by Natalie Dean
“I’m pretty sure none of them think that.”
“Good.”
He laughed again, that loose, happy sound that she still wasn’t tired of. She didn’t think it was physically possible.
“You know, it’s moments like these where I can kinda see why they’re still wary of you more than half a year later,” he said.
“Hey, I worked hard to establish my cold and direct persona. It would be terrible to lose all of that in less than a year.”
“Yeah, yeah.” His tone softened and his eyes had that look that he got whenever he was going to say something that made her heart thunder. “You know, I’m proud of you. You’ve taken what was supposed to be a fairly straightforward contract and pushed it to get results I never dreamed of.”
He gently traced one of her baby hairs, his touch so gentle, so kind. He made her want to be better. Despite all their joking, he made her want to open up and maybe be slightly less brusque when she was working. She never, ever intended to be mean, but a little bit of levity slipped into her professional demeanor certainly didn’t hurt.
He continued, “And I know your mom and dad are just as proud, even if one of them is watching at a distance.”
Tears pricked at the corner of her eyes. “You think so?”
“I know so.”
“Dad spill the beans on your last fishing trip?” she teased.
“Nah, I just know. Speaking of which…” He leaned back from her again, just enough to look down at her face. “Do you wanna go pick him up so he can see the full place now that it’s finished?”
She brightened. Since having her job with Sterling, she’d been able to afford to see her dad more often too. The wonders of being able to afford gas and also not pick up secondary gigs to try to save up. Instead of seeing him once every other month or so, she managed about every other week instead.
“Yeah, that’s a great idea.”
Hand in hand, they headed down the stairs. But not before she punched in the code to lock her door. She loved that she had keyless exit and entry, for when she was running behind, or her keys were covered in farm muck. Although most of her time was spent inspecting and researching improvements, she still spent plenty of time getting in the mud or dirt and checking on the animals’ health.
But when she got to her assigned parking spot in the small lot, her car wasn’t there. Not only was her car not there, but there was someone else’s parked right where it was supposed to be.
“Wait a minute,” she said, dropping Sterling’s hand and looking around. Was she so exhausted by working that she had accidentally parked somewhere else? She was pretty sure that she remembered pulling up into space number nineteen.
“What’s wrong?” Sterling asked.
“My car. It’s supposed to be there.”
“Are you sure you didn’t park somewhere else?”
“I’m pretty sure that I didn’t. And even if I did, someone shouldn’t be parked in my designated spot. They’re assigned per apartment.”
“Hmm. Looks like there’s a piece of paper taped to the inside of the window. Maybe there’s a clue whose it is? Then you can go to the office and ask them to call whoever owns it.”
“Right. I guess.” She didn’t like the idea of using the office to solve something her first week in her new place, but she couldn’t very well go knocking door-to-door.
She crossed to the front of the car and pulled out her phone, intending to take a picture of the piece of paper that might identify the owner. But when her eyes landed on it, she froze right where she was.
“What’s going on?” Sterling asked from behind her.
His tone was… off, but she couldn’t place it, mostly because her entire brain seemed to be focused on puzzling out why it was her name on the car title in front of her.
“I—what? There’s—” she shook her head, clearing her cluttered thoughts. “My name is on this car.”
“Really?” Sterling said, still in that strange tone. “You sure about that?”
“I know my own name. Why—” Oh. She finally caught onto his strange tone and turned, seeing a broad smile break across his face. “You did this,” she accused, pointing a finger at him.
“I will only admit to that if you like it,” he said, taking her hand in his. “I just wanted to do something special. A gift that could maybe show at least a little of how much you mean to me. And I know that you could have gotten this on your own. Remember when you were shopping around on your phone at lunch? You already had your budget figured out and a payment plan, and I realized that this was at least one thing I could do to pay you back for everything you’ve done for me.”
“I-I…” She didn’t know what to say. He had bought her a car. And not because he didn’t think she couldn’t and that he needed to sweep in and save her, but because he wanted to be kind.
There was a time, not even that long ago, where she wouldn’t have believed him. Where she would have accused him of thinking he was better than her, of patronizing her. Where she would have shoved him back and declared that she could take care of herself. After all, her mother had always said she was so independent that she wouldn’t just look a gift horse in the mouth, she would give it a full veterinary checkup then declare she was buying it herself.
But she’d grown. Sure, she had no shame in being direct, in being in charge, but she also learned that sometimes, people just wanted to help people to be kind. And that it wasn’t a show of weakness to take that help. She could accept a gift and still be the strong, capable Elizabeth that she’d always been.
As long as no one called her Lizzy, of course.
“Thank you,” she said, closing the space between him again and standing up on her toes to pepper kisses all over his face. That strong nose of his, the slight dimple at the end of his chin. His cheeks, his forehead, everywhere she could reach. She just felt so much for the man in front of her. And not just because he bought her things, but because he cared.
“Whew, I’m glad you took that well because that’s kind of not all.”
“Hmm?” she asked, pulling back. She knew that he’d said something, but she’d been too busy showering him in her affection to listen quite as well as she should have.
“Here are the keys,” he said, pulling them out of his pocket. “Check the glove compartment.”
Cautiously, she did so, wondering what could be happening. What, was there a puppy waiting in there or something? No, he wouldn’t do that, if only because she’d probably lectured him and every one of his family that would listen about leaving pets unattended in vehicles without proper air filtration.
Looking back to him repeatedly for some type of clue—which he gave none, the self-assured cowboy—she unlocked the car and bent forward. She was pleased to see that all of her stuff was already in place, from her aux cord and phone charger to the baggie of papers that she always had in her glove compartment.
But on top of that very stuffed sandwich baggy was a card, shining silver and bright. Carefully, she grasped it and stepped back out of the car so she could straighten.
“What is it?” she asked, feeling more nervous than she should have considering it was just a piece of paper in her hands.
A really pretty piece of paper.
“Looks like a card,” Sterling said.
“I know that. But what is it?”
“I dunno, but I hear that reading them can be really helpful.” She gave him one of her looks, but he just shrugged. “I think I’ve built up a bit of an immunity to those looks.”
“That’s what you think,” she grumbled before opening it with trembling hands.
It was empty of any pre-written message inside, leaving her to wonder if it was one of Mrs. Miller’s creations, but Sterling’s jagged handwriting was lovingly dark against the crisp whiteness of the inside.
Elizabeth, you have changed my life more than I can ever say. You have given me clarity. Direction. Ambition where I had none.
I know there is
no making up for all my years wasted, all of the wealth I’ve just let flow away on petty things. How many people my family hurt without me ever knowing.
But I would like to try, starting with what you have left of your student loans. I have a check in my pocket that I would be honored to give to you, but I know enough about you to know that I need permission first.
So please, Elizabeth, let me take this step towards making my journey right.
She looked at the script that covered basically the whole inside of the card. Reading it once. Reading it twice. When she looked back to Sterling, he seemed uncertain, his brows furrowed as he watched her.
“That’s too much to ask of you,” she said, her eyes watering. He’d already bought her a whole car. That was probably worth five times more than her student loans, and yet he wanted to give her more.
She was well aware of his father’s suspicions of her being a gold digger. She was also aware that was exactly what many of his rich acquaintances thought when they saw them together. And while she ignored each and every one of those people, she always wanted to make sure that Sterling never felt like he was being used for his money. Because she sincerely did not care if he was rich or not. Sure, it was real nice, but she had always been able to take care of herself.
“It isn’t,” he said, gently pulling her to him yet again.
It seemed that whenever they were together, they never liked to be more than a few inches apart. But she didn’t mind. She didn’t mind at all.
Sterling continued, “I just want you to have the same clean slate that I got to start with. It only seems fair, right?”
Part of her wanted to disagree, that stubborn and headstrong part of her that insisted upon forging her own path. But most of her was just so caught up in how good he was. So much different from the man that Teddy had described.
“If you say so,” she murmured, unable to stop a few tears leaking from her eyes before she was up on her tiptoes again.
Their lips crashed together, so much emotion in their kiss that it left her breathless and hazy.
“Is that a yes?” he asked when she pulled back for a moment lest her heart explode.
“Yes,” she whispered before kissing him once more. And maybe a couple more times. Just for good measure.
Sure, their future was still being built together, and things were up in the air, but she was absolutely certain that she had gotten luckier than she had ever dreamed of.
And goodness knew, her dreams were quite expansive.
Epilogue
Six Months Later
Sterling
“Hey, Silas, can I have a word with you?” Sterling asked.
“Right now?” his twin asked, looking uncertainly over his shoulder as the rest of his family filed into the arena.
“Yeah, it’ll only take a minute and Teddy n’ Elizabeth will watch our seats. Right, ladies?”
Teddy hummed her agreement, but Frenchie already had her arm looped around Elizabeth and was happily telling the woman all about the feral cat colony she was helping a rescue organization with. That seemed to be enough of a sign for Silas, however, and he peeled off with his brother.
“What’s up?” he asked, looking confused.
Sterling couldn’t exactly blame him. They were at their brother’s graduation ceremony, which had been delayed a year because lil’ Simon had decided to tack on his Master’s degree, adding summer courses plus two semesters. He was completing his college career with honors. That was more than even Solomon did, although their second oldest brother had been pulled away from his studies to “learn the business” as it were. Sterling was pretty sure his father regretted that decision, considering that Solomon was the figurehead of the current rebellion they had going on.
“So, I realize this may not be the time, or the place, but with how often we’ve both been busy, I didn’t want to put it off any longer.”
“…uh-huh?”
Sterling felt his hands doing that thing where they started to gesture too much because he didn’t know what to do with them. Shoving them into his pockets, he tried to look his twin in the eye. “Look, when we were kids, you got really hurt because of me. Permanently scarred. And I’ve never really apologized for it. Not really. And I want you to know, I am sorry. I really, really am.”
Silas looked like he didn’t know if he wanted to laugh or frown, and it came out as a confused sort of huff. “Sterling, we were teenagers—”
“That’s what I’ve told myself for a long time to never take responsibility for it. But the fact is that you’ve been covering for me for most of our lives. I did something reckless; I did something that I wanted to do without any consideration for anybody else’s health. You suffered the consequences for that.
“So, I wanted to tell you, I understand what I did was wrong. And even though it wasn’t purposeful, I’m still responsible for something that affects you to this day. I realize that I’ve been selfish for a long, long time. But I hope you can tell I’m trying to be better.”
“Sterling…” Silas looked like he might have had more to say, but instead he just strode forward and grabbed his younger twin in a hug.
Sterling embraced him back, nearly crushing his twin to him.
It felt good, even if he still felt plenty of shame for the past twelve years or so he’d spent pretending that he was fine. Maybe that was when the gap between them started, Silas permanently scarred by Sterling’s actions and the reminder written right there in the older twin’s flesh.
But where it had started didn’t really matter. What mattered was that Sterling was working to close it, even if sometimes he felt like he had no idea what he was doing. His father certainly didn’t help.
“Thanks, brother,” Silas said when they parted, his eyes red and misty.
“Thank you,” Sterling answered. He thought of saying something snarky, something truly younger twin-ish, but he just didn’t have it in him. He was still too emotional and raw.
“You ready to head back in now?”
“Sure. From what I saw in the program, it’s gonna be a long production.”
“Maybe we’ll get lucky and Simon will be towards the front of the procession.”
“Our name is Miller. He’s probably going to be smack dab in the middle.”
Silas let out a sigh. “Well, when you’re right, you’re right. But let’s go support the squirt, shall we?”
“After you.”
They headed into the arena and it was easy to find the chunk that their whole family took up. At least two dozen of their cousins from Dad’s three brothers were there, including Bart and Missy.
Now she was a classic bombshell if Sterling ever saw one, blond hair and all, and he didn’t miss the awful looks that father and some other well-to-do folks gave her. But that didn’t matter in the slightest because as soon as Missy and Elizabeth had crossed paths, it was like two halves meeting. He could see from where he was that his girlfriend had broken away from her conversation with Frenchie, only to be deeply involved in whatever she and Missy were discussing, the pair right next to each other. Bart, for what it was worth, looked thoroughly amused by the two.
“This should be fun,” Sterling said, heading up the stairs to join them.
The graduation ceremony turned out to be lovely, not that Sterling expected anything less, if not a bit overdrawn. By the time it was over, everyone was hungry, and they were all taking their various vehicles to the restaurant they’d basically rented out.
“Why didn’t you tell me you had a cousin-in-law that ran her own rescue?” Elizabeth said almost the exact moment she was in his truck, leveling an accusatory glare at him.
“Must have slipped my mind,” he said with a smirk, carefully pulling out of his spot.
“Sure it did. You were just afraid that if we ever met each other, that we would be too powerful.”
“And am I right in that assumption? Pretty sure I might have heard plans for world domination for the sake of kittens in t
he middle of that graduation ceremony.”
“You keep that to yourself,” she responded primly as she settled in. “It’d be a shame to lose that pretty face.”
“Oh, so you’d get rid of me for the sake of your evil plans?”
“No, I’d have to deal with you for the sake of the kittens, Sterling. It’s all about scope.”
He laughed, because how could he not? Usually only Silas got his sense of humor, but he could always count on Elizabeth understanding and giving it right back to him.
“Alright, well try to hold off on your plotting during my brother’s party.”
“I make no promises so that I might break no vows.”
“Uh-huh.”
Sterling was indeed worried about the dinner. Such a large group of his family hadn’t been gathered since his cousin Ben’s wedding, and the tensions were running high. Very high. Especially considering that Samuel and his lovely lady—who apparently was another blond bombshell, was there something in the water up where they lived?—had chosen not to come so that they didn’t take any attention away from Simon’s big day.
While Sterling accepted and understood their reasoning, considering that their father certainly would have said one, two, or maybe a whole lot of nasty and unwelcome things, he still wished it didn’t have to be that way. He missed his eldest brother, the softy of their line. He was the guy they all went to when they were down, and he wished that he hadn’t spent so many years disparaging his brother’s worth.
But there was time to make up for that in the future. Or at least he hoped so. First, they had to deal with the fight they had going on with their dad. Sal was very much not on board at all, and in fact, he seemed to be trying to gear himself up to take Solomon’s place in the company.
…then again, hadn’t Sterling—for a moment there—thought the same thing before he met Elizabeth?
Maybe his younger brother needed a slightly younger veterinarian to pop out of the ether and set him straight too. But Sterling was pretty sure that someone like that was a one of a kind thing, and he certainly wasn’t giving up the love of his life.