Make Me (Broke and Beautiful #3)(65)

“It’s a kimono,” she said, so softly he barely heard her.

“Okay.” He wanted to reach out and grab her but managed to hold back. She needed to hear everything. Deserved everything he’d been holding inside. “I love you, Abby. I’ve loved you. I didn’t realize saying that might be all you needed to hear because I only understood action. If I were a smarter man, I would have said the words a million times. I’ve loved you. I’ve loved you. I’ve loved you. And this house is useless unless you’re inside it to make memories with me.” He laid a fist over his heart. “My memories were supposed to be with you.”

She didn’t move. Or speak. For a really long time. And that was a goddamn blessing for Russell because it meant he got to be with Abby. Got to look at her. If he tried really hard, he could even catch a hint of white-grape sunlight on the summer breeze. His hands shook with the desire to touch her, so he shoved them into his jeans pockets. He’d barely started cataloging every detail of her face when she ran past him, up the stairs, and into the house.

A beat passed where he could only stare at the place where Abby had been standing. He quickly turned and followed, however, craving the sight of her within the four lonely walls. Russell paused on the threshold, because dammit, he’d never wanted to set foot inside again. But she was inside. She was there. So when he saw her red dress flash at the top of the staircase, he went after her.

Russell strode past the confused Realtor and scaled the stairs, turning right toward the office when he reached the landing. As he got closer to the office, his mouth went dry, pulse thundering with the knowledge of what Abby would find. He moved into the doorway, and there she was . . .

. . . bathed in the shine produced by eight oversized skylights. The ones he’d spent the last week installing. Hell, there was barely any ceiling left, but what little was there, he’d painted blue to match the sky. The walls were rose gold and high-gloss, so they could capture the sunlight, spin it into a glow, and surround her with it. As if she needed any help looking magical as she turned in a slow circle at the center of the room. He watched as she noticed the red and yellow roses he’s set up along the window and placed around the room.

Then those hazel eyes were on him, eclipsing the sunlight. “You did this for me?”

“You said . . .” He cleared the rust from his throat. “You said you wanted it to feel like you were working outside.”

Twin tears rolled down her cheeks, and Russell took an involuntary step forward to dry them, but her voice halted him in his tracks. “It’s the most beautiful room I’ve ever seen. Anywhere. In my entire life.”

Russell had to look away because the emotion that rolled through him was so potent, he was afraid to direct it toward her. Not unless she wanted it.

“Russell. You can’t sell this house.”

“Abby—”

“Where would we live?”

A shock of electricity struck him right in the chest, so powerful he couldn’t breathe. Or speak. It was so obvious his fate lay with Abby, he could see it suspended between them in the air.

“We can’t have a man living in the apartment. If you moved in, Ben and Louis would insist on moving in, too, and the whole place would be overcrowded. And since I need to be with you, the only option is for me to move here. So you can’t sell it. No one gets this office but me. No one gets this house but us.” She swiped at her eyes when more tears fell. “Are we getting married or living in sin? Because as long as I get you, Russell, I’m in either way. Any way.”

He went down on his knees and crawled the remaining distance to Abby. She clutched his shoulders and tried to pull him up, but he refused, wrapping his arms around her waist and inhaling the scent that clung to her clothes. “How did I f*ck this up so badly when I love you this much? How is that possible?”

She knelt on the floor in front of him, seized his face in her hands. “I love you, too.” Her lips drifted over his forehead, cheeks. “I love you. You love me. And nothing else is more important than that.”

He crushed her against his body, feeling alive for the first time in days. The oxygen he sucked in was laced with Abby, the staggering relief that he wouldn’t have to live without her. Thank God. Thank God.

“We’re going to go tell the Realtor you’re not selling, okay?” He nodded into the crook of her neck. “Right after she rejects the offer I made.”

Russell’s head came up. “You made an offer?”

“I was afraid I wouldn’t get here in time, and you’d accept someone else’s offer.” She searched his face. “If I’d bought the house, what would you have said?”

His answer was important to her. Important to them. After the way he’d pushed her away until he felt stable enough to give her things that could only be bought with money, she needed to know his insecurity had been obliterated by the reality of losing her. Russell tipped up her face. “If you’d bought my house, I would have asked you when I could move in, angel. Either way, it would have been ours.”

The smile that spread across her face was so damn beautiful, he breathed her name. “Did you mean what you said about getting married? I can have a priest here in half an hour.”

Her laughter wrapped around Russell as she eased him backward into a sitting position on the floor, wrapping her legs around his waist. “I meant it. Of course, I meant it. There’s no one else for me in the world.”