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Verity follows suit, rushing to her feet and mimicking Garrett’s eagerness. “Mr. Harver, it’s a pleasure to officially meet you. Thank you for putting your trust in me.”

“The pleasure is all mine, Ms. Moore. I look forward to your work.”

He pulls out the extra seat at the table, and I start to wonder what exactly I’ve walked in on.

Nick is an imposing man. He runs the Harver Group with a tight fist and is even hungrier than the agents in his employ. He reached out to me a few months back about heading a new office in Miami, hoping that the extra dollar signs could poach me from RARE.

He takes a sip of the red wine Garrett pours, noticing me off to the side.

“Ross, what’re you doing here?” He gives me a teasing smirk. “Don’t tell me you’re taking me up on my offer?”

“You wish.”

“Worth a shot. I see you followed through on your promise to return to the city. You’ve been quite the pain in the ass, I heard. You nabbed that storefront on Fifth Ave and the one on Madison, didn’t you?”

“You’re paying close attention to the commercial sphere. Don’t tell me you’re interested?”

“I just like to know where all the players sit on the board.” He seems to remember something, and frowns, checking his watch. “Weren’t you looking into Clifton Bank? They’re supposed to be closing the deal with Vanguard today—this very second, actually. Right, Price?”

“They are, and I told him.” Garrett rests an arm on the back of his chair, nodding at me. “I even went through the effort of giving you the time and the location of the meeting as a favor for introducing us to Verity. So I don’t get why you’re up here and not there.”

Well, that sort of answers one of my thousand questions.

Now, how do I walk away from this without seeming like a jealous ex-lover?

Before I have a chance to come up with something, Verity’s sweet voice slices through my train of thought.

“Wait, you skipped out on a meeting with Clifton Bank to come here?”

“Yes.”

“Why? You’ve been chasing that deal for months. It’s important to you. How—”

“Because Bridget saw you with Garrett.” I toss my thumb across the street to where Bridget still sits, sipping her drink. She raises her hand in a twinkling wave. I let my soul bleed through my eyes as I center my gaze on Verity. “Nothing else mattered in that moment. You’re my priority, Verity. Always have been, always will be.”

I can see her mind racing, taking my words and replaying them to hear everything I’m not saying.

“But couldn’t you lose the listing?”

“I’d rather that than lose you.”

There’s a beat of silence. My implication lies heavy in the air.

Garrett clears his throat, reminding us awkwardly that we have an audience.

But I don’t really give a fuck about Garrett, or Nick, or anyone else for that matter.

I want to talk to Verity. I want to work things out. I want to get on my knees and beg her to take me back.

Fuck it.

I drop to my knees before Verity, my suit scuffing on the pavement. Her eyes blow wide as I reach out and hold her hands, the stares of everyone around me fading to nothing.

“Verity, I know I shouldn’t be here, but when it comes to you, I don’t think straight. You occupy my mind every minute of every day. All I want is to make you happy, to make you smile, and it kills me to know that my mistakes caused the opposite. I fucked up and I broke your trust, broke your heart—and that’s on me. But I’m begging you to give me another chance. I don’t care if it makes me look ridiculous, and I don’t care if it costs me millions of dollars; that all means nothing when it comes to you.”

Tears start to well up in her eyes, turning those baby blues into a watery ocean.

“I’ve spent the last ten years believing that I’d never find love again. Except you appeared like an angel sent from the heavens to save me, and I realized that the world was giving me a second chance. You have changed my life for the better—you are the rainbow that appears after the rain. I’ll never give up on you, never stop loving you, because I know that for the rest of my life, you are the one I am meant to be with. But the last thing I wantto do is cause you more pain. So, tell me to stay, tell me we can work things out. Just say the words, because I’m already yours.”