Page 104 of Trusting Mr. Sterling
Lucy turned her back on him.
Devney appeared at her elbow with Ronan’s arm in hers.
“Speech time,” she said. “Everyone’s waiting.”
Gabriel stepped to the front of the room with her hand in his.
“Thank you all for coming. Most of you know the story. Some of you saw the video. A few of you still have screenshots saved for blackmail purposes.”
Laughter moved through the room.
Ronan raised his glass in acknowledgment.
“What the video didn’t show is what happened after. The conversation. The choice. The decision to build something new instead of running from what scared us.”
He looked at her, and she couldn’t stop the tightening in her throat.
“I spent years convincing myself that avoiding love was the right choice. That if I didn’t let anyone close, I couldn’t lose them. I destroyed The Oath because I don’t believe that anymore. I tore down the old rules without building new ones.”
He raised his glass.
“The best thing I ever did was stop running from it. To Tessa. For taking a chance on me. For calling me an idiot when Ideserve it. For building a life with me that’s better than anything I could’ve imagined alone.”
“To Tessa,” the room echoed.
She kissed him. Brief and public and absolutely perfect.
“Your turn,” he said.
“My turn?”
“Speech. Go.”
She turned to the crowd and took a breath.
“I wasn’t supposed to fall in love with Gabriel Sterling. He represented everything I had spent my life proving I didn’t need. Money, status, and an effortless privilege that made people like me feel smaller.”
Gabriel’s throat visibly tightened.
“But Gabriel isn’t effortless. He’s the opposite. He overthinks, over-plans, and over-organizes everything in his life. He color-codes his calendar. He once sent a woman a spreadsheet of optimal date options.”
“That was efficient,” Gabriel said.
“That was insane,” she said. “It was also honest. Because Gabriel Sterling, for all his control and planning, is the most genuinely authentic person I’ve ever met. He doesn’t know how to be anything other than exactly who he is.”
The room went quiet.
“When I found The Oath, that stupid piece of paper he kept in his drawer, I thought it proved he was still the scared boy who walked away from me. It didn’t. It proved he was brave enough to admit he had been wrong, brave enough to tear it up in public, and brave enough to choose love even when it terrified him.”
She turned to him.
“So here’s my speech. I love you. I trust you. And I can’t wait to spend the rest of my life with you.”
He pulled her close.
“Even though I can only cook salmon, eggs, and frozen pizza?”
“You learned the salmon to impress me. And don’t forget the pasta. That’s enough.”
