by Toni Aleo
Flabbergasted, she yelled, “Everyone has debt, Karson!”
“Not me, I am completely debt free.”
She could only blink as she shook her head. “That’s insane. So you have no debt? And two million dollars sitting around?”
He shrugged. “Yeah.”
“What about your car?”
“Bought it off the lot. Cash.”
“What? That is ridiculous to me. I am, like, sixty grand in debt!” she yelled, her chest falling and rising every second.
Karson reached out, taking her in his arms, hoping to calm some of her freak-out. They really should have discussed this before they came to buy a house. But like anything else, they acted first and thought later. Setting her with a grin, he said, “Not anymore. When we are done here, we’ll go to the bank and put you on my account, and then you pay your debt off. I don’t like debt.”
“Karson, no, that’s crazy,” she said with a shake of her head. “It’s okay to have debt.”
“No, it’s not. You are my wife, and we will be debt free. I don’t want anything left behind if something happens to us. We don’t want to be like other people who fight to stay afloat. We are both successful. I want to be smart about this.”
Her eyes searched his, and he loved how perplexed she looked. With a grin, he asked, “What?”
“How much do you have?”
“A lot,” he answered. “I’ve been saving for the last nine years.”
“Why are you saving? Why aren’t you blowing money like a bachelor would? You should be broke. Just saying.”
He laughed and then skimmed his nose along hers. “Someone told me a long time ago that I wouldn’t be able to financially support the woman I love. I made sure that when that time came, I could.”
When the realization of what he was saying to her set in, her eyes clouded with tears as her lip wobbled before she tightened her arms around him. “My dad said that?”
“Yeah,” he said with a nod. “I wanted to make sure that when I got you back, no matter what, I could give you everything you wanted. And then if, God forbid, your cancer came back, I could pay for it all.”
Her eyes watered as her little lip continued to tremble. “I love you.”
His heart blew to smithereens in his chest as he held on to her. “I love you more, Lacey. Now tell me, do you want this house?”
She looked around the house and then met his gaze. “Does it feel like home to you?”
“Home is wherever you are, Lacey.”
Her mouth pulled up as she leaned into him. “Are you sure you want to spend that kind of money on this? Maybe we can find a smaller house.”
“No. Do you want this house?”
She bit into her lip as she searched his eyes. “I do love the office.”
“It’s big too,” he added. “I can have a man cave in the basement.”
“Yeah, and I love the kitchen.”
“Me too. You better believe you’ll be cooking for me in there.”
She laughed. “Or the other way around.”
“Sure,” he said with a nod. “The bedroom is nice. I could carpool with Shea if I needed to.”
“Yeah, and when your family or mine comes, they can stay here. It’s huge.”
“I know,” he said with a nod. “Say the words, Lacey, and it’s ours.”
He could feel her heart pounding against his chest. Her breathing was labored and he swore she’d never looked so beautiful. She looked good in this house, and Karson was convinced that this was it. He loved watching her walk around and ooh and aah over everything. He knew as soon as they pulled up that she loved it. She was just worried about the price, and he never wanted that to happen again. He would give her the world.
As long as he could buy it outright.
He wasn’t playing with the whole debt thing. He not only saved money like crazy for the reason he told her. But the reason he never had anything on credit was because when he was younger, his parents’ house had almost been foreclosed on. If it wasn’t for his grandma coming and paying off their debt, they would have lost the house. It was a really bad time for them, and Karson was scared that they wouldn’t come back from it. But in true King form, the family not only came back from that, they came back stronger, and Karl King never bought anything on credit ever again.
“I want it,” she said slowly, her shoulders coming up as she smiled innocently. “But if it is too—”
“Then it’s ours,” he said, interrupting her. “If you want it, then it’s ours. No matter the price. I’d give you the world, Lacey.”
Tears slowly rolled down her cheeks as her eyes shone with love. “So we are doing this? You are buying me this home?”
“No,” he said, shaking his head. “We are buying this home. It’s yours as much as it is mine.”
“This all seems so unreal,” she whispered against his lips. “How did I get so lucky?”
Running his lips along hers, he whispered, “I’ve asked myself that ever since I woke up beside you, and I have a feeling I’ll be asking that for the rest of my life. You are a dream come true, Mrs. King.”
Her face reddened and her lips touched his, and his eyes filled with tears as he held her close. He had been waiting for this moment his whole life. The moment he would buy a home with her. He had thought he would never see her again. Hold her again, kiss her, and show he how much he loved her. Like she said, this was all so unreal, but each step they took to solidify their love made it even realer. They were married, they were now buying a house, soon it would be time for a baby, and that alone had a tear leaking out the side of his eyes.
His dreams really were coming true.
All because of the beautiful blonde he held in his arms.
His forever.
Still on the high of his offering to buy her dream home, Lacey couldn’t stop grinning. She had always imagined her first home with her Karson and the beautiful Greek revival-style home was it. Her family’s house was big and ostentatious, and when she’d lost her mom, it wasn’t a home; it was a cold place that was her personal prison. When she moved out after college to her small little apartment, it sort of felt like home, but mostly because she was the one paying all the bills. When she got engaged to Ethan, he had a massive mansion that he was convinced she would love, but she did not like that house. She was hoping that she could convince him to sell it once they were married because she’d never wanted a big house. She had been there, done that and didn’t want to get lost in her own house. She wanted a home, somewhere that held all the love in the world, and also something she wouldn’t get lost in. Karson was giving her that.
He was giving her everything she could ever ask for.
Like he said they would, he put her on his account, and when she saw how much money he had, she almost fell onto the bank floor. Twenty-two million dollars. Karson had saved twenty-two million dollars over the last nine years.
That. Was. Insane.
And he acted like it was normal! Like it wasn’t a massively huge deal when it was. He said it would be more if he hadn’t bought a new truck and bought his parents a new home and then cars for them and his sister. That honestly stunned her. His generosity was beautiful, but still, she was completely and utterly speechless. She hadn’t seen that much money before, and now, she had it. Well, it was Karson’s, but he kept insisting that what was his was hers, which was completely insane. Most women would shit themselves and run to the nearest Jimmy Choo, but not Lacey. She had not even an inkling to spend it, but she had it and it scared her.
Holy. Shit. She was a millionaire.
“I don’t know about this,” she said, looking over her laptop at Karson. He was sitting on the couch with JT beside him, playing a game on the PlayStation 4. Surprisingly enough, JT wasn’t that bad once you got past the beard, the anger, and the masturbation. He was actually really nice and funny. He didn’t apologize for his little adventure on the couch, but he did say he didn’t mean to disrespect her, and she took that
as an apology. Karson had said that JT didn’t do well with new people and he wasn’t lying, but it was obvious that he cared about his friend enough to be nice to Lacey. She liked that and couldn’t help but like him.
“You idiot! Don’t shoot me. Shoot the bad guys!” Karson yelled, knocking his shoulders into JT. “What baby? Sorry,” he said, looking over her.
“You paused it!” JT complained.
“My wife is talking. Shut the hell up for a moment,” he shouted before looking back at Lacey. “Now, what, babe?”
JT grumbled something and Lacey smiled. “I said are you sure about this?”
“About what?”
“Paying all this,” she said, not wanting to tell JT what she was doing.
“Yeah, I don’t like debt,” he said for the umpteenth time that day.
“He doesn’t,” JT added. “Like at all, and he tries to make me get rid of mine. He’s weird.”
Karson nodded and then returned to his game. Lacey looked back down at her computer, staring at her credit card balance before clicking over to her loan with her bank and then her car loan and bit her lip. This was insane.
“I don’t know,” she said, her voice heavy with emotion. “This is crazy to me. It’s a lot of money, Karson.”
Pausing the game, he looked over at her as JT yelled, “Karson! Fuck! I was about to ruin that dude!”
“One second!” he yelled back before looking Lacey in the eye. “When I married you, I knew that it was for better or worse, sickness and health, richer or poorer. I wouldn’t have done that unless I loved you with all my heart. I trust you with everything inside me, and I want to have a good life, debt free, with you. Now, pay the shit off before I steal your computer and do it for you.”
“Damn,” JT drew out. “He told you.”
“Shut up, JT,” she said, glaring, but then met Karson’s gaze and her heart clenched in her chest. “Always so bossy.”
He smiled. “You just wait until we get in the bedroom later,” he said with a wink, making her body burn with lust.
“Don’t distract me with sex.”
“Mind-blowing sex, you mean,” he corrected and she laughed.
“You’re hopeless.”
“And you love me.”
“I do,” she agreed.
“For fuck’s sake, can we play or do I really have to sit through the Newlywed Show? Everyone knows you two are gaga for each other. Let’s play,” JT groaned. “Jesus.”
Karson smiled. “Pay it, Lacey, and if you want, deposit your savings into the business account and shut down your personal one since you have mine.”
“I gotta call the bank to do all that,” she said, holding her breath. This was all such a headache. She was nervous but at the same time so excited to be debt free. Everything was so unbelievable and she’d honestly never thought this would happen. While she was afloat with her business, she always thought she would be in debt. But now she was about to be twenty-eight with no debt at all, and it was all because of Karson. He had completely changed her life, and she really didn’t know how to repay him. How do you say thank you to the person who not only loves you but also gives you the world? It was insane.
“Okay, well, pay that shit and then we will go to dinner,” he said, returning to his game. “And I swear if you say anything else about it, I’ll steal that computer.”
She laughed even though she knew he was completely serious. Taking in a deep breath, ignoring all the thoughts that told her it was insane, she did what her husband said and paid off all her debt. When she was done, she went back to his account to make sure everything had gone through. Two of the payments had, but she knew the car payment would take a minute. They were always so damn slow. She was about to shut it down when a payment on the list caught her eye.
There was a ten thousand dollar payment to The Lacey’s Lace Foundation.
Her foundation.
Her head cocked to the side.
What the hell.
Clicking a new window, she went to the banking site for the foundation and logged in. Going to the donation page, she found that there had been a donation of ten thousand dollars every month from an unknown donor since the foundation had been open. Clicking back on Karson’s bank, she searched for transactions to the foundation and they matched the dates of payments from the unknown donor.
Surely not, she thought as she stood up, taking her laptop and phone with her. Karson and JT were so engrossed in their game they didn’t notice as she went to her room. Shutting the door, she laid her laptop on the bed and cursed the mess in the room. While they were gone looking at houses and then going to the bank, the movers had come. She hated the storage unit their room had been turned into. Ignoring it though, she dialed Rachel’s number.
“Hello?” she answered.
“Hey, are you at the office?”
“Yeah, about to leave,” she said in a way that made Lacey’s skin crawl. It had always been easy to talk to her best friend, but not anymore.
“Do me a quick favor. Check the donation files and see if you have info on a ten thousand dollar monthly donation that has been coming in since the beginning of the foundation.”
“If you were here, you could do it,” she snapped.
“You’re right, but I’m not. Are you going to do it, or do I need to wait?”
“I’m looking, hold on.”
“How nice of you,” Lacey said sarcastically as she shook her head. Never in the six years since opening Lacey’s Lace had she thought about firing Rachel, but she was thinking that at that moment.
And it honestly brought her to tears.
“I don’t have any info on them. It has been an anonymous donation since the beginning. Don’t you remember when it first happened?”
She stopped for a second. She did remember. She’d cried for hours and couldn’t believe that someone wanted to help her foundation. People were donating thousands, but no one had donated ten thousand until her anonymous donor came along. They always joked that it was an angel her mom sent. And they were right.
It was Karson.
“What?” Rachel said, and Lacey didn’t realize she had said that out loud.
“Karson is the anonymous donor.”
“Seriously?”
“Yeah, I was looking through his bank account, and it was him. He’s been donating ten thousand dollars a month since I started. Can you believe it?”
“No, that’s crazy,” Rachel gasped. “I’m impressed.”
“He’s been helping my foundation for years, and I didn’t know.”
“None of us did. That’s amazing and awesome. Kinda lessens my hate for him.”
“You have no reason to hate him.”
“He took you away, so of course I do,” Rachel said, her voice rich with emotion. Lacey had suspected that was the reason, and that pissed her off. Karson was a good man and he loved her. He had made that loud and clear in so many ways, regardless of what her family thought of him. She just wished they wouldn’t have spent so much time apart. If only their pride and their fears could have been ignored. Their lives would have been so much different if they hadn’t. “Why were you in his bank account though?”
Wiping her face free of the tears she hadn’t even realized were falling, she took a deep breath as she said, “I was paying off my debt. He doesn’t like debt and wanted to go into our new house debt free.”
“He paid your debt?”
“Yeah.”
“That’s nice of him.”
“He loves me,” she said simply.
“Yeah, sure, but you guys bought a house?” she asked, her snippy voice back.
“Yeah, it’s gorgeous. I hope you’ll come to see it.”
Rachel paused and Lacey’s heart stopped. “I don’t know. We will see,” she said, and Lacey was just glad she didn’t say no outright. Anyone else she would have said fuck off too, but it was different with Rachel. She was basically her sister, and Lacey missed her more than anything.
&
nbsp; “I’d really like to have my best friend back,” Lacey admitted. “You’ve been hurting me lately.”
“Yeah, well, you broke my heart when you left without even a backward glance at me or who you were leaving behind.”
“I didn’t mean to hurt you, Rachel. I just want to be happy.”
“And it hurts even more that we weren’t enough to make you happy.”
“You guys do make me happy, but I love my husband and had to come to where he was,” she pleaded, but she didn’t think Rachel cared.
When the door opened and Karson came in, his brows shot up as he mouthed, ‘What’s wrong?’
She shook her head as Rachel said, “It’s whatever, Lacey. I don’t know. I’m still so mad at you. I think this is all a mistake, and yeah, he is glitzing you with a house and paying off your debt. But what’s gonna happen when he throws you away like he did before? Am I supposed to pick up the pieces again?”
“A true best friend would,” she snapped. “But that doesn’t matter because he only did that because of my dad.”
Karson rolled his eyes as he fell onto the bed beside her. “Why are we still talking about this?” he asked and Lacey shook her head again to shut him up.
“Or maybe that is just his excuse.”
“No, Daddy admitted it.”
“I don’t believe that one bit. Your dad is good to you,” she snapped, and Lacey’s tears started to fall in earnest. How did she not believe her?
Clearing her throat, she said, “Ask Grady, Rachel. He’ll tell you.”
“Whatever, I got to go get the boys from day care,” Rachel said, slamming something, and Lacey’s heart just ached.
“Give them a kiss for me and tell them I miss them. I miss you too.”
“Yeah, well, if you didn’t run off to Nashville then you wouldn’t miss us,” Rachel snapped and then she hung up on her. Dropping her hands to her lap, Lacey took in a deep breath.
“I’m so tired of her talking to me like that,” she said, swallowing back a sob. “It doesn’t matter how mad I get at her, I don’t disrespect her. I care, and she is my best friend, but I really don’t know what to do, Karson. She is pissing me off.”
“Tell her that.”