Chapter 22: Stay

Tony stood on my porch at six that evening with a duffel bag over his shoulder.

He looked like he had slept in his car.

He probably had.

"They voted," he said.

"I read your text."

"I wanted to say it to your face."

He set the bag down.

"My father said I'd made the company a headline. He said I could have handled it quietly, in a lawyer's office."

"What did you say?"

"That I'd do it again, tomorrow, in front of more people."

"And the vote?"

"Eight to one. I keep my shares. I don't keep the desk."

He tried to smile and almost managed it.

I looked at him standing in the porch light, tall, tired, with sawdust still on his cuffs.

He had cost himself the company he grew up to run.

He had done it in front of a hundred and twenty people.

He had never once asked me to pay him back for it.

"I'm not here to assume anything," Tony said. "I'm here to say two things."

"Say them."

"I'm sorry about the six weeks. I sat at your anniversary dinner and watched him toast you."

His voice was level.

"I should have told you that night. I used you before I trusted you, and you were right to be angry."

"I was."

"The second thing is that rule two is dead, but only if you say so."

He met my eyes.

"If you want me to go, I'll go. You can say no to me, Valeria, tonight and any night."

I took the duffel off the porch and carried it inside.

He stood on the mat and didn't follow.

"Come in," I said. "Stay."

"You said nobody stays the night."

"I'm overruling it."

He stepped through the door, and I shut it, and locked it, and put my hands flat on his chest.