Chapter 47 #2
He must see my hesitation. “You can walk away from this. Say no right now and I’ll never bring it up again. It’s your call, Tiana. Always your call.”
I look down at the papers once more, then at his hands, curled on either side of his glass, knuckles trembling.
I could say no, walk away, and prove to myself that I’m so committed to my own independence that I don’t need to borrow a single square foot from someone else. Or… I could decide that maybe, for the first time, accepting help isn’t the same thing as losing the right to call something mine.
I set the envelope on the table. “You’re really not going to ask for anything in return? Not even for me to say I forgive you?”
Griffin shakes his head. “I want you to forgive me, but I want you to want to. Not because I bought something, or because you feel obligated. I just… want you happy.”
God. He means it.
“You bought an entire building for me,” I say, my voice thick with emotion.
My eyes sting again.
I don’t want to cry at a candlelit dinner.
But for the first time since everything unfolded between Griffin and me, I feel like I’m allowed to want what’s sitting right in front of me.
This man has shown me, over and over again—not just with words but with actions—how much I mean to him, how much he loves me, and how carefully he has been trying to prove that this isn’t about control or guilt or buying his way back into my heart.
I reach across the table and put my hand over his to stop it from trembling. “I’m still a bit mad at you. But I’m also really happy right now.”
Griffin looks up at me. The blue of his eyes is vulnerable and raw. “You don’t have to choose.”
I laugh, eyes full of tears. “No, I think I have to. I think I want to.”
He searches my face. “Then what do you want?”
The truth is, I want him. I want this ridiculous man with his dumb hero complex and all the broken parts he refuses to hide. I want to see what happens if we both just risked it once, no safety nets, no backup plans.
So I say, “I want to make so many mistakes with you, Griffin. All of them. For the rest of my life, and never be sorry, not if it’s with you.” My voice is shaking, afraid of how much I mean it.
Griffin’s smile lights up the room, and I see the stunned disbelief in it. I see hope, too.
He opens his mouth, but I barrel on, terrified that if I stop, I’ll lose the nerve.
“I want to open this place,” I say, looking around at all the beautiful touches he’s put here for me.
“I want you there beside me. I want Sylas to bring his weird little bug collections here and make the floor sticky with juice boxes. I want to come home to you every night and know that you’ll be waiting, even if you’re just asleep on the couch. ”
He laughs, and I love the sound of it.
“I want to fight with you about who takes the trash out and whose turn it is to cook, and who gets up first when Sylas says there’s a monster in his closet.
I want to go to boring school assemblies and have you squeeze my hand under the table.
I want to see what happens if we both just…
try. If we both just let it be messy, real, and fucked up sometimes. ”
I’m babbling now, but Griffin is just watching me, so open and intent I can’t look away. He’s clutching his champagne glass like a lifeline, and I realize I’m clinging to the napkin in my lap so hard my fingers are starting to hurt.
My heart’s pounding so loud it’s probably visible in my neck. “That’s what I want,” I say, voice small again. “I want to wake up every day and decide to do it all over again. With you. Even the days it sucks.”
Next thing I know, Griffin rises from his chair and moves around the table, kneeling at my feet.
His hands are gentle as they take mine. “I love you, Tiana. I love every single version of you, even when you hate me.” My vision goes all watery and I let out a teary laugh.
“You’re everything I ever wanted. I just didn’t think I deserved to want this much.
” There’s a tremor in his voice I’ve never heard before.
“I want to share all of it with you, Sugar. Every happiness and every fuck-up, every hard thing and every good thing. I want it to be us.”
“I love you so much, Griffin Hayes.” I manage through my tears, my voice splintering as if all the months of holding back are breaking up at once. “I love you, and I love Sy. And I love how you let me hate you for a little while so I could remember how much I hated not being with you more.”
I grin, and Griffin grins back, and then I’m in his arms—kneeling on the candlelit floor. I lean in and kiss him, hard.
His hands bury in my hair and tilt my face up, thumbs pressing just under my jaw. The sound of him exhaling into me feels like ground shifting.
The kiss is messy, desperate, and tastes a little sweet from the Cava. Griffin’s hand splays against my back, and he holds me like I might vanish, and for the first time in weeks, I let myself settle into the gravity of his pull.
I break the kiss and press my forehead to his. “You’re going to regret giving me a whole building,” I murmur. “I’m going to paint every wall pink.”
“As long as you put a dinosaur mural in the bathroom.”
I stare at him. “You think I’m joking?”
Griffin runs his hand through my hair, settles it at the hollow of my neck, and tugs me closer. “God, I hope you’re not.” He kisses me again, then looks at me like I’m the only thing that matters in his world. “Does this mean you forgive me?”
“Not even a little bit,” I whisper back. “You have months of groveling left.”
His laugh is quiet, vibrating against my chest.
We’re still tangled together on the floor when I realize—this is it.
There isn’t some next battle or some hidden test ahead. We already survived the secrets, the grief, the fear, and every broken thing that tried to convince us love wasn’t worth the risk.
What’s left on the other side is us—messy, patched-together, and finally happy.
And maybe that’s what makes us stronger than ever.
Because Griffin and I were never built to be easy.
We were built to last.