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"I understand," she said quietly, thinking that she loved him more at that moment than she ever had before He was so sincere and devoted to them There was no question in her mind he would be that ith her, too, if she would let hi an idea out there"

"I’ll do whatever you need me to," Macy said to him "I feel awful about this"

Brian frowned at her "Wait a second What were you doing here?"

"Can I plead the Fifth on that? For now, at least? I wasn’t vandalizing anything, honest"

Candace grinned "Yeah, except maybe for Gh-- Ow!"

He couldn’t believe she was here Any second now, he expected to wake up with his face s finally succumbed to exhaustion But so far it hadn’t happened She was here and she’d just told hi to hear for weeks

And she was asking hi with it

He couldn’t make a decision about that now, because it wasn’t only his to make As he’d told her, it was about all his artists who’d busted their asses for weeks helping hiet this place cleaned up, who hadn’t deserted hiued cases all day long and then shown up here in the evenings, taking tiet dirty with them It was about Kara and Marco, whose equip There hadn’t been ti care of that in the next few days

But on the flip side, it was also about Candace, whom he’d realized he lovedher what she needed to be happy and stable and to balance the scales in her life

Macy had left them alone Candace sat in the extra chair in the office while he perched on the corner of his desk, letting his gaze roaht in every strand Downturned blue eyes, as if she was too shy to aze now that they were alone with their intied every detail of her, frohtly accelerated rise and fall of her shoulders as she breathed to the pulse ju so, so faintly in her throat He wanted to put his ue Feel it race as he touched her

Without a conscious thought to do so, he went down on his knees in front of her, grasping both her hands If she wouldn’t look up at him, she could look down at hiht in the air between the so hard to touch so away from you has been…hell I could wax poetic and tell you it’s been like being torn away fro a shard of my heart, but in the end it’s been absolute tors if I’m not with you"

"I love you so much," she whispered "So many times I’ve wanted to break down and run to you, but I’ve been doing well I’m afraid…afraid to--"