Chapter 33 #2
I barely waited for both of them to be out of earshot before I opened my mouth to speak, to give my apologies, and restate my devotion, but no words came.
“Can we talk somewhere private?” Mace asked.
“Come on,” I said, unwilling to move unless he was in my arms, walking beside me. I took him to the closest of the seven bedrooms in the house and shut the door behind us.
He stood at arm’s length. Literally, his hand came to my chest to keep me from pulling him into a full-body hug.
He’d used that move a few times since I’d known him.
It was one that told me he had something to say.
I needed to let him have his say which allowed me to stare at the auburn hints in his hair and the beautiful blues of his eyes I’d missed so much.
My hand circled his on its own accord. Now, I’d be fine with hearing almost anything he might have to say.
“I came because I was worried, but I can leave if you want. I’m not pushin’ you, only tryin’ my best to show you that I can be here for you, like you’ve always been there for me.
” He said those words as if he were genuinely concerned that I might not want him there.
I wanted him everywhere. I nodded for him to continue and he nodded back.
“I was also concerned about the amount of vodka and carbs you were consuming.”
My giant grin was instant. Good place to land that joke.
“You know me well,” I said, taking half a step toward him. “I never wanted to hurt you and I did, and I’m sorry.”
Mace shook his head at me and pushed backward. I lost some of the ground I’d covered. “You didn’t hurt me. You’ve drilled into my brain how much you love me. The only thing that caused me pain was your hurt and your absence. You’ve always been the one to come to me. It was time I came to you.”
Yeah, that was too sweet of a gesture not to step completely into him.
Somehow, I resisted touching him. I understood these words needed to be said before I whisked him to my bedroom to relieve the sudden desire slamming through me.
“I was on my way to you too,” I said. “I don’t know what happened…
” I paused from continuing that lie. Mace needed to know the truth if I ever expected to live a genuine life with him.
Man, did I crave such a wonderful existence.
I drew in a deep breath and released the truth on the exhale.
“I’m not the confident person I pretend to be.
I have deep flaws that caused me to doubt myself.
When the life I’ve been planning since we first got together became a possibility, it scared me. I felt inferior.”
“It scared me in the beginning too.” Mace nodded as he spoke his quietly muttered truth, tying a giant bow around my happy heart. “But we have this. And we’re good together. You’ve made me and my entire family insanely happy. They’re killin’ it out there.”
“Money might be a concern,” I said off the cuff, wanting no more secrets between us. “I won’t know more until… well, I don’t know.”
Mace’s eyes widened, and he actually took another, much longer than the first time, step backward, pulling his phone from his pocket.
“I’m gettin' an apology from that family responsible for my accident, and a settlement, but check this out.” His thumbs coasted over the screen deftly.
The pecking finger was officially gone. After a few seconds, he flipped the screen toward me.
“I started a YouTube channel and donation drive and an Instagram for the sanctuary. We’ve made almost three hundred thousand dollars in the last few days, and it’s still growin’.
I’ve been postin’ short videos. Well, I guess Tommy’s postin’ and editin’ the videos. People are respondin’.”
His joy was my personal brand of everything. I might not have done anything else right, but I pursued this guy until I got him. I never wanted that to change.
Mace’s excitement was met with me drawing him back into my arms. “That’s incredible. My entrepreneur. I wanted to take you to my bedroom and let you soothe all my ruffled feathers, but now I only want us back in Texas. I love you. Thank you for coming to get me.”
“Let’s go,” he said and did his best to be free from my hold to leave the room. “Nico thought he’d be fired for keepin’ it quiet, and then for comin’ through the front.”
That was enough to break my concentrated effort in getting him into my arms. He bounced forward for the closed door, jerking it open.
“He should be fired. That’s exactly what should happen…” I couldn’t find any real anger though.
My guy cut me off to say pretty much what I wanted to say.
“It was me pushin’ at Nico. I wanted you to see I wasn’t afraid of your life.
Where’s that bedroom you talked about? I think comin’ all this way deserves a bedroom stop.
You already made me wait an extra day. Now you want to wait another eight hours to return to Texas? Nah.”
This guy who had never been to this house before, actually led me to my bedroom. He led. I followed. Sounded like the foundation of a great life.
I wondered about Mace’s family? Were they banking as well as Mace had?
The guy that kept insisting social media wasn’t real, sure had pulled in a lot of money for his cause.
He opened my bedroom door and stepped away, extending an arm for me to enter into his magic trick of finding my personal room in this huge place I’d called home before I knew what one really was.
“You saved me,” I said, pivoting around just beyond the doorframe.
Mace was there, right there where he was needed the most. “You saved me right back.”
I’ll remember that next kiss for the rest of my life.