Total pages in book: 89
Estimated words: 83699 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 418(@200wpm)___ 335(@250wpm)___ 279(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 83699 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 418(@200wpm)___ 335(@250wpm)___ 279(@300wpm)
He cupped her cheek, his thumb a soothing caress across her skin. “I did it all wrong. I should’ve told you why I needed you with me. I should’ve told you that I was a mess whenever I was away from you. You are my success. And loving you meant more to me than anything else.”
“But that wasn’t true then.”
He shook his head. “It was true. I just didn’t know it until after I’d let you go. I was a fool. I should’ve run after you, begged you to stay. Climbed a fire escape. Whatever I had to do to keep you in my life.”
She rolled her lips together, pressing hard before she cried, and finally said, “I should have stayed and told you exactly how I felt. Instead, I just raged. Who can ever hear someone who rages at them?”
He smiled very softly then. “You should’ve sat me down and made me watch Pretty Woman.”
She laughed, too, just as softly. “There were so many things we should’ve done.”
“But we didn’t.” At his words, another tear rolled down, into his fingers gently cupping her face.
“We wasted fifteen years,” she murmured. “Because of all the things we should have done but didn’t. Because I couldn’t compromise.”
He didn’t let her take all the blame. “Because I couldn’t see that love was more important than anything. You were more important. Instead of being so different from my dad, I turned into him. A workaholic. And now I have nothing else in my life—no love, barely even family.”
She leaned into the hand against her cheek. “A very wise man told me that love is a compromise because two hearts must meet in the middle to become one.” She smiled. “He also told me not to cock it up this time.”
Ransom laughed, loudly enough to stop a dog in its tracks, a ball in its mouth. “Fernsby.”
She had to laugh too.
“I’m sure as hell not going to cock it up either. I love you, Ava Harrington. I love you with every cell in my body. And I would give up everything I have—my restaurants, my cookbooks, my TV show, and most especially all my success—if I could have you back in my life.”
“I love you,” she whispered. “You don’t have to give up anything. And neither do I. We’re going to compromise in any way required to make our love work.”
He pulled her close, his lips almost touching hers. “I always knew you’d make your dreams come true. I always knew you were perfect for me.”
When he kissed her, his lips on hers were heavenly.
She pulled back just to breathe again, to look into his eyes and see the love shining in them, to let him see that love reflected in hers.
Then, rolling to her feet, she grabbed his hand, pulled him up. “What we really need now is a snap dog to celebrate.”
Hand in hand, they ran across the grass to the hot dog stand. When they finally had their dogs with all the good toppings and skins that snapped when they bit into them, she leaned in to kiss him with mustard all over her mouth.
Finally, she didn’t have to be an overachiever. Because Ransom would love her no matter what.
Chapter Twenty-Two
“I need to make love to you again.” Ransom’s words were as beautiful as the love sonnets he’d been reading to her.
The fading sun still warmed her as she opened her eyes, but the flame in his gaze heated her all the way through.
“It was totally hot in my office earlier,” she said, gazing up at his beautiful face. “But this time I want hours with you in a real bed.”
Then it seemed like only moments before they were entering Ransom’s Pacific Heights flat. Ava gasped. “How did you manage all this?”
The dining table was laid with a damask cloth, the champagne glasses were crystal, the silverware actual silver, the plates real porcelain, and a sideboard held silver warming trays. Beneath the damask, the intricately carved table legs added to the elegance, the chairs facing the lights of the harbor.
As dusk fell, the living and dining room lay in shadow. They were beautiful in their simplicity, a white leather sofa, a chrome-and-glass coffee table, matching end tables, a state-of-the-art sound system, and a flat-screen TV bigger than the span of her arms.
Through his floor-to-ceiling windows, the dark bay overlooked Sausalito, Tiburon, Alcatraz, and a brightly lit dinner cruise sailing through the dark waters.
“I have a restaurant in the city, remember?”
He’d made a phone call, but when? Then again, discovering the logistics might strip away the romance of it all.
Ava lifted the lid of the first warming dish and moaned as she breathed in the scent of the hearty goulash.
“Czech goulash, not Hungarian,” he said.
“You know that’s my favorite.” Another foodie love letter. “Hungarian is good, but it’s soupier. The Czech is thicker.” Her mouth watered, not just for the goulash, but for Ransom. “I haven’t had goulash in years.”