
He met her eyes, steady. “I don’t know yet.”
That alone would’ve been unthinkable a month ago. Saying I don’t know without immediately following it with a plan.
“I just know I don’t want to figure it out without you.” There. He’d said it.
He watched for her reaction as those words landed.
Something in her countenance shifted slightly. Like a door opening a fraction of an inch before she caught it and held it there.
“This is exactly the kind of thing I said I wouldn’t do.”
He tilted his head. “Come with me?”
No.” She studied him for a moment. “Fall into something that doesn’t come with a plan.”
That hit closer than she probably realized, especially given his history of leaving almost overnight. He should’ve felt exposed. Instead, he felt lighter. He knew how to make plans, but he didn’t want to make anything definite without Chelsey’s input.
“I can’t just say yes,” she said, softer now.
Taylor felt something in his chest loosen, just a fraction. She wasn’t saying no. “I didn’t think you would.”
If she’d said yes immediately, he might’ve questioned it. Wondered what she was leaving behind, what she wasn’t considering.
“But…” she murmured, more to herself than to him.
He stayed quiet, giving her space, but his mind was moving. Was she thinking about logistics? Commitments? Who would Chelsey trust to leave the company to while she traveled?
There was a flicker in her eyes when she glanced at him. Was it a decision?
“I need time,” she finally said. “To figure out what I’d be walking away from.”
He nodded once. “Take it.” He’d also expected this.
But internally, he was already adjusting his own trajectory.
He came to Juniper Valley on the request of his dad and the city council to give an assessment of the older buildings downtown.
At the end of this trip home, he was going back to head up one of the biggest projects he’d been given.
It was the next move in his career; a continuation of the life he already knew how to navigate.
Now?
It was conditional on whether it still made sense to go the same way if Chelsey Hooper wasn’t part of it.
He studied her, the way uncertainty and curiosity played across her face in equal measure.
And for the first time, the question wasn’t just whether she’d come with him.
It was that if she didn’t, would he still go the same way?
Or had Chelsey already changed his destination without him realizing it?
“Hey,” he said softly.
Her eyes came back to him. “Yeah?”
Taylor hesitated. These feelings, this moment wasn’t something he could logic his way through. It was all instinctual.
“Whatever you decide,” he lowered his voice, “I meant it. I don’t want to figure this out without you.”
The moment settled gently around them.
Chelsey’s breath caught as her shoulders softened, the way something in her guard lowered without her thinking about it. “Okay.”
Taylor took a small step closer, slow enough that she could pull back if she wanted to.
She didn’t.
Her eyes flicked to his, searching, like she was double-checking something she already felt.
“Is this part of the plan you don’t have?” she asked, a hint of a smile tugging at her mouth.
He huffed a quiet breath, something almost like a laugh. “Definitely not.”
“Good,” she said softly. “Because I don’t think I’d trust it if it was.”
That did it.
The last, thin thread of hesitation released. Taylor lifted a hand, brushing a loose strand of hair back from her face, his fingers lingering just a second longer than necessary.
She leaned into it. Barely. But enough to give him the confidence to close the distance slowly, giving her every chance to change her mind.
When she tipped her chin the slightest bit, he accepted the invitation. His lips met hers softly, carefully, no rush. Chelsey’s hand found his sleeve, holding there, not pulling him closer, just keeping him in the moment.
When they pulled back, it wasn’t abrupt. Just a quiet separation, like stepping out of a thought you didn’t want to lose.
Chelsey exhaled, a small, almost disbelieving smile touching her lips. “Yeah,” she murmured, more to herself than to him.
Taylor didn’t ask what that meant. Because whatever came next—overseas, Juniper Valley, something in between—the kiss had only changed the equation, not solved it.
But made it worth figuring out.
“We’re going to head out.”
Taylor and Chelsey turned to Heather, who waved as she walked hand-in-hand with Rodney to the parking lot.
“See you tomorrow,” Chelsey said from the circle of Taylor’s arms. She hadn’t moved and that felt right.
“No, you won’t.” Heather put a hand on her hip. “You’ll be sleeping over the next week, right?”
Chelsey’s chuckle vibrated through Taylor’s chest. “Right.”
“You too, Heather.” Rodney dropped a kiss on Heather’s cheek.
No one would laugh at the look of absolute adoration on Rodney’s face as he stared at his fiancé. Is that how Taylor looked when he glanced at Chelsey? How many years had he wasted hiding behind his work when he could’ve been by the side of the woman he fell in love with all those years ago?