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I didn’t know why, but my spirit buoyed at this. She was an adult in her thirties. She’d clearly had physical relationships other than me. But to know that she wasn’t currently engaged in one lifted my spirits and added to my hunger.

“He’s older. And technically my boss.”

“Bethel?” I exclaimed. “So you went from me thinking you were dating him to actually dating him?”

“No, I told you, he’s married. I’m technically dating his brother.”

I felt like my world was spinning out of control. I breathed out through my nose, trying to calm myself. What the hell?

“His brother? You’re dating some old, rich dude?”

“Technically,” she said, “yes.”

“I see.”

“But I would give it up in a heartbeat to be with you.”

All the anger seeped out of me in an instant. I looked up into those dark eyes and felt myself falling into them again, just like I had every time I saw her, every time I dreamed about her. She was as beautiful as she ever was, perhaps even more so, and though my mind had hardened at the idea that she was unattainable, knowing she would give up her rich boyfriend to be with me was everything my thundering heart could ask.

“Are you sure about that?” I asked, trying to keep my voice level and calm.

“Absolutely,” she said.

“What about our lives? They don’t mix. You’re off in these hotels, and I’m on the road or at the ranch all the time. We’d never see each other.”

She shrugged. “Frankly, that’s what I have right now anyway with Graham. We’ve only really gone out a dozen or so times, and it’s almost always some event or something. Not a real date. We barely know each other. We never see each other. He texts me and asks if I want to accompany him to an event in a few days, I say yes, and he sends a car for me the day of. I don’t even usually see him until I arrive wherever it is.”

“So he flies you all over for events? And you wouldn’t miss that kind of life?”

“Honestly, no,” she said. “Graham is a nice man. A kind man. But he’s not someone I could ever fall in love with. Especially when I already fell in love with you a decade ago.”

“Do you mean that?” I asked.

“I do,” she said.

I nodded. “I have feelings for you, Charlotte. I do. I’ve been thinking about you all the time. For years and years now. You were the only girl I wished I could have held and never let go. The things I feel for you are deeper than anything I ever felt for anyone else by orders of magnitude. But… but so much time has passed, and our lives are so different. I’d have to think about it. But there is a massive problem we’d need to address before we could go anywhere else.”

“I know,” she said, sighing and sitting back, taking another deep pull from her drink. “I understand. Hell, I might need some time to think too. Just because I’ve been thinking about you fora decade doesn’t mean it would work now. But, Jesse, I want you to know I never stopped thinking about you. Not once.”

“Me either.”

“So that just leaves the massive problem.”

“Yes, it does.”

Then, at once, we said the same thing.

“Tamara.”

She groaned and leaned back in her chair, wincing.

“You know you have to tell her,” I said. “Before this goes any further, you have to tell your sister about us. And it doesn’t do any good to start from right now. She needs to know the whole truth. Even the part about me ghosting her and then going out with you. She needs to know the truth, or else it will come back to bite us later.”

“Are you sure?” she asked. “Is it worth telling her everything?”

“I think so,” I said. “I wouldn’t hide any of that from my brothers. I know that.”

She nodded. “You’re right.” For a long moment, we sat in the quiet, then she stood. “I should go back. They’re probably worried over there.”