One More Taste (One and Only Texas #2)(77)

She opened her mouth and said the two most important words of her career and love life. “I quit.”

The dinner guests’ only responses were quizzical stares.

Knox stepped in front of her, angling into her line of sight. “Say that again?”

Though her mind was buzzing with a thousand different topics and she could barely focus her eyes, she tried to hold his gaze. She owed him that much. “I can’t work for Briscoe Ranch anymore, and I can’t work for you. I don’t want the restaurant. I quit.”

And then she did the only other thing she could think of. She ran. Out of the restaurant, down the hall, and through the door to the employee staircase. She’d taken two steps down the stairs when Knox’s voice called to her. “Emily, wait! Stop!”

No, she would not stop. Eventually, she owed him an apology and explanation for humiliating them both in front of his investors, but she was going to do it on her terms, after she’d had the chance to lay out the broken pieces of her life and figure out what she felt and what she wanted to do. But that wouldn’t be tonight, and certainly not because he was commanding her to stop. She picked up her pace down the stairs, though she heard his footfalls fast approaching.

He caught up to her as she reached the stairwell entrance to the lobby and slammed his hand against the door, holding it closed. For a moment, all either of them did was breathe.

She closed her eyes. “I’m sorry. I’m so sorry for everything. But Knox, please, let me go.”

He touched her chin in an attempt to shift her gaze to him, but she jerked her face away. She couldn’t bear his touch lest she lose her nerve to walk away.

“What happened back there? You earned the restaurant and now you’ve got it. I don’t understand what’s wrong.”

The phrase careful what you wish for came to mind. “The only reason I earned it was by sleeping with you.”

His jaw stiffened. “You know that’s not why you got the job, so don’t insult us both by claiming otherwise.”

“Then tell me what happened, Knox, if this isn’t because we were lovers.”

“Were?”

God, this hurt like hell. But she had to reclaim her life. She had to put herself back in the driver’s seat and that would be impossible with Knox holding sway over her. She pinched the bridge of her nose. “Past tense. For now, until I can think straight again.”

He swallowed hard. His focus slipped to the empty space past her shoulder. “Okay, then I’ll tell you what happened. I challenged you to make me think about food as more than fuel. You did that and so much more. You made me crave things I never knew I needed. You brought me to life. You opened my eyes to so many aspects of living and myself that I’d been blind to. You’re brilliant, Emily. You’re the most brilliant light I’ve ever seen.”

How could he say that after she’d embarrassed him in front of his business partners? “You’ve opened my eyes, too. You’ve helped me see that the thing that’s been holding me back all the time has been me. I’ve let fear of my parents and fear of the unknown dictate every single choice I’ve made since running away. I feel like a bird who’s never exercised its wings for fear of falling. And now, instead of flying on my own, I’m using you and Briscoe Ranch as crutches.”

“Not crutches, support. There’s a difference. Everybody needs a support system. Even you, Emily.”

“Knox, please don’t argue semantics. Phrase it any way you want, but the truth is the same. I was letting you dictate the terms of my life. And I have to knock that shit off right now before it drowns us both. I can’t be with you if it’s not as your equal.”

He clamped his lips together. Because, clearly, he knew she was right.

All these years, she’d convinced herself that she didn’t need love and companionship, but now she knew that had been her fear talking. Knox had helped her see that she needed both. And, not only that, but he’d helped her realize that she was strong enough to risk her heart to love. Maybe from Knox, or maybe from someone with whom she didn’t share such tangled connections.

There was only one way for her to find out, and that was with space and time and distance. “I have to go.”

With a stunned expression, he lowered his hand from the door and stood aside so she could pass. Emily flung the stairwell door open and raced through the lobby. She no longer heard Knox’s footfalls or voice, but she continued to push herself faster until she burst into the night through the main doors—escaping her past, escaping her fears, and escaping the sheltered box of a future that would have only held her back while she finally learned to fly.





Chapter Eighteen

Emily pounded on Carina’s door for a second time, ready to spill the confession she’d been poised to share with Carina before the dinner party. Knox had been right about one thing: Emily did need a support system, and hers was her best friend. She wasn’t sure what advice she hoped Carina would give her—to support her quitting or encourage her to go groveling back to Knox and his investors—but either way, Emily was bound to come out of their talk with a clearer idea about what she felt and what she wanted to do.

At the sound of the door unlocking, Emily drew herself up, trying to look poised and in control of her faculties. Decker opened the door, looking sleepy in a pair of tattered sweatpants and flannel shirt with a day’s worth of stubble on his cheeks. When he saw it was Emily, he flicked his eyebrows in a bored greeting and stepped aside for her to enter. “Can’t you womenfolk powwow in the morning? What is it with you two and these late-night gabfests?”