Chapter 11

“I don’t understand,” Regan said. “What are you doing here? Did the new owners ask you to do more work on the house?”

Sawyer drank in the sight of her. She looked better than anything had in a long time. There was a sadness to her and he knew he was the cause of that. Hated himself for it. “Jackie said you’d be stopping by. I have everything on the dining room table for you.” He gestured toward the house, but Regan didn’t budge.

“You didn’t answer my question. Were you hired to do more renovations on the house?”

Reaching for the towel he had nearby, Sawyer wiped the sweat from his brow before reaching for his jug of ice water and taking a long drink. “You could say that,” he finally answered.

Regan huffed and rolled her eyes. “Okay, fine. Whatever.” She was quiet for a moment, and he would have sworn she was going to argue with him, but instead she waved him off. “Look, I’ve got plans, so I’ll just get the boxes and go.” She turned to walk away but Sawyer stepped in front of her, blocking her path.

“How have you been?”

Crossing her arms over her chest, Regan looked at him with disbelief. “Seriously? You think I want to stand here and do the small talk thing with you?”

“What do you want?” he asked softly, his gaze lingering on her face, his eyes telling her how much he missed her.

Her expressive face—he could almost hear the snarky retorts she wanted to throw at him—nearly made him smile. She wasn’t going to give him an inch, he knew that. He didn’t expect her to. Although, right now? He almost wished she’d lash out at him so they could go back to the way things were.

“I want to get my things and go,” she said and almost pulled off sounding confident, but her breath hitched a bit and she watched as Sawyer’s features softened even more.

Unable to help himself, he reached out and touched her face. Regan closed her eyes as his fingers skimmed down her cheek, her jaw. “I’ve missed you, Regan. It’s been hell without you.”

She slowly took a step back. “I’m sorry you’ve had a hard time, Sawyer,” she said carefully and then looked around the yard with longing. “I really need to go.”

He nodded. Wordlessly, he led her back into the dining room. “I’ll help you load the boxes in your car. The mail’s right there. It wasn’t much, but I wasn’t sure what was important and what wasn’t, and I didn’t want Caroline to miss anything.”

Regan reached for the pile, which was right next to another one with an envelope on top that was addressed to Sawyer Bennett. While Sawyer carried the first box out to her car, she quickly went through the rest of the pile and noticed they were all addressed to him. When he came back in for the next box, Regan held up an envelope and waved it at him. “What the hell, Sawyer? What’s going on? I thought you were just doing more renovations for the new owner.”

“I never said that,” he said blandly. “You did.”

“Well, you didn’t disagree with me. What gives?”

“I bought the house. So I guess, technically, I am doing work for the new homeowner, who just happens to be me.”

She looked ready to spit nails. “And you didn’t think that was pertinent information? If Jackie had told me you were the owner, I would have asked her to pick these things up. I knew I couldn’t trust you, Sawyer, but I didn’t expect you to be cruel.”

“Cruel?” he repeated. “How am I being cruel?” He was completely confused. Did she not see where he was going with all this? They had always been able to read each other so clearly and now it seemed like they were strangers.

“After all I went through emotionally with this house and then with you, you swoop in and buy the place? And then make me come here so you can rub my nose in it? You don’t think that’s being cruel?”

He’d had enough. With great purpose, Sawyer strode over to her and took her in his arms and kissed her like he’d been dreaming of doing ever since she’d walked out on him. Regan fought him for just a moment, but then seemed to melt against him. When her arms went up around his neck, Sawyer finally felt like there was hope.

He slanted his mouth over hers again and again, reacquainting himself with the feel of her, the taste of her. “I missed you so damn much,” he said against her throat as he kissed his way down to her collarbone and then back again. There was so much more he wanted to say, but she pulled his mouth back to hers for another hungry kiss. It didn’t take long for her to align her body to his and she seemed to be doing her best to get as close to him as she possibly could without stripping.

With more strength than Sawyer actually felt, he broke the kiss and held Regan away from him. “I didn’t do this to be cruel to you, Regan. I did this for you. For us.”

She looked at him with confusion. “I…I don’t understand.”

“You once said to me that you couldn’t buy this house because you were old-fashioned and most men were intimidated by a woman who not only owned her own business but her own home. Well, I’m old-fashioned, too. I believe a man should provide for his wife by putting food on the table, taking care of the bills, making sure she knows she is loved and provided for and…gives her a roof over her head.” He pointed upward. “I wanted to provide you with this particular roof.”

It took a moment for his words to sink in. “You bought this house…for…me? For us?”

“Regan, from the moment I met you, I knew you were everything I ever wanted and yet never dreamed I’d have. You’ve made me laugh, you’ve made me happy, and you’ve made me mad as hell, but most of all, you made me feel loved. I never thought I’d fall in love with anybody, but one look at you? One touch of your hand and I was lost. I’ve loved you for a long time, and I know I should have said it way before now, but I didn’t want to scare you off. There never seemed to be the right time, and I see now that there were hundreds of times that would have been the right time, but I was too stupid to see them. I love you. I pray that you love me too, because I don’t think I can keep going without you being back in my life.”

“I’ve loved you for a long time, too,” she finally said. “That’s why what Devin said hurt so much. He made me doubt what we had. I kept thinking you were a guy who hosted a TV show who had to act a lot as part of your job. I was afraid that seducing me was part of the act.”

Sawyer cupped her face in his hands. “Sweetheart, what I felt for you from the moment you walked in the room in that spangly black T-shirt and shook my hand was one hundred percent real. If I could have taken you back to my hotel that night, I would have. I was ready to walk away from this job, but the thought of doing that and never seeing you again was something I was not prepared to do. I wanted to get to know you and for you to see me as who I am and not as the host of a TV show or the guy who was tearing up your family home. I just wanted you to see me as a man.”

“Oh, believe me, I did,” she admitted with a shy smile. “I didn’t want to like you, but I couldn’t seem to stay away from you.” Regan stepped back into his embrace and held on tight. “I’ve missed you, too.”

“I know you said you had plans tonight, but maybe, if it’s possible, you can cancel them and we can order some takeout and just talk. I’d like to talk about our future, Regan. I finally realized what I want to do with the rest of my life and I want it to start now. I don’t want to rush you, but I need you to know that I’m serious and I’m not looking for a roommate or someone to sleep with. I want a wife, a lover, someone to have children with, and I want that with you.”

“Well then, this is your lucky day. I happen to be off all weekend because I’m trying to put into motion the plans for my future, and a husband, a lover, and someone to have babies with are on my wish list.”

Sawyer smiled down at her, his eyes shining bright with love for her. “We’ve always been on the same page.”

Regan nodded. “Then we must be meant to be.”

“You know it.” Taking her by the hand, Sawyer walked them back to the yard so he could show her his plans for a pergola and a fire pit area, before pulling out his cell phone to order Chinese food.