Love Redesigned (Lakefront Billionaires #1) by Lauren Asher

She stares out the window. “I’m moving back to San Francisco in January for my new show.”

I’m aware, seeing as I spent the last few hours in a jail cell processing the fact.

But what are you going to do about it?

Somehow, in a short span of time, I went from planning the rest of my life in Lake Wisteria to putting everything on the line for the woman beside me. Because if Dahlia wants to move back to San Francisco, then I plan on going with her, and no amount of cons in the world will stop me.

I reach for her clenched hand. “When we break the news to my mom about moving, do me a favor and tell her you’re in love with me. It’ll help soften the blow.”

Her cloudy eyes tug at something in my chest. “You can’t seriously be considering moving.”

“I am.”

“But what about your company?”

“Turns out I’d rather build a home with you than a thousand houses by myself.”

She turns away with a sniffle.

I cup her chin and turn her head toward me. “What part of I’m falling in love with you are you not understanding?”

“The part where you give up your whole life here for me.”

“Life without you is hardly considered a life at all, so I’m not giving up anything by following you to San Francisco.”

“No, but by being with me, you’d be giving up the chance at having your own family.” She stares at her lap like it holds the secrets of the world.

“Is that what this is really about?”

Her face remains blank, but the vein in her neck throbs.

Why didn’t you consider that sooner?

“You think I’ll regret being with you because you can’t have kids of your own?”

“I know you will because it’s already happened once before.”

“I already told you I don’t want to have kids that way.”

She shakes her head. “This isn’t the first time I’ve heard someone tell me that.”

I could find a hundred different ways to tell her I care enough to choose her, but none of them matter unless I find a way to show her.

Pro: She could find my list romantic.

Con: She may reject me anyway after I reveal one of my biggest secrets.

Shut up and show her.

I pull out my phone and open the note-taking app. “Here.”

She grabs it from me and reads over the first few lines of text. “You’ve been working on a pro-con list about me?”

I nod.

“Pro: She sucks at chess. Seriously?” Her nose scrunches.

“Not my fault you started every single game with the queen’s pawn opening. Change it up every now and then.”

She returns to the list. “Pro: I like her enough to attend Stanford too.” She looks at me for a few seconds without blinking. “You chose Stanford because of me?”

“Yes. You liked California, and I liked you, so it made sense.”

She shakes her head in disbelief. “How long have you been working on this?”

“Since sometime after you started competing for the Strawberry Sweetheart pageant.”

She blinks. “That was over a decade ago.”

“I’m aware.”

“But why?”

“Informed decision-making is my thing.”

She scrolls through the list while mumbling to herself. “There are things listed here that I don’t do anymore.”

I know. Unfortunately, I inherited my appreciation for nostalgia from my mother, and I have never been able to outgrow it, which is the only reason why I could never delete the list no matter how many times I tried.

After a few more minutes, she reaches the bottom of the note. “You only have one negative.”

Con: She may never love me back.

“Little by little, your cons annoyingly started making their way over to the pros column.”

Her laugh comes out like a half sob. “That’s ridiculous.”

“No, Dahlia, that’s love.”

“You agreed to a casual relationship knowing your feelings might never be reciprocated?” Disbelief colors her voice.

“Yes.”

“Why?”

“Some people are worth the risk.”

Her bottom lip wobbles.

“Life without you was a series of pros and cons. Risks and rewards. Black and white with very few shades of gray. But then you came back and flipped a switch inside me, flooding my world with color after a ten-year blackout, and I don’t plan on giving that up. Not now. Not ever.”

Tears pool near her lash line.

“You might not believe my words now, but I won’t stop until you do. So go ahead and try to push me away, but you already know based on our history that I will stop at nothing to prove you wrong.”





CHAPTER FORTY-FIVE


Julian


The trip to Dahlia’s is a quiet one. She spends most of it staring out the window, while I stay focused on the road. Despite the urge to check in with her, I hold back and stay silent, not wanting to add to her distress.

It’s not until I pull up to her house that she finally speaks up, surprising me.

“I’m sorry.”

I blink rapidly. “What are you—”

“I know you’re a good guy—possibly the best guy I’ve ever met—even if you drive me crazy.” She twists one of her rings. “Your list. God. I can’t believe you spent over a decade working on that.”