“What?” Incredulity spread across her face, and the bottom dropped out of his stomach. “What the hell, Seth?”

“It’s okay. It’s what I want. I’ll decline my Paris position and open a photography studio here.” His words tripped over each other.

“You’re going to turn down the chance of a lifetime to take small-town wedding photos and pregnancy shots?” she yelled, her hands curled into fists.

“Anything. I’ll do anything to be able to stay here with you,” Seth said, begging her to hear him. All that mattered to him was being with her. She just needed to understand that. “Fashion photography is only a job. I’m not trading a lifetime with you for it.”

“I do not want to be that person who makes you give up your dreams. I cannot be the person that takes away your amazing chance.” A sob escaped her, and she bit her lips to stop the trembling. “I once let a person use my love for him to manipulate and control me. I was so lost that I couldn’t even remember who the real me was. I refuse to do that to you. Don’t make me become that person.”

“You could never be that person to me.” A fine trembling started in his chest. This was about love. Once-in-a-lifetime, soul-mate love. It wasn’t about manipulation or control. Why couldn’t she see that? “Please, Tara. This is my choice. I’m in love with you, and I’m choosing to be with you.”

“No,” she said, unbending in her conviction.

He was beginning to hate that word. She kept saying it, but it wasn’t the right answer. “I’m not asking you to tell me you love me right now. I’m not asking you to decide whether you want forever with me. I just want a chance to stick around and show you how much I love you.”

“There will never be a forever for me.” Her ferocity shot terror through his heart. “You know what’s funny? It was never an issue—your caveat about not falling in love with you. I have nothing left in me to love another person. I’m incapable of loving you.”

“I don’t believe that. You are capable of more love than you can imagine. I’ve felt it. In the warmth of your touch, in the way you make me laugh, from the way your eyes linger on me, and in the way you make love to me. It’s there. You just don’t see it yet.”

“I don’t love you, Seth. I never will.” Her eyes grew dull like she wasn’t with him anymore. Like she’d already left. “Go to Paris. The dating dare is over.”

Seth stood frozen to the spot while Tara moved around the house. When she returned to the kitchen, she was back in her street clothes with her hair loose around her shoulders, and she held the garment bag in her hand. But she was still wearing her corsage. That was the only fact he could focus on.