He looked at her then, his eyes clashing with hers, and in them she saw a world of hurt meshed with a world of longing. She recognized the look because she saw the same thing in her gaze every morning when she looked in the mirror. Her foolish heart ached for him and what he was going through—for what they both were going through.
“I won’t deny that it crushed me to find out that you’d hidden your true motive. I have never in my life felt so betrayed by another person, and believe me, when you grow up with a man like my father, you get used to the feeling. But what you did, it cut me like nothing else I’d ever experienced. I felt as if you’d destroyed us. That you’d torn apart the very fabric of the precious relationship we were building together. I lashed out. And I apologize for that.”
She let his words sink in, then parsed through them. Looking for a glimmer of hope that they could work this thing out between them. But so far, there was not so much as a kernel to cling to. Chloe blinked against the burn of tears that was starting at the back of her eyes and fought not to rub at the sharp pain piercing her chest.
“I’m so sorry I hurt you, Miles. While that might have been my intention—No,” she corrected herself. “I have to own this. That was my intention—before I met you. But it didn’t take me long to realize that you were not the man your father was. My anger and my family’s betrayal began and should have ended with Trent Wingate, and I am truly sorry that my mom and I thought we had the right to visit that on you and your brothers and sisters.”
She dragged in another breath. “But you hurt me, too. When you confronted me, I told you the truth. I told you everything. I opened up to you and you just slammed a metaphorical door right in my face. You refused to listen to me. You refused to even try to understand what I’d been through and what my life had been like since your father’s treatment of my dad, or what motivated me to contemplate doing what I did.
“Choosing that path—revenge—wasn’t easy, especially when I discovered exactly who you are on the inside. And knowing who you are and what you’re like made it hurt all the more when you turned me away.”
Miles’s expression twisted, as if he was in pain, and he pressed his lips together as though fighting to hold back words that begged to be said. He closed his eyes briefly and drew in a shuddering breath before opening them again.
“I’m sorry for that, too, Chloe. Believe me, I’ve never known anyone like you before. The circles my family move in, the people I’ve mixed with all my life? None of them are like you. Not a single one. I couldn’t believe that I could open up and feel about another human being the way I felt about you, right from the start. Do you have any idea what that did to me? You rocked the foundation of my life.” Exhaling roughly, he scrubbed a hand across his face. “Yes, of course I know that people meet and fall in love and live happily together forever after. But I always thought that was a pipe dream. Hell, it wasn’t even a dream for me. I had my work, I dated. I never expected to fall in love the way I fell for you.”
Chloe felt cautious anticipation begin to grow deep inside. Did this mean there was still a chance for them to work through this? To find a way back to each other that had a solid foundation based on truth and love?
“Well, I didn’t exactly expect to fall in love with you, either. All my life your family was held up in front of me as a target. As something to bring down. A group of people I didn’t know or understand, but people that had destroyed the stability my family had been based on and who forced my father’s hand to take his own life. Obviously, now, I understand that no one made that ultimate decision to end my dad’s life but him. But that didn’t lessen my anger at your family.”
“What my father did was despicable, Chloe.” Miles shook his head in disbelief. “Even now I can’t begin to understand what he was thinking when he did that. How he could do that to another human being. But to him, the end always justified the means. When I reached the stage of my life where I understood how he operated was wrong on every level, I distanced myself from him and everything associated with him. I made my own way in the world. Without his support or approval or his money. I am not my father.”
“I know, Miles, and I’m sorry I ever thought you were. Of course, when I got to know you, I knew you were not to blame. It made me think twice about what I’d hoped to achieve in hurting you, let alone hurting your entire family. It made me realize that I couldn’t go through with it.”
They
both fell silent for a moment. Each awash in pain and regret. But then Miles shifted and looked at Chloe again. The expression on his face had changed. His eyes held something new. Hope?
“Chloe, answer me this.”
“Anything.”
“If you were being totally honest with me about your feelings, do you think we can get past this? You brought sunshine in my life in a way I’ve never experienced before. You blew out the cobwebs and you replaced them all with a breath of fresh air. I’ve never felt happier with anyone the way I felt when I was with you and, on the flip side, I have never felt as utterly bereft as I have since I ordered you out of my life.”
“Of course I was being honest with you, Miles. I fought it. Yes, I’ll admit that. But I couldn’t help but love you as I started to get to know you. I know you’re a proud man—a self-made man—and that you don’t need anybody to complete you or your life on any level. But I hope there is room for me in your heart because you fill mine and I wouldn’t want it any other way.”
He abruptly stood and walked to her chair and pulled her upright.
“Do you mean that? I mean, I’m not doubting you, but this depth of emotion is new to me. I feel like I have to second-guess myself all the time. Today, when I came to find you, I wanted to demand you give me the truth about why you did what you did, but then I realized you’d done that. It was my own stubbornness that refused to listen to what you’d already said.”
She lifted her hands and bracketed his face. “Miles, I mean it. I loved you then, I love you now. I will love you forever.”
He shuddered then, as if the weight of the world had lifted from his shoulders and he’d finally freed himself from his deepest fear.
“I love you, too, Chloe Fitzgerald. I want to be with you, always. I want to plan a future together with you, a life where we know we can rely on one another and to hell with the rest of the world. We can build our lives together, our own family together—and all of it on a foundation of truth and happiness. What do you say?”
Tears came to her eyes in earnest now, but she didn’t blink them away. These were tears of joy. Of faith in a future she had only ever dreamed of.
“Yes. I say yes!”
He tightened his hold on her and drew her closer, angling his face to hers and capturing her lips in a kiss that imbued all the sweetness of this moment together with all the heat of his love for her and hers for him in return. They might not always have the smoothest road ahead and they still had so much to learn about one another, but Chloe knew in her heart and to the depths of her soul that they’d endure, no matter what.
* * *
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Texas Cattleman’s Club: Rags to Riches!
Available June 2020 through January 2021!