Page 131 of The Last Goodbye

I was grateful for that.

Because at this point, I’d gone through four days of missing this woman and a long-ass flight to get here—I wasn’t going to let anything or anyone stop me from seeing her.

When we pulled up in front of the building, I thanked the driver and made my way inside. I gave my name to the man at the front desk, who took me to the elevators and hit the button for the top floor.

“Thank you,” I said, and he nodded.

I found her apartment and knocked on the door. I could hear movement on the other side, and I was not a patient man when it came to Briar.

Never really had been.

“Magpie, open the damn door,” I said.

She cracked the door open, and her eyes widened. “Bass? How are you here?”

“Well, usually one takes an airplane when traveling across the country.”

She looked exhausted. Her eyes were puffy, as she’d clearly been crying, and her hair was tied up in a messy knot on top of her head. She stepped back and let me inside.

“Listen, I was going to talk to you when I came back to Blue Sky Bay. I know what you’re thinking.” Her voice trembled as she spoke, and I dropped my bag on the floor and turned to face her.

“You know what I’m thinking?”

“You think I knew about this hotel deal,” she said, her voice breaking on a sob. “You think I lied to you. Of course you would think that, because my father lied to me, and what kind of man does that to his daughter?”

I didn’t stop to answer her. The sight of her breaking down did something to me, and all I could do was pull her against me and wrap my arms around her. “I don’t think you knew about the hotel, and honestly, I don’t give a fuck about any of that anymore.”

She cried against my chest, and I just held her there until her sobs had subsided and her breathing slowed.

She stepped back, tilting her head up to look at me. “Bass, I didn’t know. He did this behind our backs. Here I’d thought I worked this great deal to get you the building that we’d found for you, and got him to agree to cover the renovations—and all along, he had a plan. He only agreed to it because he needed you out of your restaurant quickly to get this deal in place. He just sent Steven there to make sure everything was moving forward and you were agreeing to the deal. He doesn’t care about anyone but himself, and he pulled me into this.”

“No, he doesn’t.” I reached for her hands. “I know who you are, Briar. And you are nothing like that man.”

“I don’t know how to fix this, but I’m working on it.”

“Come here.” I took her hand and led her to the couch. “There are some things I need to say to you first. And then we can talk about the other bullshit after.”

I sat down and pulled her onto my lap. “I’ve been going out of my mind since you left. And it gave me time to think about everything. About you. About us. About the future.”

“Me, too,” she whispered. “It’s all I’ve been thinking about.”

“Well, I’m done holding back. I know you’re afraid to say goodbye, and I need you to know that it’s never going to be goodbye with you and me. In fact, when you left to come here, and I didn’t hear from you for four days…” I paused, my gaze locked with hers. “That will be our last goodbye, Briar. No more leaving. No more running. No more goodbyes. I’m not going anywhere. And this is what I realized over the last few days—I love to cook, and I can do that wherever the fuck I want. And I want to be with you. So, if that means that we sell the new restaurant, then so be it. If you want to be here, then I’ll be here with you.”

She swiped at the tears streaming down her beautiful face and smiled. “You’re moving to New York?”

“I lived here once before, and I’d do it again, if it meant we were together.” I placed a hand on either side of her face. “I’m in love with you, Briar Sinclair. And nothing is more important to me than that. I. Love. You. And I’m not going anywhere. I’m going to be right by your side.”

She nodded, but no words came at first, and I just waited for her to work through it. “I love you, Bass Bennett. I was terrified that I’d lost you.”

“You’re not losing me, baby. I’m right here.”

“I’m sorry I didn’t tell you what was happening. I thought you would think that I knew about it. And then—” She shook her head and sniffed a few times. “Denton gave me something. Something that I didn’t know existed. And he told me to use it as leverage with my father, but I’ve just been—frozen.”

“What did he give you?” I asked, my heart pounding in my chest, because I could tell that whatever it was, it had destroyed her.

“My father knew about me the whole time, Bass. Just like my mom said. I guess a part of me always hoped there’d been a misunderstanding. Like maybe she’d tried to tell him, but he wasn’t there, or something like that. I think it was this little part of me that just wanted him to be someone different from who he really is. Who my mother knew he was, and who I didn’t want to see.”

“I get that. He’s your father, and you didn’t want to believe the worst. How do you know that he knew about you?”