Chapter Nineteen

Georgia sat in the front yard with Bailey playing dolls.

After the reunion, Georgia went back to Hannah’s and resumed her life as it had been, for now. Her sister had apologized for taking her away from the reunion and Georgia had accepted, mostly because the way Hannah acted wasn’t all her fault. By staying and staying and staying and never asking for more, she had allowed her sister to use her over and over again. That couldn’t happen anymore.

She wasn’t sure how much longer she would live with Hannah and Joel, but making any decision in haste was a bad idea. That was how she’d ended up in L.A. in the first place.

That was how she’d ended up in Gideon’s bed instead of Brandon’s. Though, that had never been a bad idea.

She’d always thought L.A. would be her biggest regret, but it was Gideon. Not ending up in his bed, but how she’d ended things with him.

Her true life’s regret was hurting him and leaving the reunion without trying to explain or apologize. She wasn’t going to let that be a regret anymore. She hoped she could still make things right. She was going to go to the train station and make him believe her. Believe every word, every thought, and every dream that was in her heart.

The best possibility for forgiveness was to show up and surprise him—prepared not only to be his pretend girlfriend, but also ready to be his real one. The train ticket, hotel reservation, and the name of the restaurant were in the backpack next to her, along with her red dress.

She wasn’t sure what she would do with her life once she finally left Kenmore for good, but she had to know if Gideon could still be in it before she made that decision.

She glanced at her phone. Hannah had come home early from work so she could leave, but Bailey wasn’t making that easy. She had thirty minutes to make it to the train. She hadn’t wanted to show up an hour before, like Gideon had requested, and give him too much time to deny her pleas, but now she really had to get going.

“Bailey, I told you I’ll be back tomorrow, but I have to go now.”

“Just five more minutes, Aunt Georgia,” Bailey begged, grabbing her hands.

Georgia was just about to respond when a white sedan she didn’t recognize pulled into the driveway. She instinctively stood and shielded Bailey, until Gideon exited the vehicle. Her whole body went weak, though she managed to stay upright.

He stood beside the car for a moment. What was he doing here? He should have been at the train station thirty minutes ago, not standing in her driveway. He didn’t have a five-year-old begging him for five more minutes. He only had the dinner in four hours. The most important thing to him in the world, the reason he’d even started talking to her, and he was here?

It could only be because he wasn’t done. He wanted her to know that she hadn’t broken him. Her plan would never work now. He would never believe her.

“Gideon!” Bailey exclaimed, running to him.

Georgia wished she could have, too, that things were as good as they had seemed before he’d overheard her talking to Kim, before he couldn’t trust that she wanted to be his. She hung back and waited. At least he wouldn’t say the horrible things he’d come to say in front of Bailey. He would be civil. She wasn’t sure if that hurt her more.

Bailey hugged him around the waist. “What are you doing here?”

“I was driving by and saw you guys playing.” His eyes were warm and focused on Georgia. “It looked like you were having so much fun, I had to stop.”

“Why aren’t you waiting for the train? You’re going to be late,” Georgia insisted. The questions swirling in her mind needed to be answered, along with the one she couldn’t ask. Why are you here?

“I had something more important to take care of.”

Georgia couldn’t speak. He’d chosen to come here instead of heading to the dinner.

“Do you want to play with us?” Bailey asked, looking up at him.

“If it’s okay with your aunt,” he replied, his eyes still on Georgia. “She might not want me here,” he added, lingering in the driveway.

Bailey ran back to Georgia and tugged at her arms. “Can he stay, Aunt Georgia?”

Georgia’s eyes were fixed on Gideon, fighting the tightness in her throat, struggling against screaming that of course she wanted him here. She couldn’t admit that yet. She needed to see what he wanted first. “That should be okay.”

She kept her hopes from becoming more. It was possible he was here to beg her to still come to the dinner. That it had nothing to do with wanting her, just trying to complete what he wanted.

“Come on.” Bailey pulled him toward the grass. “I’m the dad and Aunt Georgia’s the daughter. We’re playing farm. You can be the horse.”

Farm was one of Bailey’s favorites. Georgia’s doll was supposed to want to ride a horse and Bailey’s doll played the father who wouldn’t allow her to. They enacted this same scenario in different ways but always with Georgia being the one who stood up to the father who was trying to tell her what to do.

She guessed Bailey liked seeing Barbie win over Ken, and to be honest she enjoyed winning herself in that small way. When the rest of her life was a loss, even a back-talking Barbie was progress.

Gideon took a seat next to them. His bright green polo reflected his eyes into an even deeper shade. “Can the horse talk?”

Bailey let out a giggle. “We’re playing farm, not My Little Pony. Only people talk in farm.”

“Well, I think I’d like to be a magic horse that can talk. Is that okay?”

Bailey’s eyes were wide, and she nodded. “You start.” She pointed to Georgia.

Georgia took a deep breath, trying to ignore Gideon’s leg just inches from hers. Unfortunately, she couldn’t ignore his scent. The smell of lush pine forests brought her to her knees now. “My dad says I can’t ride you today, Ruffle Butt.”

“Ruffle Butt?” Gideon asked around a smile.

“That’s the horse’s name. Bailey did the honors.” Georgia winked in the little girl’s direction.

“It’s ’cause she has those blond wavy lines on her butt!” Bailey said, spit-laughing. “They look like my ruffled bathing suit.”

“Wow.” Gideon shook his head. “I really should have gotten more information before I agreed to be the horse.” He held the toy to his chest and closed his eyes. “Just give me a moment to get the essence of Ruffle Butt.”

A few seconds later, he cleared his throat and walked the horse back to the center of the circle. “I know, I heard”—his voice was a mixture of Cookie Monster and a fairy princess—“but I think part of the reason you can’t ride me is my fault, too.” His eyes hit Georgia’s just as the words did.

Georgia’s heartbeat zoomed, and heat blossomed in her cheeks. “Why?”

“He knows I didn’t trust you.” Gideon lowered his eyes. “Yesterday when you tried to explain, I was too stubborn, too stuck in my own past to listen,” he added, as if there was any doubt what he was really talking about.

There wasn’t. He was apologizing for their fight. No, she was the one who needed to apologize. Georgia’s stomach tightened.

“I was wrong first,” Georgia replied quickly.

Bailey watched them, fascinated. She had the same expression as when she watched My Little Pony, but the drama about to unfold was definitely going to be a lot more like a daytime soap opera.

“You were.” Gideon tipped the horse up and down. “But I should have let you explain. I should have listened. I should have been able to listen.”

“No, you shouldn’t have.” Georgia moved her Barbie insistently. “Why would you have believed me?”

“Because you believed in me, believed enough to want to admit what we were. Even if the boy I used to be couldn’t trust that, the man I am now knows it, feels it, and knows exactly who you are inside.” His voice was still Cookie Monster and fairy princess, but his words were all for Georgia. “And a stupid lie, or an ex-boyfriend, or the very important dinner that Gideon is bailing on right now will never get in the way of that.”

It was everything she ever wanted to hear from the man she’d had no idea less than a week ago she’d want to be her everything.

“Gideon can’t miss that dinner.” Georgia’s voice cracked.

“Gideon knows there will be more investors, but there is only one you.”

“Hey!” Bailey pressed on Gideon’s knee. “Why are you talking about Gideon? He’s not on the farm.”

Gideon lay Ruffle Butt down, putting his hand on Bailey’s. “I stopped by because I wanted to play with you, sweetie, but also because I wanted to apologize to your aunt for a fight we had yesterday.” He moved his gaze to Georgia. “And to tell her I love her.”

Georgia felt like he’d reached into her chest and squeezed her heart to life between his fingers. It beat in every part of her awakened by Gideon’s words, beat for his name. For the woman she now was, for the man she now wanted.

Bailey’s eyes widened. “Love, love her?”

“Yes,” Gideon replied, his gaze tight on Georgia. “I love, love her. Love is the one word that describes all my feelings.”

Like Say! Perhaps human emotions were that simple. For her, in that moment, love was more than enough. Georgia managed to look at Gideon, but she couldn’t speak, her heart still putty in his hands. This was more than she expected: he loved her. Me, the woman who’d made his life hell, ten years ago and yesterday. He loves me.

“Even the parts of her that are too afraid to accept she deserves that love,” Gideon continued. “I know how special she is underneath. I know who she really is and who she wants to be.”

Georgia loved him, too. Love was why she couldn’t stop thinking about him, had planned to go to the train station to surprise him. But he had done more than that by coming here. He’d shown her not only that he believed in her, but he believed in them.

“Bailey,” Gideon finally whispered. “Do you want to ask her if she loves me, too?”

Bailey squealed and jumped into Georgia’s lap. “Do you love him, too?”

Tears came first, slowly, sliding down each cheek, and then the words. “Yes,” Georgia said, her body shuddering before she managed to compose herself. “Yes, I love him, too.”

Bailey jumped up and clapped, allowing Georgia to see Gideon’s face. His eyes were damp, and his lips seemed to wait for her to take them. But she had more to say first. “I want you to know,” she started. “I was going to come to the train station to tell you that you were the only thing that mattered, that you were always who I wanted, even though I didn’t think it would be enough—”

“Was this enough for you?” He reached over the expanse of grass and took her hand. “Considering we spent a whole weekend not talking about our real feelings, I think words are pretty huge no matter where we say them. Besides, I wouldn’t have been at the train station. I would have been here, trying to tell you the same thing.”

“If we’re using words, I have an important one—sorry. I’m sorry for yesterday and I’m sorry for ten years ago and for that day—”

“I’m glad you’re saying it now,” he interrupted, “because for the first time this weekend, I’m finally ready to hear it.”

Bailey clapped again and jumped up and down. “You guys need to kiss now.”

Gideon and Georgia both laughed together on cue.

“Where did you learn that?” Georgia asked.

“After Mommy and Daddy fight, they kiss. You had a fight, now you kiss,” Bailey said, maneuvering her hands together as if to direct them.

Gideon reached for Georgia’s cheek, held it. “I do love you, Georgia, so much.”

She kissed her response. All the words and feelings she couldn’t share that weekend poured out in their kiss, roared through her lips and into Gideon’s. The man she was meant for, the life she was meant for. She could have kept her tongue and lips going for the forever she hoped they would have now, but Bailey was watching them, and a kiss as expressive as this one would only lead to a show she could not see.

Georgia pulled back, her body mid-hum. She placed her finger on Gideon’s chin. “Was that a good kiss, Bailey?”

Bailey gave the thumbs up.

Gideon slipped in close to Georgia’s ear. “I want to keep kissing you, but I think we know what will happen if I do.”

Georgia swallowed, her mind and her body craving his touch immediately, but they had something more important to do first. “That’s okay, we need to leave anyway.” She rose, grabbed her bag, and ran toward Gideon’s car.

“Where are you going?” he called after her.

“We,” Georgia replied, “are driving to New York. I’m not letting you miss that dinner.”

“It’s fine. I’m just going to tell my investor I didn’t really have a girlfriend. I’m going to tell him the truth.”

“You better call him and tell him we’re running late, because the truth is that now you do.”