“But what happens if they need me to start right away?”

His grip slackens, his mouth turning down at the corners so infinitesimally that I almost miss it.

“Then we’ll figure something out,” he says quietly. “Worse comes to worst…You’re not the only contractor out there. I’m sure we can find someone to finish up for you.”

His casual tone makes my gut clench; how can he be so cavalier about me leaving after everything? Doesn’t he care?

“So, you’re just…fine,” I say. “With my leaving.”

Hunter looks down at his hand resting over mine, his features still neutral, but his eyes…Sad, I think. They look sad. Or maybe that’s simply me projecting.

“No,” he admits. “I’m not fine. The thought of you leaving makes me feel like I’m being turned inside out, if I’m honest.”

“Then maybe I can—”

“But,” he cuts in, not letting me finish. “This is something you’ve wanted for a long time, from what I’ve gathered. You’ve worked so hard for this. You deserve this, Tess—and I won’t be the one to stand in your way. Plus, think of your dad. He needs you too.”

“But what about—” I swallow around the growing lump in my throat, feeling my eyes sting. “What about everything that’s happened?”

He smiles at me gently, reaching to cup my cheek. “Sweetheart…We shared a heat together. It was intense. I’m sure that even now you’re feeling the effects of it. But you won’t always feel this way. In a few days…a week, maybe…you’ll feel normal again. You won’t feel like you need to be right here beside me at all times. And I can’t let you even consider throwing away such an amazing opportunity for someone you barely know.”

“But…”

“It’s not the end of the world,” he says, nodding his head as if to assure himself. “Maybe…maybe when you find the time you can call me.”

I choke out a watery laugh. “On that ancient thing you carry around?”

“It gets the job done,” he chuckles.

“So…that’s it then,” I say. “I just…call you when I can?”

It feels too paltry for what we’ve shared, not nearly meaningful enough to encapsulate the bliss of this last week. Or all the weeks since I’ve met him, really. Because if I’m being honest with myself, I think a part of me has been drawn to him from the start. And maybe that’s biology or hormones or whatever else you want to call it—but I feel it, whatever it is. This connection between us.

Doesn’t he feel it too?

“Tess…” He sighs. “You cannot let these past few days with me uproot everything you’ve worked for, do you understand?” His jaw tenses. “I won’t let you. Not for this place. Certainly not for me.”

There’s a large part of me that wants to argue, that wants to scream at him for so easily tossing me aside, but deep down…I know he’s right. I can’t throw everything away just because of one amazing week. I can’t do that to my brothers. Hell, I can’t do that to myself.

It’s only that something inside me is saying that if I leave here—if I leave him behind and chase after my dream—I’ll never see him again. Why does that thought terrify me so much?

“Then…I guess I’ll go pack my stuff,” I say softly, the lump in my throat swelling to epic proportions.

Hunter nods. “Probably a good idea.”

It takes all my willpower to pull my face from the cradle of his hands, then even more to drag myself from the table, leaving him sitting there looking so forlorn and lost that everything in me wants to run back and ask him to beg me to stay. But I know I can’t do that, and I know he wouldn’t even if I asked.

So I leave him there, alone, wondering if I’m walking toward my future or leaving it behind me.

By the time I’ve called back Heidi at HGTV to confirm I got her email about booking me a flight and packed up my stuff, I’ve gone way past downhearted. I’m miserable, desolate—I’m downright morose. Hunter hasn’t so much as checked on me while I prepare to leave. Heidi sent over my flight details, which have me flying out in five hours, meaning Thomas and I have to be heading to Denver in less than one. So I have just over half an hour to figure out how to say goodbye to the guy who’s wormed his way under my skin after spending the last few hours of my heat with him only this morning.

How do you just hug someone goodbye after everything we’ve done this week? How do I look him in the eye and tell him I’ll call him after he held me for days on end? Is it even possible to get through something like that unscathed?

I zip up my suitcase, realizing I’m about to find out.

“Thomas said you’re leaving soon.”

I jolt at the sound of his voice, then turn to find the man in question leaning against my doorframe, filling the space like he owns it. His arms are crossed over his chest, one ankle resting against the other, and he looks so goddamn delectable right now that I want to unzip my suitcase, spill all my stuff onto the floor, and declare that I’m never leaving.

“Yeah,” I manage. “Pretty quick.”

Ask me not to go, I think desperately. Ask me to stay.

Would I? I wonder. I know deep down that I can’t—that my dad needs me too much for me to even consider it—so why do I still want him to ask?

“Your brothers are confident they can get the rest of the floor stained before tomorrow, at least,” he tells me.

I nod dumbly. “That’s…good.”

“I really appreciate you doing this for me,” he says.

“It was nothing,” I urge. “I wanted to help.” That lump in my throat is a cantaloupe now; it’s a fucking Fall Fest pumpkin. “He’s going to ask about how this place started; you don’t have to mention your parents, but if you’re comfortable doing so, it would add a human element to your story—but only if you’re comfortable. You should tell him about all the work you’re doing on the lodge. I’ve got Kyle writing you up a list of the remaining projects as talking points. And if you get stuck, just—” I catch the way he’s looking at me, a sort of wistful smile at his mouth. “What?”

“Nothing, it’s nothing,” he says, looking down at his feet. His lips curve upward, but his smile doesn’t meet his eyes. “I just miss when you kept saying ‘we.’ ”

The organ in my chest feels like it’s in a vise. Like all the air in my lungs has whooshed out at once. “I could still stay,” I start. “I could talk to Heidi, and I could—”

“No,” he says gently. “You can’t.”

My eyes sting, traitorous tears collecting there. I can feel something like anger brewing in my belly, and I can’t be sure if it’s directed at his aloof demeanor or the situation as a whole.

“Just like that, huh? It’s that easy?”

He frowns. “I told you it wasn’t easy.”

“Yeah, well.” I plop down on the bed, shoving my socked foot into my boot. “Could have fooled me.”

“That’s not fair,” he says.

I scoff. “Well, I don’t think it’s very fair that this morning you were touching me the way you were and now you’re shoving me out the door.”

“What do you want me to say, Tess?” His voice has taken on a slightly harder edge. “That I don’t want you to go? What the hell would that accomplish? We both knew this had an end date. We both knew that you were going to leave once you wrapped this up, one way or another.”

My mouth drops open. “Now who’s being unfair?”

“I’m starting to figure out that life isn’t fair,” he says bitterly.

“Why does it feel like you’re pushing me away?”

“Because deep down…you know there’s nothing for you here. You have this whole big life to live, important things to do, and that doesn’t involve some dingy little lodge in some nowhere town.”

He doesn’t say it with malice. No, his voice actually sounds fond. Like it’s a joke between the two of us now.

“It’s more than just some dingy little lodge,” I tell him. “And you are too. But you have to realize that. I can’t fight to make this work if you don’t want it to.”