He wouldn’t blame her if she rejected him. She might not want him anymore. It had been two weeks since he’d left. Two weeks when he’d pretended that she was nothing and he wouldn’t come back to GC.
“Are you going to just stand up here like a creeper?” Dash asked coming up next to him on the balcony.
“Fuck off.”
“No. That’s not happening anymore. I’ve let you keep everyone at bay with your reputation and gruffness but that stops now. You’re not that man. I’m not sure that you ever were.”
“I beat a man in this very house,” he reminded his cousin.
“To avenge my sister. Con, you were never the monster that Grandfather painted you as. He thought he saw himself in you, but the truth is you aren’t him. You never were.” Dash pulled him back from the edge and hugged him.
He hugged his cousin back. “I’m not sure you’re right. I hurt Indy and all she did was ask me to be real with her.”
“You were protecting her,” Dash said.
“Yes. I just don’t want anyone else I love to be hurt.”
“Who else have you let down?”
“Well Rory. I should have gotten to her sooner,” Conrad said.
“It’s easy to look at that night now and try to reconstruct it, but she was headstrong and wanted to date Declan. Nothing either of us said would have stopped her from being young and enjoying the ball. The one to blame is Declan who didn’t listen when she said no. I wish that weren’t the truth. But you’re not to blame for what happened.”
“I am a lot like the old man,” Conrad said at last.
“The old man would never have thought to throw a gala to win back his woman.”
“She likes these kinds of big gestures,” Conrad said. He’d realized that the only way he was going to have a chance at getting Indy back was to return to Gilbert Corners and become part of the town she loved.
This was the hardest thing he’d ever had to do, but Indy was worth it. It had been hard to convince the Main Street Business Alliance to agree to a gala up here at the manor and keep his involvement quiet from Indy. But he had wanted the entire night to be a surprise for her. Magical, like she’d thought the ballroom was on that long ago afternoon.
So he’d done it. He was opening a restaurant in town in the next six months, and he had talked Ophelia into using some of the space in the old factory as a filming studio for hisBeast’s Lairshow and had made space for Indy’sHometown, Home Again show to have production space as well. But that all meant nothing if Indy didn’t forgive him and take him back.
He knew she cared about him. But second chances weren’t something that many people gave when it came to relationships. Would she take a chance on him again?
Hell.
He was going to have to leave the balcony and see if she’d come to the party.
Two weeks passed, and as Labor Day weekend approached, Indy gave up all hope of Conrad coming back to Gilbert Corners. The Main Street Business Alliance was happy with the increase in foot traffic to the town. The old factory was going to be opening up again as a combined retail and entertainment space, which made everyone happy.
In fact, the town of Gilbert Corners was on its way to becoming everything that Indy had thought she wanted. Well, she still wanted it, but she wasn’t enjoying it. And tonight felt even worse because she had been invited to a formal charity gala at Gilbert Manor. She hadn’t been back there since her weekend with Conrad.
It was hard not to see him everywhere she went. It wasn’t like he’d been in her shop but still, she saw him there, imagined his broad shoulders filling the doorway. In fact, every time the bell tinkled and the door opened, she glanced up with some hope in her heart that he’d come back.
But he hadn’t.
He wasn’t a man to do things halfway. When he’d walked out the door, that was it. She knew it. He’d given her back her hope and her confidence as a woman. She could now look back on dating Wayne and see that she’d used him to hide from having to trust again. She’d called her old boyfriend and thanked him for giving her that. He admitted he hadn’t known what to do but had wanted to help her. And Indy appreciated that.
It was only after being with Conrad that she could see how she’d been so focused on the pain and stuck in her fear to really move on. But it was also Gilbert Corners and Nola’s friendship that had helped heal her.
“We don’t have to go,” Nola said as they both were sharing the mirror in the bathroom at the bookshop.
Indy leaned in to put on her eyeliner. “I feel like since it’s a thank-you for getting Conrad to come here, I can’t not go.”
“Yeah, I guess. Not that it did much good.”
She shook her head in the mirror and turned to face her friend. “It did so. You don’t have to be mad at him because he doesn’t want a relationship with me.”