The Billionaire's Matchmaker(20)

T.J. took another step forward until only a few inches separated them. “I prefer riding with you.”

She refused to let that familiar smile affect her or to be tempted by the woodsy notes of his cologne, the soft ocean green-blue of his eyes. She shifted her gaze to the cold stone pyramid. “I’m fine on my own.”

“Are you?”

He wasn’t talking about her driving alone. He was asking if she wasn’t hiding a couple things herself beneath this bravado.

“You don’t get to ask me those questions, T.J.” Gabby whirled back to him and all the hurt she’d felt this morning roared to the surface. “You lied to me. What were you trying to do? Show the poor starving artist you have some pity on her? Or did you think it’d be funny to go slumming with me for a few days before you go back to your helicopters and limos?”

He recoiled a bit. “It wasn’t anything like that. I was wrong for deceiving you. I’m sorry, Gabby. I really am.”

The sincerity in his voice and his features eased the tight hold on her anger. Her voice softened. “Then why did you do it?”

“I wanted a way to spend time with you.”

The words sent a little thrill through her but she pushed it away. He had hurt her with the deception and a part of her—especially the part that had been intimate with him—just wanted to climb under the covers until the hurt stopped. “Why me? And why after all these years? And why now, when you weren’t there…” She cursed and shook her head. “Never mind.”

“…when I wasn’t there for you before?” he finished when she didn’t.

“Yeah.” She raised her gaze and searched his blue eyes. “You didn’t answer my emails. Didn’t return my call. I reached out to you, T.J., after my grandmother died and that mural disaster happened because I needed a friend. Then this whole week, you lied to me. Now you want me to take a chance, to trust you? I don’t think so.”

She started to walk away, but he reached out and took her hand.

“Don’t go, Gabby, please. Listen, I was wrong to do that. It was selfish and stupid, and I’m sorry.” He raked a hand through his hair and took a moment before he spoke again. “After graduation, when I told you how I felt, and you made it clear there was never going to be anything between us, I was crushed. All I wanted to do was forget you, move on. But I couldn’t.” He reached up and caught a strand of her hair, letting it slip between his fingers.

A slow smile spread across his face and she found herself drawn to that smile, to him, again.

“If there’s one thing I’ve learned in the last few days, it’s that no matter how hard I try, I can’t forget you and I don’t want to. Ever.”

“Why me? We were just friends, high school friends.”

“We were always more than that to me. I was just too scared to push it, because I was afraid of losing you. In the end, I lost you anyway.” He released a long breath. Charlie settled at his feet and curled into a tight ball against the wind. “Almost from the day I started seeing a profit from my business, I became Mr. Popular. For a guy who spent most of his life off the radar at school, it was kinda cool, I’m not going to lie. Then I realized no one knew the real me. They were attached to me because I had money. Power. Influence. But there was no depth to those relationships, no meaning, no history. So I came back here to you, to the only person who knew the real me, and the only person I’ve ever really known.”

“But you weren’t being the real you when we were together. You kept telling me to take risks, and you didn’t.”

“Because as soon as we were together, I was afraid of losing you, this time for good. You are who you are, Gabby, without apologies, without limits and to me, that’s a pretty brave thing. I admire that about you.” He took her hand in his, sending a zing through her veins. “Right or wrong, your attitude has always been take me as I am, with that pink streak in your hair and the zebra boots and all the things that make you who you are. And you know what? Who you are is pretty damned incredible. Strong and sassy and smart, and braver than me.”

“Braver? I don’t think so.” She thought of all the fear of failure she’d felt in the past few years, how long it had taken her to get her career rolling again, to risk rejection by sending work to that gallery in Chicago. She didn’t feel brave. Far from it. Those moments of fear had cost her so much. “I wasn’t brave enough to tell you how I felt all those years ago.”

“How you felt? But I thought—”

She shrugged, giving him a shy smile. What sense was there in keeping the truth from him any longer? “I fell for you in high school but I didn’t realize how I felt until you were gone and it was too late.”

His grin spread like hot butter inside her. “It’s not too late, Gabby. And maybe it’s better we waited all this time, because now we’ve lived our lives and we know what we want. Who we want.”

A row of puffy clouds drifted overhead and the soft sounds of passing traffic hung in the air. Winter still held its crisp, cold grip on Wyoming, but between her and T.J. the air was heated, charged with years of unanswered desire. They’d let so much time pass—too much.

“You’ve always pushed me to take chances,” T.J. went on, “to be my own person. That scared the hell out of me because I knew I’d pay the price for every misstep when I got home.”