“I screwed up. I told you to go, that there was no hope for me. I pushed you away, and I shouldn’t have. I screwed up. I love you, and I’m sorry it took me so long to realize it. I thought I was too damaged to love again when what I’ve actually been terrified of is living again. But not anymore. I want to live. I want to live and laugh and be happy again, and I want to do it with you.”

He took a breath, and Suzanne let out the one she’d been holding. He loved her? Her foolish heart leaped at those three little words from a man who wasn’t used to saying them. But she didn’t dare let it fly.

“I thought you were still in love with Bethany?”

“No.” He shook his head. “I will always love Bethany. She’s part of the story of my life, and she will always have a place in my heart. Just as my mom and dad will always have a place there, too. But I’m not in love with her, and I haven’t been for a very long time. It was just easier to hold on to what was to stop myself from reaching for what could be.”

Suzanne heard a couple of female sighs from the crowd and, if it had been happening to someone else, she might have even laughed at their melodrama. But it was happening to her.

“And that’s you,” he continued, giving her hands a gentle squeeze. “I’m in love with you. You crashed into my life and turned it upside down and inside out and my cabin, hell, my life is so damn quiet without you. Nothing’s the same, and I don’t want it to be, either.”

Suzanne drew in a shaky breath. Grady loved her. He loved her. It was there in his words and shining in those pale-green eyes she’d come to know so well. She smiled. “For a man who doesn’t say much, you sure know how to put words together.”

The crowd laughed, and Grady finally cracked a smile. “I practiced all the way over.”

There was more laughter, and Suzanne eased up on the tight reins holding her heart in check.

“Suzy.” Grady’s face went all serious again. “Will you come and live with me on the ranch? I know it’s a huge ask to take you away from the city and all your friends and your colleagues and it might not be an easy transition, but I promise—”

Suzanne threw herself into Grady’s arms, cutting him off abruptly. She’d heard enough. “Yes,” she said. “I love you, Joshua Grady. A thousand times yes.”