Page 91 of Dirty Fighter

I blink, vaguely aware of the round of gasps sounding behind him.

I heard him wrong.

My lips start to form the What?, but he catches my hands in his. He’s not just smiling at me now.

This man is beaming up at me, radiating joy and— “Marry me, Rowan. I love you. I’ve been in love with you from the night we met. And I totally get that I didn’t fully know you yet and that neither of us were fully formed into the people we’ve become. But I swear to you it’s real. It’s how the men in my family are. We fall in love and we know it. It’s real, and it’s till death do us part, even if that love only goes one way.”

“But…” My head is spinning, and I’m a little nervous that the protein shake from the gas station seven hours ago wasn’t enough and I’m hallucinating.

“The cabin,” I whisper, starting to tremble. There’s no way this man who has every right to hate me is telling me he loves me. That he wants me. That even with everything I’ve cost him… he still loves me?

“I know we lost the cabin.” He shakes his head, still smiling. “But I’m so damn glad I got to spend my last week there with you.”

My voice cracks, and I can’t see past the emotion welling in my eyes and then spilling down my cheeks. “Jason, the cabin… is yours.”

Jason

She hasn’t said yes.

Okay, and maybe this is too much. Maybe I should have led with the being in love with her and then worked up to the marriage proposal. But all I could think when I turned around and saw her was that she was fucking here. Not marrying Ron halfway around the world.

That I was getting the chance to tell this woman what was in my heart.

“I shouldn’t have left like that. I’m sorry. So fucking sorry, Rowan.” I’m shaking my head, feeling that ache through my soul again, because, yeah. She’s here. But I don’t know if she’ll ever be mine.

“You were right about the will. I should have believed you, but I didn’t. And then it just all happened at once. I looked up from seeing that I’d lost the cabin, and you were with Ron. And when he kissed you… I realized I’d lost you too. And I couldn’t fucking breathe. I couldn’t think beyond knowing I wouldn’t survive saying goodbye to you.”

Her brows pull together, and she whispers my name. “Jason, no. I’m so sorry. Ron— he was confused, and I don’t know what he was thinking kissing me like that.”

“He was thinking he loved you and he’d try anything for the chance to keep you.”

She shakes her head. “No. He was trying to make something real that just… wasn’t.”

“And then you got back to the cabin. And I was already gone.”

She nods, and I die all over again.

“Bruce told me you left together.” I can barely say it.

She sighs, looking pained. “I couldn’t stay without you. Ron helped me pack. He promised to tell my mother the cabin was uninhabitable to buy me some time. I thought I could petition to have it registered as a historic landmark so the building might be preserved. Something. Then he drove me to a hotel, and we said goodbye.”

“He just left you at a hotel? Alone?” First me, then him. All in one day. Christ.

Her brows lift. “You’d have rather he stayed?”

I pause. “In his own room. On another floor. Or maybe at the place just down the road.”

But yeah, I’d rather she had someone.

“He offered, but I told him I’d be okay. He understood why things ended with us. But even though I believe he genuinely wanted me to be happy, it was hard for him to hear that I’d fallen in love with you. I didn’t want to make it harder on him than⁠—”

“Wait, what?”

She searches my eyes, lifting one pretty shoulder. “I love you.”

I cough out something between a laugh and a very manly sob, pulling her into my arms. “Rowan, Christ, I love you too. So fucking much. I tried everything to rein it in, but it’s always been there.”

Her shoulders quake, and I run my hand over the soft spill of her hair. “Shh, don’t cry.”