Page 90 of Mountain Target

He looked at her then, his gruff face almost translucent with pain.

“Leaving you alone in the water was the hardest thing I’ve ever done in my life,” he admitted. “If you’d died—“

“I didn’t. And you came back for me. So thank you. That’s all I wanted to say.”

A muscle twitched behind his jaw. He went down next to the seat she’d chosen, and even crouching down, he was taller than her, so she had to raise her eyes to look into his. Gray eyes that were so hard to read right now.

“I need to tell you something,” he began, his Adam’s apple bobbing up and down. “And you don’t need to answer anything. Just listen to me. Please.”

“Okay,” she said, her throat suddenly so dry it was hard to get that single word out.

“If what you’re feeling is gratitude, you should know you don’t owe me anything. Being there when you and Ren needed help was—“ He paused for an instant, as if looking for the right word. “It was something I’ll always be glad I was able to do. But that has nothing to do with what I need to tell you.”

“It doesn’t?”

He shook his head. “The only thing I regretted yesterday was not having told you what you mean to me.”

Val’s head turned, and she prayed she wasn’t misunderstanding.

“Then tell me,” she said. “I need to hear you say it.”

“I love you, Valentina. I’ve loved you for a long time, even when I wasn’t brave enough to admit it.”

Her heart swelled.

“I just wanted you to know.”

His voice was rough but his eyes looked soft, and even though he was saying he didn’t need her to say anything, she could see how much he was hoping she would.

And it would be so easy to lean forward and press her lips to his. To tell him that she loved him, too. But things weren’t that simple—her life wasn’t that simple.

Because she could read between the lines. Just one day earlier, she’d asked him where they were going. He had an answer now. She just didn’t know if she was in a position to make that kind of decision herself.

Beau

“I want to say something as well,” she said, the look in her hazel eyes unreadable.

Beau rocked back slightly to stop himself from touching her. Because that wouldn’t be fair. She’d done him the courtesy of listening to him, he could listen to her without groping her.

And if she doesn’t feel the same—

If she didn’t feel the same, he would deal with it.

But he wouldn’t make her feel bad about it.

No matter what.

“It depends,” she finally said.

“It depends?”

“That would be my answer, if you were to ask me what I feel for you.”

Beau swallowed the ball of hurt in his throat.

Her hand moved to grip his tightly. “It depends. Because if you ask me as a woman, then yes, I love you. I love you, Beau, so much it hurts. But right now, that’s not who I am. I’m Ren’s guardian, and that’s my most important role in life. I’m not going to let her lose anything else.”

He felt his heart breaking.