She shrugged. “We haven’t talked about any of this stuff. But we’ll work it out. It’s not like we don’t have the rest of our lives together.”
Relief and warmth and sunshine flooded through me, closing up the pit again.
“I love you,” I said.
“I love you too,” she replied. “And I want to live with you . . .”
“But?” I could hear the unspoken word echoing down the hallway. We got to the lift and she turned to face me.
“But honestly, I don’t want to live in the house where your ex-wife picked out the wallpaper.”
“That’s just as well, because the house is up for sale.”
She tilted her head as a smile crept across her face. “It is?”
“I want a fresh start with you. I don’t want to live in the past anymore. And I want to live in our house. Not my house. You’re not going to be an overnight guest or the nanny. You’re going to be my wife. My best friend. My partner. We should pick out the place we’re going to raise our family together.”
“Raise a family?” she said, looking like I just asked her the difference between a turret lathe and a toolroom lathe.
“I hate to tell you, but Bethany comes as part of the deal.” I knew that’s not what she meant, but she was so easy to tease.
“Of course,” she replied. “But . . . Gabriel . . . I’m not ready for—”
I slid my hand around her waist and pulled her closer. “I know. I’m thinking too far ahead. I just want to future-proof the house. We’ll wait as long as you want. I want you to be happy.”
“You always know the perfect thing to say,” she said, and we stepped into the lift.
“Now you know that’s not true. I’m going to get it wrong a lot. I’m impatient and surly at times. But promise me you’ll always know that you are at the center of everything I do. You and Bethany. You two are everything I think about, everything I am. I might need you to help me back on track from time to time but know that I love you, even when I veer off course.”
The lift doors pinged open, and we made our way toward the suite where Dexter and Hollie were getting married. “Gabriel Chase, I love the way you love me. I love you just as hard. And I’m going to make mistakes too. But I know that we’ll be with each other until one of us isn’t in this world anymore.”
I nodded, knowing what she was saying because it was exactly how I felt. We had just strolled through the corridors of a hotel on the way to a wedding, but it was as if we were the ones who had just been married. Our promises wouldn’t get any stronger for being made in public or put on a register somewhere.
This woman was my soulmate. There hadn’t been a ceremony invented that would bind us any closer than we already were.
“Shall we go watch your sister marry one of the best men I know?”
“What’s wild about today is that I think she feels for Dexter the same kind of forever love that I have for you.”
“What makes that wild?” I asked.
“I just never thought we could both be so lucky.”
I pulled her closer to me as we came to the door to the suite, content to let her believe that of the two of us, she was the lucky one.
Epilogue
Three Months Later
Autumn
I glanced around at the huge kitchen, dining, and living areas arranged around the central outdoor courtyard encased in glass. It was so big. So grand. I loved it but it also made me a little uneasy.
“You’ll get used to it,” Hollie said, reading my mind as she uncorked a bottle of champagne.
“I hope so,” I replied. “I know I live here but I’m not sure I can quite believe it at the same time. Does that make sense?” My life had changed so completely in the last few months. Not only had I moved continents, but I’d discovered my future, and I knew who I was going to share it with.
“You’re still the same person. Just remember that. It’s not so different to our trailer back in Oregon.”
We both burst into laughter. Gabriel and my new home couldn’t have been further from where and how we’d grown up. But she was right. It didn’t make us different people. We loved the men we loved, regardless of whether they were rich or poor.
“I’m still bummed I couldn’t get you to move to Knightsbridge.”
“I like Smithfield,” I replied. “And it’s a super easy commute.” The investment bank where I’d interviewed just before I’d flown to Madrid had offered me an entry-level investment analyst job. I’d been there about a month and I was loving it. I felt like I was living in an eighties movie. I wasn’t sure how, but life just kept getting better and better.