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I nod along. "Yeah, I agree. I think we both recognized we couldn't commit to anything in the moment, with our lives taking us all over the place, but I thought we were doing the same. And we were doing it with the intention of being ready when we got the chance."

She frowns. "And then I went and blew it all up."

I reach out and take her hand in mine, our fingers tangling together. "Hey, no. Don't think like that. I'm not mad at you for what happened. You were protecting yourself and Josie—there's no shame in that."

"I was protecting us from someone who would never hurt us. I was too insecure to believe that."

"I forgave you, Mia. Even when you were still mad at me, I knew whatever happened, I'd already forgiven you. I've missed having you in my life and I'm not about to chance that now."

"What if I ask you to?"

"What are you talking about?"

She fiddles with the hem of her shirt, but keeps her gaze locked on me. "What if I told you I wanted to take a chance, together? On the two of us?"

"For real?" I ask, dumbfounded. I can't seem to find any better words in the moment. "You mean as a real, serious couple?"

"Yeah." She drops the hem of her shirt and shifts on the couch until she's facing me, her legs tucked underneath her. I turn to give her my full attention.

"I know you probably don't want to have this conversation at work—"

"I don't care where we have it. I'm still having a hard time believing we're having it. Mia, are you sure?"

"I'm tired of wasting time, Ronan," she admits. "I'm tired of denying myself the person I want because I'm scared of getting hurt again. I think we owe it to ourselves to see where this could take us."

The people we were before—the ones fumbling around in that hotel bed in Omaha—never could have fathomed what we'd go through. They were on top of the world, and reality had no way of touching them. The two people sitting here now have had nothing but reality thrown at them. A car accident, a shitty ex who destroyed a career, and a chance we never thought we'd have again.

I'm taking that chance. I've been wanting to take that chance from the moment my eyes landed on her again and I can't believe how lucky I am for her to want to take such a chance with me.

"I wish you would say something," she anxiously replies.

Oh, shit, right. That part. That's howconversations work.

From that moment on, it's like I couldn't even contain my grin if I wanted to. Leaning closer, I pull her into a soft, sweet kiss. Something chaste and mild; something that definitely won't make Bryce feel like he has to start a real HR department.

She's a bit breathless when we pull away, and I try not to feel smug about being able to do that during a romantic moment happening in a not-so-romantic setting. "I'll take that as a yes?"

"I was planning on asking you the same thing in a couple of days," I finally say. "I wanted everything to die down a bit. I didn't want you to think I got caught up in the moment or something like that. I'm happy you were the one who brought it up."

In fact, it might mean even more to me that she was the one to ask. I always pride myself on being the kind of guy who lets his girlfriend take the lead when she wants or needs to, but there's never been an instance where I haven't been the one to initiate this kind of conversation. Not that there are a lot of them to make it count, but still.

She's beaming. The smile lighting up every aspect of her face, like the sun is shining down directly on her. "You realize this means we'll have to tell our friends, right?"

"You get to tell Bryce," I rush to say. "He already threatened me about creating a workplace nightmare—called himself HR and everything."

She snorts out a laugh. "Bryce would be horrible at HR."

"Right?" I exclaim.

"Do you even have any experience with a real HR department?"

"Um, yeah," I scoff, but she doesn't look convinced. "Operation Fly has one, but I've never dealt with them hands-on because I'm the founder and president who mostly stays out of that side of the organization."

"So that's a no, then," she teases.

"Not everyone's professional path looks the same, Mia."

One of the office doors open. "Hey!"