Page 98 of The Lies We Told Ourselves

“I love you, Booker,” she said when I pulled away, looking deep into my eyes. “I wish you could see the man that I see when I look at you.”

“Is that a yes?” I asked, ignoring the part that I wasn’t quite ready to think about. But I’d work on it. I’d work on anything if it would make her happy.

“Of course, it’s a yes.”

We missed the entire next circuit of the Ferris wheel, and it was only when the carriage jarred forward that I realizedwe’d stopped. There was nothing in the universe that could have stolen my attention from the woman in my arms at that moment.

My fingers pushed into her hair, and she sighed happily as she tipped her face up. Her beautiful blue eyes looked like they shone with the light of the stars as I pressed my lips against hers.

The crowd below us cheered, and Reece smiled against my lips.

“Ignore them,” I muttered, kissing her again. “They’re cheering at someone else. They definitely can’t see us from down there.”

She peered over my shoulder, and then that cute blush touched the tops of her cheek as she did a little wave.

“No, they can definitely see us,” she said, ducking her head down. “In fact, I’m pretty sure someone is filming us.”

“Then we should definitely give them something to look at.”

I kissed her again, pulling her close as I did. Everything else in the world faded away because all that mattered was the woman in my arms.

This was perfect.

She was perfect.

And I had to be the luckiest man alive.

CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR

BOOKER

Ihung up the phone and then kicked my feet up on the desk, leaning back with a sigh.

That was it. Another two backers were gone, and we were down to the final one. The project was officially out of funding. I could maybe mortgage the ranch, raise the capital that way. There was no point in looking for new investors. Camden and his father had put out the word, and we were officially on the blacklist.

And yet, there was a part of me that didn’t care.

I looked around the makeshift office that we’d set up in the dining room and found myself strangely accepting of the end.

I felt bad that Reece had worked so hard only for Camden to come in and break something else she had claimed as her own. It was the last flailing act of a pathetic man.

He probably thought it would break us. That I’d look at Reece and decide she wasn’t worth the trouble.

He really was stupid.

The ranch would continue on just like it always had. Maybe we wouldn’t expand this year, maybe we would. For once in my life, I was content, and I knew we’d figure something out.

“What’s going on?” Xander asked as he walked into the office. “I thought we were meeting with the contractor today about the next stage, but I got your message saying that it was canceled.”

I rolled my head to the side to look at my brother. He’d changed so much since he’d come back to Willowbrook. Hell, he was talking about selling his sports car and buying a truck. If that wasn’t the symbolic shedding of his city life, I didn’t know what was. He’d even dug out the old, battered leather jacket that he’d worn for most of his college years. I couldn’t believe it actually still fit him. It was like having the echo of the brother I remembered from back then sitting right in front of me.

“We’re done,” I told him. “I just lost two more backers. The project is over.”

Xander looked surprised as he slumped down in the chair on the other side of the desk.

“Just like that?” he asked. “There’s nothing else you can do.”

“Not right now. No one else is going to risk investing in us with the governor out for blood. Maybe in a couple of years we can pick it up and try again.”

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