Page 37 of Made for You
His jaw tightened. “I know.”
“And after that …” I swallowed hard, forcing myself to say it. “After that, I’m supposed to go back to the East Coast and start scouting locations for our next property.”
Something flickered in his eyes—pain, fear maybe—before his expression hardened with resolve. “But you’ll come back to Bridger Falls?” he asked, his hand tightening on my waist, like he was afraid I might disappear if he let go. “To build your life here? With me?”
“What?”
My knees went weak, and if he hadn’t been holding me, I might have collapsed right there on my floor. No one had ever wanted me like this—not temporarily, not conditionally, butpermanently. My whole life, I’d been the driven workaholic who was impressive, but ultimately exhausting. The woman ex-boyfriends treated like a placeholder until something or someonebetter came along.
But Gage? He was asking me to stay. To build a life. To be his forever.
The tears came without warning, hot and fast, blurring my vision until Gage was just a hazy shape in front of me. Frankly, I’d been holding backsomuch that it all came pouring out now.
“Hey,” he cooed, pulling me in against his chest again, one hand cradling the back of my head while the other rubbed soothing circles on my back. “It’s okay. I’ve got you.”
“I want to,” I choked out against his flannel, my fingers clutching at him. “God, Gage, I want to so badly. But my job, the company?—”
Just this morning, my dad had told me he was going to recommend to the board that I take over when he retired. It was everything I’d been working toward for years. The validation I’d craved, the position I’d fought my brothers tooth and nail to earn.
And standing here in Gage’s arms, I realized I didn’t want it anymore.
The thought hit me like a freight train. All those years of eighty-hour weeks, of proving myself over and over, of sacrificing everything for the next promotion—and now that it was within reach, I wanted to let it go.
“I don’t need to run the entire company,” I said, the words feeling strange but right as they left my mouth. I pulled back to look at Gage, my vision still blurred with tears. “I love the work I do—finding the right location, falling in love with a concept, seeing it through from blueprints to opening day. But overseeing the entire Bellrose Group? Managing hundreds of properties I’ll never set foot in?”
I shook my head, a laugh bubbling up through my tears. “I’ve been chasing that position for so long, I forgot to ask myself if I actually wanted it. But the truth is, I wanted it mostly to prove I was better than my brothers. To show everyone that a girl could beat the boys.”
“And you did,” Gage said softly, brushing the tears from my cheeks.
“Maybe.” I smiled up at him. “But Bryce or Connor wouldloverunning the company. They’d work themselves to the bonefor it in a way I never would, because it’s not what makes me happy. Creating something from nothing is where my heart is. And I can do that from anywhere.”
I took a shaky breath, feeling lighter with each word I spoke. “I’ll talk to my dad about restructuring my role. Maybe I can launch a new division, one that honors the places they’re in. I can travel when I need to for bigger projects, and you can come with me when your schedule allows.”
My hands came up to frame his face, my thumbs tracing the line of his jaw. “But my home base—my life, my future, my heart—it should be here. With you.”
“Siena.” He brought my hands to his lips and kissed the inside of my wrists. “I want you here every single day for the rest of my life. I want to wake up next to you every morning. I want to come home to you every night. I want to build something real with you—something that lasts. Are you sure that’s what you want, too? I can wait, darlin’.”
A fresh wave of tears spilled over. “I want you. I choose you. I choose here.”
His breath caught. “Yeah?”
“Yes.” I nodded, laughing through my tears. “Yes, I’ll stay. Yes to all of it. I can’t leave you, Gage. I can’t leave this place. I can’t walk away from us.”
The smile that broke across his face was incandescent. He swept me up into his arms, spinning me around until I was laughing and crying at the same time, clutching his shoulders and feeling lighter than I had in years.
When he finally set me down, he kissed me again—slow and deep and full of promise.
“Come on,” he murmured against my lips, taking my hand. “As much as I want to take you upstairs, we need to sit down. Talk this through. Figure out what this looks like.”
He led me to the couch, pulling me down beside him and immediately tucking me against his side like he couldn't bear even an inch of space between us. I curled into him, my head on his shoulder, his arm wrapped securely around me.
“I talked to my dad this morning,” I started. “Before you showed up. I asked him how he knew he was in love with my mom.”
Gage’s chest rumbled with a quiet hum. “What’d he say?”
“That he couldn’t stop thinking about her. That she made him feel like he could be himself, without all the expectations and pressure.” I tilted my head to look up at him. “That’s how you make me feel. Like I don’t have to be this version of myself I’ve been pretending to be for so long. That I don’t have to deny the things I really want, the person I am under the suits and the stern glares. I don’t have to be anything other than just … me.”
His arm tightened around me. “You’ve never been anything but yourself with me, darlin’. That’s one of the things I love most about you—you’ve never hidden from me.”
