Total pages in book: 86
Estimated words: 84000 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 420(@200wpm)___ 336(@250wpm)___ 280(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 84000 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 420(@200wpm)___ 336(@250wpm)___ 280(@300wpm)
I chuckle. “That’s why we all have hotels. We compete against each other for whose property is the most successful. It was a way of keeping a connection between us after business school. The criteria gets more and more complicated, but somehow Bennett seems to win more often than not. Having a hotel in New York City rather than Boston would mean I could pay it more attention. It would give me a better chance at winning.”
Sophia’s gaze falls to my mouth, then the wineglass I’m holding, then back up to my eyes. “So your goals in life are to keep everyone else happy and beat Bennett at the Hotel Games?”
“That’s not all,” I say. “I’ve been thinking about this a lot. You’re right that I tend to prioritize the needs of the people I love before my own. When I was a kid, I did it because I knew it would keep my family together, and that’s what I wanted more than anything. Not to lose anything or anyone else after my dad died. Since then, I’ve built a successful career by helping other people achieve their dreams. And while you’re right—those dreams aren’t mine—my work isn’t just for them. It’s also for me. Say, for example, I’m a math teacher, or a dance teacher at a high school for the arts.”
She raises her eyebrows with a smile.
“It could happen.”
“If anyone could make it happen, it’s you,” she says. She’s being funny, but she wouldn’t say it if she didn’t believe it.
“Isn’t that the same thing? If I’m a teacher, aren’t I helping kids achieve their dreams and their potential? If I’m a nurse or a doctor, aren’t my achievements linked to positive outcomes for my patients?”
“Yeah,” she replies. “It’s a good point. But are you getting what you need by turning the Ninth Street building into a hotel?”
“Maybe,” I say. “Maybe like Avril said, I need a family legacy that isn’t about grief. Something positive to keep me close with my sisters.”
“If that’s really how you feel, Worth, that’s wonderful. You should do something to make yourself happy.”
Heat starts to bubble inside me. I’m on the verge of telling her everything I’ve been trying to hold back. Here she is, sitting in my home. My wife. I should tell her what I want. Because I’ve been pretending to myself that I don’t know but I do. “I can tell you what I want, beyond the hotel, beyond rewiring our family history.”
“I’d love to hear.”
I sit forward in my chair and take her hand. “I want you,” I say simply. “I want us to tear up those papers and never think about divorce. I want us to move in together. Happy to move wherever you want, because my priority is being with you, wherever that is. That doesn’t mean I’m sacrificing what I want to make you happy, it just means I want you and nothing else matters. I want to build a family together. A future. I’m all in. You’re what I want.”
She stills, but there’s no stopping me now.
“I think I have been going through life prioritizing other people. But I don’t think that was selfless. Stepping up after my dad died got me what I wanted—I kept my family together. Helping entrepreneurs and businesses made me a wealthy man. Money gives control and choices, and for a boy who had neither growing up, it’s really important to me.
“But you? I want you because I feel like you’ve awoken parts of me I didn’t know were asleep. I feel we’re each other’s destiny. Thinking about you makes me happy. Seeing you makes me fucking joyful. Being with you makes me truly happy. I’m in love with you, Sophia Jones, and I want you to stay my wife.”
What I want to happen next is for Sophia to slide into my lap, put her arms around my neck, and tell me she loves me too.
But that isn’t what happens next.
Her gaze drops from mine and hits the table. “That’s…” She pulls in a breath. “That’s not what I was expecting you to say.”
Silence stretches out between us, but I don’t let go of her hand.
“I mean it, Sophia. You said I should focus on what I want, and what I want is you. I want to share my life with you.”
Sophia pulls her hand from mine and rubs her face. “Worth,” she says. Seconds tick by like minutes. I feel paralyzed, rooted to the spot. “A huge part of me wants that too. In fact, sometimes that’s all I want.”
I want to feel hopeful as she speaks, but I don’t let myself, because I can hear the but echoing in her words.
“But I don’t trust that feeling,” she says eventually. “I don’t trust anything at the moment.”
I sigh. I can’t blame her. What she’s discovered about her dad would cause anyone to have massive trust issues.