Page 153 of Your Place or Mine

I swear, this woman.

I should’ve felt like I was losing control, but letting her in meant giving up ground I’d spent years protecting. But somehow, it didn’t feel like losing anything.

It felt like coming home to something I never even knew I was missing.

“Why are you really doing this?” I asked, nodding toward the half-finished ceiling.

She looked surprised by the question and then thoughtful. “Because people deserve better.”

“Elaborate.”

She set her water down and walked a few feet away, eyes on the old machines, the scuffed floor, the walls that hadn’t seen a fresh coat of paint since Reagan was president.

“I used to walk past buildings like this and think, ‘Someone should fix that.’ But I never thought that someone would be me.” She turned to face me again, expression sincere. “I wanted to make something. Leave something behind that wasn’t just… regret.”

I studied her, heart squeezing tighter with every word.

“You’ve got a good heart,” I said quietly.

“Don’t let that get around,” she teased, but her voice wobbled a little.

I stepped forward, closing the space between us. “Too late.”

She stared up at me, and I could see the war behind her eyes—the same one I’d fought. Fear. Hope. The ache of loving someone when your past told you not to trust it.

But still… we stood here.

Still… she smiled.

“I can’t believe you’re helping me with this,” she said after a beat.

“Believe it.”

“You hate change.”

“I hatebadchange.” I reached for her hand, curling my fingers around hers. “You? You’re the best kind.”

Her breath hitched just slightly, and it made me feel like I’d just leveled a mountain with nothing but words.

“I should probably be the one tellingyounot to go soft,” she said, trying to sound casual.

I leaned in, brushing my lips against her temple. “Too late for that, sweetheart.”

She rested her forehead against my chest, and for a moment, everything outside the cracked tile and flickering lights fell away. There was just us. The steady beat of something that felt like a future we hadn’t dared to dream yet.

“You’re gonna bedazzle that damn fish, aren’t you?” I murmured into her hair.

She laughed so hard I felt it vibrate through my ribs. “Onlya little.Just one sparkly fin.”

“Over my dead body.”

“Oh, dramatic,” she said, looking up at me, lips curving in challenge.

“Don’t test me.”

“Oh, Iliveto test you.”

I growled under my breath and kissed her.

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