It's About Time (Blossom Peak #4)(96)

“I was just tired of looking at your grumpy ass.”

I can feel his chest bounce with laughter. “And see? That. Your humor. Fuck, you make me laugh—even at a time when I felt like I’d never laugh again. But your actions mattered more to me than your words. I mean, you fucking sprayed me with a hose and took me to a junkyard to beat up a car when you didn’t fucking have to, Dilynne. You…you helped me in a way I can never repay you for.”

“I just…” A heavy breath leaves my chest.

“You proved above all else that our actions are much louder than our words. I can’t take back what I said, Dilynne. I know you can trust me with your body, but your heart is still fighting to catch up, isn’t it?” I nod. “Okay then. I’ll just keep showing up and proving it to you, sweetheart. That is, if you’ll let me?”

What the hell am I supposed to say to that?

I close my eyes as he encases me in his arms. “This is a lot, Elliot.”

“I get it. So for now, let’s get dressed, go get some food, and pick up your gauges. We don’t even have to spend the night here if you don’t want t o. I’ll drive you back tonight so you can get straight to work on the Porsche if that’s what you want.”

Lifting my head, I peer up at him. “You would do that?”

“I would. I have a lot to make up for, it seems. And I can start knocking off that list tonight. If you want me to.”

We have over an hour left until we have to meet up with the guy that has my gauges, but then something dawns on me. “I thought you were going to fuck me four times before then.”

His brow lifts. “That was before.”

“Before what?”

“Before I realized that being there for you in this way is far more important, and obviously it’s the only way I can get you to see whatever is happening between us isn’t fake. So that’s what I’m going to do.”

***

“Shit, this is really happening, isn’t it?” Steven asks as he hovers over me while I’m sitting in the driver’s seat of the Porsche.

“It will go a lot faster if you stop blocking my light.”

He stands up and out of the way of the overhead light he’s holding up. “Sorry. I just can’t believe that the last year of work is almost done.”

“Yeah, you and me both.”

I’ve been in the garage for over fourteen hours. Elliot insisted on driving us back to Blossom Peak after our conversation in that hotel room, and even though part of me wanted to let him control my body all night, the other part of me was stunned that he understood how important finishing the Porsche before the deadline meant to me. So much s o that he drove all seven hours while I got a little sleep so I could start working the second we got home.

Letting out the truth about how his words affected me all those years ago nearly ripped me in two. And it wasn’t because it was difficult to say. No, what made it gut-wrenching was seeing his face transform as he realized that the reason we’ve never gotten along is because of something he said, that he didn’t even remember saying.

Watching him go through that made something in my heart shift. Maybe because now that I’m older, I realize how carelessly we throw around our words. Maybe because I can really see now that he was so young back then that he never could have predicted where we are now.

And maybe, deep down, I want to believe him when he says that he’s sorry, and that he would never hurt me intentionally.

Because the truth of the matter is, he didn’t back then.

It was a fluke I even heard him say what he said.

And he’s right. Nikko was a punk that Elliot was just trying to impress.

But it doesn’t change that my reservations about letting him in now are still there, and that’s because the stakes are much higher.

He’s making me feel things I haven’t felt since I was with Vinnie.

But it’s different too.

The question is, is this thing with Elliot different enough to make me want to trust someone else like that again? I survived heartbreak once, but I’m not sure if I could survive it again. And Elliot made it clear that this arrangement isn’t fake for him anymore.

But is it enough for me to believe it could really be something more?

“Everything else is complete, right?” Steven asks as I lift the dashboard and line it up to the holes where the final screws will go to hold it in place.

“I think so.”

“ What do you mean?”

“I don’t know, Steven. I just feel like I’m forgetting something, and that never happens to me.”

“Well, you’ve been busy pretending to be a fiancée, so maybe that’s clouding your mind?”

I glare at him as I pick up the first screw and position it in place, moving my screwdriver to it and beginning to twist. “You know better than anyone that I don’t let men cloud my judgment.”

“I’m not referring to your judgment, Dilynne. And the last thing I would do is question your skills or abilities. I’m just saying that when things happen in our personal lives, it can affect everything else.”

“That doesn’t happen to me,” I argue.

Steven laughs. “Yeah, okay. There’s no harm in being human, Dil. Besides, if my fake fiancé looked like that in a suit, I’d be distracted daily too.” He points outside of the car, and that’s when my eyes catch Elliot standing in the garage, one hand poised in the pocket of his black slacks, the other holding a bottle of champagne.