Page 80 of Flirting With Forever
He kissed the top of her head.
“I love you, too. And I’m sorry. You’re not only a lot smarter than I am but braver too.”
She stared up at him, taking in every detail of his expression. “Are you ever going to tell me what Father holds over you?”
Noah looked…sad.
“I was young and stupid. Too stupid to make sure I had a way out before confronting him. I’m proud of you, kiddo. For standing your ground and fighting for what you really want. Now get out of here and go live the life you just blackmailed us to have.”
Chapter Twenty-Three
The major flaw in Sloane’s plan was the fact that now that she was free from her family—she had to decide if it was really time to stop running.
She believed she’d broken her father’s hold on her and wouldn’t hear from him again. She even believed, maybe naively, that if her father ever tried to drag her back into the fold, Jarrett and Noah would step up to keep that from happening, given the evidence against her father that would implicate them as well.
So, this was it. Decision time.
And for someone who’d spent years running, the urge was there like an itch she couldn’t scratch, because falling in love and establishing roots was a big deal.
What if Gage didn’t feel the same way about her as she felt about him? He was a guy. Guys were typically okay with one-night stands. And the fact she’d snuck out and left him—the control freak—high and dry?
She doubted that had gone over well. She’d broken his trust, and that would be a hard thing to earn again.
When she’d left Gage sleeping in his big bed, she’d only had one thought in mind, and that was to protect him from her family. To make sure he stayed safe while she attempted to extract herself from the disaster of being a Harrington. It could have gone very, very wrong. She might not have made it out of that hotel lobby on her own. Might even have found herself married to a mobster.
But thankfully, miracle of miracles, she’d accomplished her goal.
And in doing so, she’d also removed her excuses for keeping her distance from Gage. Without that barrier, she had nothing to keep her heart from completely accepting the fact she’d fallen in love with him.
But he was a man with an ego who was going to be furious that she’d left the way that she had, and—what if he didn’t feel the same for her?
Especially now?
Sure, he’d offered her help, but that was without knowing how dangerous her situation actually was. Had he known the truth, would he still have made the offer? Wanted to be involved in something so…technically criminal?
Likely not. Gage was a good guy. An honest one. A stand-up citizen who followed rules and the law because that was just who he was.
And absolutely no one wanted to take on a mob-tinged family with connections if they didn’t have to. Why would he want to risk everything? His livelihood? His life? Especially for someone who’d given him so little at every turn?
She hadn’t freed herself for nothing. That fight with her father was a long time coming, but—Gage and his safety had definitely been defining factors for her why now.
And as terrified as she’d been on the drive to Chicago to face her father, she was now even more petrified on the drive back to Carolina Cove.
Gage was a man who was all about control, and she’d taken that away from him. Stripped him of it entirely because she’d insisted on handling things her way. Alone and on her own.
Gage wouldn’t be okay with that. And relationships—if they even had one?—meant sharing the load. Trusting in a partner to take on whatever problems they faced as a couple.
She might arrive to find herself homeless and jobless, depending on his response.
Maybe it was the emotional toll of not dealing with her past for so long, but now every doubt and fear and what-if insecurity ran through her head on repeat during the miles and miles back to the coast.
She was so keyed up and anxious that she coffeed-up and drove straight through, arriving in Carolina Cove in the early hours of the following morning.
And since it was too early to knock on Gage’s door and demand to know his feelings—to be honest, she wasn’t sure she was ready just yet for that talk, either—she drove to the boardwalk and parked to watch the fishermen on the pier.
That’s when her emotions really bit into her, and after a while, she gathered up the tattered remnants of her courage and drove to the rentals building to wait for sunrise, preferring the darkness and shadows to the bright lights surrounding the pier.
She crawled down the alley to the back of the building, breath catching in her throat when she noticed the starfish had been painted over.
