He said the next part slowly the way he said things when they mattered. I know that a man who trades away the one thing that's real in his life for the sake of arrangements and agreements is not building something worth keeping. He's just managing it. My father managed. He said he managed brilliantly and it cost him everything except the land.
I've been watching that my whole life and I've been wondering when I'd have the guts to do it differently. He stepped closer. I am not going to trade you for a grazing agreement, Amelia. I need you to hear that and stop leaving space in your thinking for that possibility. Her throat tightened.
She kept her voice level by force of habit. It's not just the grazing agreement. It's all of it. Every person in this town who has an opinion, every door that will be less open, every I know, he said. I know every single version of this argument.
I've heard them all, some from you and some from Victoria Harrington and a great many from my father at significant volume. He paused. And I'm telling you all of them that I have heard the argument and I have considered it and my answer is still no. She looked at him, at his face, which was the most honest face she had ever looked at, and at his eyes, which were holding hers with the absolute stillness she had come to know as the truest version of him. "You're infuriating," she said with a sudden raw simplicity that surprised them both.
"So, I've been told," he said. "I came here to give you an exit," she said. "I know you did. I had the whole thing worked out." The graceful converse decision. Very practical.
Very very you, he said. Yes, she said. Very me. And you ruined it. He reached out and took her hand.
Not dramatically. Not with any of the careful formality they had maintained for months. Just took her hand like it was a simple thing. Amelia, he said. I would like to take you to the founders's celebration.
She blinked. Of all the things she had expected him to say in this moment, it was not that as she stopped. What exactly? As the woman I intend to marry, he said if she'll have me. The morning was very bright and very quiet.