“I need to go back and work things out with my partners and our investors. I’ve avoided it for as long as I can. I can’t do so any longer. I wanted you to know how I felt before I leave. I don’t want you to have any doubts that I’ll come back this time.”

Uncertainty flickered across her face and her eyes went dim. He could tell she didn’t entirely trust him and he couldn’t blame her. Not after what had happened last time.

“You could come with me,” he said. He was grasping at straws, anything to allay her fears. “We wouldn’t have to be gone long. A few days at most. I know you don’t like to be away from…here.”

She reached for him, her hands clutching at his arms as she looked up at him, her eyes so earnest. “I don’t like to be away from you, Rafe. You. Not here. Or there. Or anywhere.”

“Then come with me. I won’t lie to you, Bryony. I don’t know if I can fix this. All I can do is promise to try.”

She let her hands slide down to grip his, so tight that her knuckles went white. “I believe in you.”

He crushed her to him and buried his face in her hair. She made him want to be the man she was so convinced he already was.

“You’ll come with me?”

“Yes, Rafe. I’ll come with you.”

She pulled away and he laced their fingers together, holding their hands between them.

“No matter what happens, Bryony, I love you and I want this to work out between us. I need for you to trust in that.”

“I do trust you. You’ll fix this, Rafe. I know you will.”

He smiled then, feeling some of the anxiety lift away. He could breathe easier. The idea of expressing his feelings had given him a sense of uneasiness, but now that he’d done it, he realized it had been harder not to tell her what was in his heart even if his head still screamed that this was all wrong.

He’d spent a lifetime of listening to his head and being ultra-practical. Maybe it was time he threw a little caution to the wind and let his heart lead for once.

CHAPTER 18

Bryony’s phone rang in the middle of the night. She pried herself from Rafael’s arms and reached blindly for the phone on her bedside table.

“Hello?”

“Bry, it’s Silas. You need to come to the hospital. It’s your grandmother.”

Bryony scrambled up, shaking the fuzz of sleep from her eyes. “Mamaw? What happened?”

“She had one of her spells. Blood sugar dropped. She called me and I couldn’t understand a word she was saying so I rushed over and took her to the hospital.”