Tessa Ever After (36 page)

Instead of saying she’s done, like I was hoping she would, she
asks, “Do you ever wonder what would’ve happened if you’d gone to work for your parents?”

I still behind her, my lips pausing against her skin, my fingers tightening around hers. “No.”

She glances back at me. “Never?”

With a shake of my head, I confirm, “Never.” And it’s true. While it’s been hard, finding a job in my field, being shunned by my parents, I wouldn’t change it. Because I know, without a doubt, if I’d gone to work for Montgomery International, I wouldn’t have Haley and Tessa, and they’re worth every sacrifice I could’ve made. They’re worth
everything.
“I wasn’t ever happy in that life, Tess.”

“And you are now? With us? Even with them out of your life?”

Happy
doesn’t even begin to scratch the surface. It’s a single star as compared to the whole galaxy. But I know she needs to hear that I am, that I don’t think I made a mistake doing what I did. That I don’t regret it, choosing her and Haley over my parents. And I don’t. Not for a single second.

My parents made their choice that day so long ago, when I made my intentions clear—that I wasn’t going to be a part of the company. That I was going to live my life finally for myself. They cut me out of their lives without a backward glance, and after twenty-four years of hanging on so tightly to something that wasn’t good for me in the first place, I’ve finally learned to let go. And I’m more content because of it.

I lean in and press my lips to hers, lingering for a minute and trying to infuse everything I feel for her into it. Trying to show her without words how much I love her, but I know sometimes she needs the words, too. I kiss the corner of her mouth and across her jaw until my lips rest at her ear. “Yes, I’m happy. I’ll
even be happy tonight when you put on your favorite movie again. And tomorrow night when you pour me a glass of wine. And next Saturday when I have to get up at the ass-crack of dawn to get donuts because I’m an idiot and started a ritual I’m never going to live down. Love does crazy things to a guy.”

I press my lips to her ear and pull back to see her looking at me, a huge smile on her face, and I’m hit once again by how right this feels. Why I was never struck with that panic at being with her, why I didn’t try to get away, why I never wanted to flee . . .

She’s it for me. She and Haley are it—my family, the kind I’ve always wanted. The kind my grandpa always talked about. They’re the home I desperately sought the entirety of my life.

Now that I’ve finally found it, I’m never letting them
go.

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