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“Just one more thing and we’ll leave you to talk.” He returned his attention to Guy. “Son, your sister was horribly wrong but everyone involved has forgiven her due to the extenuating circumstances. I must admit that the only reason for what I’m about to say is my own need to hear the words that have been bouncing around my head spoken out loud and your eyes show me that we’re in complete agreement on this, Guy.” He paused for effect before facing Tori. “Please let me express my extreme gratitude for single-handedly standing up to those men to save my granddaughter.”

“I didn’t… I mean… It wasn’t me,” Tori protested.

“Yes, yes, I know there were plenty of other people involved. But you, young lady, were the only one in the room with Sarah at the crucial moment. And, as I understand it, you were the only one to recognize the house from your dream. As my son-in-law freely admits, without you, our Sarah would have been taken from us. Again, I thank you from the bottom of my heart, as does the rest of my family.”

“You’re welcome,” Tori responded, blushing hotly.

“My point, son, is that any woman brave enough to put herself in the direct line of fire as Tori did is reason enough to keep her by your side. Add in the fact that she loves you enough to—”

“No. Wait,” Tori gasped as she tried to shrink away.

“Sh.” He tightened the fingers on her shoulder to hold her in place. “Let an old man finish.”

“You’re hardly old,” Tori declared, surprising them all.

After a pleased chuckle, he continued. “As I was saying, the added fact that this utterly charming woman loves you enough to selflessly sacrifice her own heart so that you’re not forced to chose between her and the family that you hold dear makes her someone you should devote your life to making feel as special as you know she is.”

“That’s been part of my plan from the beginning, Dad,” Guy stated.

“Never doubted it for a minute.” He grinned. “I’m sure Guy can handle the rest without us.” He waved Terese and Todd from the room. “Tori, life is too short and precious to waste any of it hiding from fear of the unknown. Yes, sometimes you get the wrong directions and end up far away from your intended destination. Sometimes smooth roads become so rocky it seems like you’re being bounced into a million pieces and every bit of you aches so painfully you would almost prefer to die than live like that for one more second. But sometimes a detour will take you exactly where you always wanted to be and then you’ll realize that the rest of the journey isn’t worth remembering.”

“Dad.” Guy feared that he’d drift into metaphor after metaphor now that he’d gotten started. “Please.”

“Ah, yes.” He grinned sheepishly. “I’ll leave you to it. Everyone will understand if you don’t join us, so please do what’s best for the two of you but, if you decide to leave, just call your mother so she doesn’t worry.”

“Okay,” Guy agreed without taking his eyes off Tori. “And, Dad, in case you start to worry, I haven’t forgotten any of the wisdom you shared with me over the years in this very room.”

“That’s my boy.” He chuckled all the way out of the garage.

“Hey,” Guy said softly when Tori fidgeted without looking at him. “You okay?”

“Honestly,” she raised her gaze to his, “I don’t have a clue. One minute, I was standing in my kitchen and the next, I was the main attraction of a three-ring circus and I have no idea of how I got there.”

Guy couldn’t contain his laughter. “I did tell you that I was the mellow one.”

“Understatement of the century,” Tori announced. “Here I thought you were the Ultra Mega Alpha. Ha! You’re a cowering little weakling compared to that sister of yours. I mean, really! No wonder Todd doesn’t bat an eyelash at the thought of coming face-to-face with the meanest son of a bitch in the universe. But let me tell you, if she thinks she’s going to get away with any of her bullshit with me again, she’ll get the biggest surprise of her life because it ain’t gonna happen. Un-uh. No way. No how. Today was a one time and one time only deal and any negotiators who attempt to renew it will be shot on sight with a silver bullet before they are burned at the stake and have their ashes scattered across all the continents,” she paused to draw in a much-needed breath and noticed that Guy was laughing. “Oh, you think this is funny, do you? You think you’re going to get away with standing there and laughing like some damn hyena, well, you got another think coming too.”

“Stop. Tori. Please. No more. Wait,” he pleaded, snagging her arm when she tried to walk away from him. “Sorry.” He took a deep breath to eliminate the remaining chuckles. “I’m not laughing at you. Well, I am but not the way you think I am.”

“Gee, that makes it so much better,” she said sarcastically. “Now if you’ll excuse me, I’ll be going.”

Guy released her arm but whispered, “Please don’t.”

“Why shouldn’t I?”

“For whatever reason you let yourself come here in the first place. I know my sister’s over the top but I know you too. Nothing she said or did would have gotten you here if you were determined not to come on an ordinary night. You’d throw yourself out of a moving car before you’d let her drag you here on tonight of all nights.”

Tori pondered his comments. “Yeah, so why were you laughing?”

“At first, I was imagining how impressed Dad would be if he’d heard you. Then, I pictured Todd trying to keep his face blank while you said all that to Terese. He’d be so proud of you for standing up for yourself that he’d want to cheer but trying to hide it from Terese so he didn’t get caught by the backlash. I was also trying to figure out the look Terese would have on her face but I’m sure I’m not even close because no one’s ever had the guts to fight back like you’re going to. You sure are the fiercest tiger cub. You growl like that once and you won’t have to again because we’ll all still be shaking in our boots.”

Tori shut her eyes and shook her head. “Would you just give it a rest already? I didn’t grab my boots.”

Guy rested his hands lightly on her shoulders. “Seriously, Tori. Are you okay? I would have stopped them if I’d known.”

“Yeah, I know that. I’m not entirely sure that I didn’t fall through a cosmic hole into an alternate dimension but I’m okay. Thanks for letting me vent like that.”

“Anytime.” One finger hovered under her chin so she couldn’t dip her head. “Will you please tell me why you’re here?”

“Do I have to?”

“No. You always have a choice, remember? But you’d make me very happy if you decided you wanted to tell me.”

“I…well, um…” she groaned and spun away because she couldn’t face him. “Damn, I suck at this, big-time.”

Guy moved to press his chest to her back and wrapped his arms around her waist. “No you don’t.” He kissed the top of her head. “You never had the right inspiration before. Now that you do, you’re going to be great. Give it a try. You’ll see.”

“As arrogant as ever,” Tori noted.

“Stating the truth has nothing to do with arrogance,” he replied. While he waited for Tori to decide if she would talk about the important things with him, Guy gently massaged her shoulders. He had felt tension radiating from her the instant he spotted her beside his father.

“Mm, so good,” she purred, dropping her head forward.

“Glad to be of service, ma’am.” She chuckled. “Please tell me what happened today. I know what the others said but I still want to hear your version.”

Tori went rigid for a brief flash but Guy’s hands continued their magic and it went as fast as it came. “I really was at the sink when someone pounded on the door. Really hard and impatiently so I thought it was you. I’m pretty sure I stood there with my mouth hanging open like an imbecile when it turned out to be your sister. I didn’t even have enough sense to ask her in. She had to do that on her own. She said she didn’t want to bother me so she got right to the point. It was just like she told you, Lita told Todd she’d seen me going up the basement steps. They figured out I’d overheard her yelling at you and she wanted to set things straight. She asked if we’d still be involved if I hadn’t heard her.”

“You said yes?”

She nodded.

“There’s more.”

She nodded again.

“The reason you let her bring you here.”

Another nod.

“The part I most want to hear and the thing you least want to talk about.”

Silence.

“I’ll drive you home.”

“Wait.” Tori wrapped her arms around her waist and seemed very small.

“All right. If that’s what you want.” He returned his hands to her shoulders.

“Guy,” her voice shook. “I’m sorry.”

“For what?”

“Running away instead of talking to you.”

“Thank you.” Guy tried to keep the pressure even to hide his surprise. “You would have explained what was going on eventually.”

“I’m not sure I would have.”

“I am. We may not have been together very long and yes, the circumstances that got us there were all wrong but what we had was more than a simple reaction to the moment. That night, when I got to your house, were you really sleeping?”

“No.”

“Then you know I stood in your doorway and watched you. Could you sense how much I wanted to hold you?”

“Yes. It was so hard not to ask you to.”

“When Todd told me that he and Ned picked up their equipment, he mentioned that he tried to get you to talk to him. I mean more than just to tie up the loose ends. You haven’t done that yet.”

“No.” She gulped to prevent the tears that were forming. “You’re the only person I could do that with and I couldn’t ask you.”

“Why not? I offered. You know I would have listened.”

“That’s why I couldn’t ask. We would have been alone. I would have fallen apart and you would have held me. It feels so good when you hold me. I’m not sure I would have been able to make myself let go. If I’d told you I wanted you to stay, you would have. Then you’d have ended up lying to your family and keeping me a secret or having to choose between me and them, since I’m sure your other sisters would have sided with Terese. If you picked me, you’d wind up hating me and if you picked them it would have destroyed me even worse than telling you I didn’t want you did.”

“Dad was right. You were sacrificing your heart for me.”

“I’m sorry.”

“Sh, don’t cry.” Guy turned her and held her to his chest. “Don’t be sorry for taking care of me like that.”

“No.” She shoved against him until there was some space between them and wiped her eyes. “That’s not it. After,” she took a deep breath, “after I told Terese she was right about why I shut you out she asked me something else.”

“Okay.” Guy felt a little lost. “Your answer is what you’re apologizing for?”

“Yes.” She dropped her chin to her chest.

Guy used a finger to tip it back up to face him. “You can’t stop now. What was the question?”

Tori searched his eyes and found tenderness and patience. He deserved to hear it from her. She’d already hurt him enough. If he learned of the rest of her conversation with Terese from someone else, he’d be tremendously disappointed with her.

“She asked if I loved you,” Tori whispered in a small voice that was barely audible.

“And?” Guy coaxed her to continue.

“And I said yes.” She burst into fresh tears. “I’m so sorry.”

Guy’s first reaction was to shout with joy and cover her face with kisses as he swept her off her feet. Her repeated apology stopped him before he moved. “You’re sorry you told Terese you loved me because you really don’t or you’re sorry you love me?”

“Yes. No. Oh hell.” Tori rested her forehead against his chest. “See? I still suck. I’m worse.”

Guy rubbed her back and waited. “You do not suck and you are not worse. If you were, you’d be home with Harry, missing me and I’d be here alone, absolutely miserable without you. I don’t want to push you but I really would like you to explain this to me. Right now, you have me out here on a very tiny limb and it’s breaking. I don’t know if I’m going to fall onto the jagged rocks at the bottom of the cliff or if you’re going to reach out and save my life.”

Tori struggled for control and lifted her head. “I’m sorry that I answered Terese. I shouldn’t have told her. Not before I told you.”

This time Guy did pull her against his chest, lifting her feet off the floor. He spun her around several times, laughing happily. Eventually, he stopped and stood her back on her feet. His hands framed her face as his smile covered his whole face. “I already knew you love me. You didn’t have to say it for me to know. Don’t apologize.”

“But, Guy.” She frowned.

He kissed her loudly. “You don’t even know what you did, do you?” Another noisy kiss. “Christ, you’re incredible.”

“Wait. Stop.” She squirmed.

He lowered his hands to her shoulders and forced himself to calm down. “You told Terese because you knew she’d take over and bring you to me. You wanted to be with me but you were afraid to say so because you thought I might reject you, to hurt you the way you think telling me there was nothing between us hurt me. I won’t deny that hearing you say that didn’t affect me. It did hurt but not the way you think it did. It hurt because it meant you were isolating yourself at a time when you needed me to help you deal with what happened at Todd’s. When I needed to be with you to believe you were truly safe.

“Believe it or not, Tori, I knew you loved me long before you did. You fought against yourself because you were scared to let me in. You were afraid to trust your feelings because every other time you put them out there they got shredded and tossed back in your face. You would have let yourself take a chance with me eventually but then Terese barged in. She presented you with an opportunity that meant you wouldn’t have to wait to be ready on your own and you took it. You knew once we were together that I’d help you with the rest.” Guy felt his heart swell but tried to hold back because Tori still looked uncertain. “Tell me, did you actually say the words to Terese or did you just agree with her?”

“She asked if I loved you and I nodded my head.”

“So you didn’t specifically tell her anything. You haven’t really told anyone yet.”

“Oh,” Tori gasped. Her eyes went wide and her face turned bright red as she stared up into his encouraging gaze. “Guy.”