CHAPTER 17
BROOKE
“I know it was overwhelming today,” I said hesitantly as I walked hand in hand down Citrus Beach with Liam.
My family was always a little bit too much when we were all together in one place, but seeing and talking to them all had been a relief for me. I wished Owen could have been here, but I knew it wasn’t possible.
I sighed as I watched the waves crash onto the shore. There weren’t many people on the beautiful stretch of beach that I’d haunted when I was younger. It was too cold to swim, and it was overcast, but it felt good to be somewhere so familiar.
Things had changed for all of my family, and nothing was quite the same as it was when I’d left, but they were positive changes.
Noah was slowly building his own empire.
Seth and Aiden seemed a little bitter about what our father had done to our mother, but I couldn’t blame them for that. I think every single one of us hated our father, and the bullshit he’d put our mother through by being a bigamist.
Eventually, maybe we’d all see everything differently, but I doubted it. Someday, I hoped Seth and Aiden could at least be less angry about what happened. They were in business together now, and they seemed happy with their fates.
Jade was the only one who seemed troubled, but she refused to share whatever was bothering her.
Liam squeezed my hand as he answered, “They’re your family. I don’t have to love them all.”
“They’ll grow on you,” I warned him with a smile.
Liam was seeing my siblings at their worst right now. My brothers were overprotective. But when they joined forces for a common cause, they were downright dangerous.
Liam stopped and turned to face me. My breath caught as I looked at him, his hair slightly rustled from the breeze, and his expression somber.
“I haven’t really gotten to know them,” he explained. “But I want to.”
I searched his face. I knew he was trying to tell me something. “What are you saying?” I probed, my heart racing with anticipation.
“I want to stay here with you, Brooke. I want to build us a beautiful home, and raise our children here if you want to have them.”
My chest ached as I looked at his earnest expression. I wanted to have kids, I just hadn’t found the right guy, so I didn’t think much about it.
I watched as Liam foraged in the pocket of his jeans, and then finally found what he was looking for.
He flipped open the small box, and the breath I was holding whooshed out of my body as I saw the beautiful diamond inside.
I looked from his face to the diamond, my heart thundering in my ears.
“I love you, Brooke,” he grumbled. “I probably have since the first time I saw you, but I didn’t want to think about it back then. I hate what you’ve been through, but I want the chance to show you what real happiness feels like.” He paused before he added, “Marry. Me.”
Time stood still for a moment as I tried to grasp what he was asking me.
He was willing to stay here for me?
He wanted me to be his wife?
“I love you, too,” I said quickly, feeling relieved that I could finally voice how I felt.
He suddenly grinned mischievously. “Do you know how long I’ve wanted to hear that?”
“N-no,” I stammered, still too astonished to comprehend what was happening.
I knew Liam cared for me, but I hadn’t expected him to offer to leave Amesport to live with me in California.
“I bought this in Boston,” he explained. “That’s why I didn’t mind going there.”
He lifted the beautiful ring from its bed of velvet and stuffed the box back into his pocket.
“It’s gorgeous,” I managed to utter.
“Marry. Me,” Liam repeated, his tone demanding.
“It doesn’t sound like you’re asking,” I teased, but my hands were shaking, and my heart felt like it was ready to fly out of my chest.
Liam was always going to be demanding, but it didn’t bother me. I knew what was underneath all that bluster: The man who was always supposed to be mine.
“I guess I don’t want you to have a chance to say no,” he said in a raw, guttural voice.
“I’m not going to say no,” I advised him, my voice trembling as I answered. “I’m a definite yes.”
I threw myself into his arms, relishing the feel of them wrapping around me.
How was a woman supposed to react when she’d just gotten every single thing her heart desired?
I felt free, but protected.
Just like Liam, I’d always felt the way we connected.
He was the guy I’d been waiting for, but the circumstances just hadn’t been right for us in the beginning.
“I think I was always waiting for you,” I said with a happy sob.
He pulled back and kissed me, our mouths meeting and mingling with a surreal hunger that had always consumed me whenever we were together.
My body was instantly ready for him to rock my world, just like he did every time he touched me.
Releasing my lips, he took my shoulders and pushed me back. “I want this ring on your finger.”
I obliged by holding my shaky hand out, and I held my breath again as he fumbled to push the ring onto my finger.
“It fits,” I said as I released a pent-up breath.
“Of course it fits,” he said. “Did you think I was going to let you take it off? But measuring your finger with a string while you were sleeping wasn’t exactly easy.”
I laughed, able to visualize how frustrated he’d probably become with trying to handle a tiny string with his large hands. It was as endearing as it was funny.
“We can exchange it if you don’t like it,” he said, his voice revealing a little bit of uncharacteristic nervousness.
I held my hand to my chest. “I love it,” I said adamantly, knowing I’d never exchange it for something different, even if I hadn’t loved it so much. I could tell he’d put a lot of thought into the selection, and it brought tears to my eyes.
“I love you,” he said earnestly as he took my left hand from my chest and carried it to his lips.
Tears trickled down my cheeks as I instantly replied, “I love you, too.”
The tall, handsome man in front of me had become my everything. I’d probably known that it was possible from the very beginning, but we’d both shied away from it.
In a way, the enormity of how I loved Liam was scary, but I was willing to take the risk.
He pulled me into his arms and held me like I was the most precious thing in the world to him. “Jesus, Brooke! I never planned on you.”
“Maybe that’s why it’s so special,” I said in a tearful voice near his ear.
We were silent for a few moments, both of us absorbing the fact that we’d never have to be separated again.
I didn’t let go of him as I murmured, “I want to move to Amesport.”
Liam pulled back just enough to see my face. “What?”
“I want to go back to the East Coast.” I’d come to love the small coastal town, and it wasn’t like I couldn’t get a job there.
Hell, I could have my own business there if I wanted it. My inheritance opened doors for me that had never been possible to look inside of before I’d become filthy rich.
“Why do you want to go back with me?” he said with an incredulous look.
“I like having the best lobster rolls in the country,” I joked. “And I’d miss the coffee and chocolate.”
“But your family—”
“They’ll be here every time I come home to see them, and they can come see us in Amesport. All of my siblings are going to want to meet and get to know the Maine Sinclairs.”
“Brooke, we need to talk about this—”
“We don’t,” I assured him. “I love my family, but it’s time for me to do what makes me happy. There’s no guarantee that we’ll all stay here permanently. We all need to live our own lives. It’s not like we can’t hop on a plane anytime we want to visit.”
“Are you sure?”
I nodded. “When we passed the bank earlier, I knew it was time for a new start.”
This might be my hometown, but I was ready to spread my wings and fly. I’d shuddered when we’d driven by the scene of the shooting, knowing that it would forever be a place of sorrow for me. To everyone else, the city was back to normal after the incident, but it would never be the same for me.
“Bad memories,” he said gently as he pushed a lock of hair from my face.
“Yes. I think being here will always remind me of what happened.”
“Then we’ll live in Amesport,” he agreed readily.
“It’s not just the shooting,” I reassured him. “I want to be there with you.”
I’d come to adore Sullivan’s Restaurant, and all of the people I saw there regularly. I wanted to get to know my half brothers and my half sister without the necessity of hiding my identity.
I shared all of the reasons I wanted to go back to live in Amesport with Liam while he listened.
When I’d finished, he looked relieved. “Skip getting to know Xander,” he advised. “He’s a dick.”
I punched his shoulder playfully. “You don’t mean that,” I accused. “You wouldn’t spend as much time with him if you didn’t like him.”
“He’s a jerk.”
I snickered, knowing he and Xander loved to antagonize each other. “I do have other family there,” I reminded him.
“Yeah,” he said unhappily. “I know I’m going to have to get used to all of them being around. I don’t mind Micah so much, but I could do without Evan.”
I smiled broadly at him. I knew that no matter how much he protested, he’d welcome every one of them for me. “I love you, Liam.”
My heart felt like it was ready to explode with happiness, a feeling I definitely wasn’t used to.
He kissed my forehead reverently. “I love you, too, baby. Don’t think I don’t know how damn lucky I am.”
I was lucky, too, and I’d spend the rest of my life grateful for a man who was willing to make such a big sacrifice for me, even though I hadn’t accepted it.
I stroked his whiskered cheek as I suggested, “Let’s go home.”
“To Amesport?” he asked huskily.
“For now, we can use my apartment,” I suggested, my body clamoring for me to get the man I loved naked. “We can head for Amesport tomorrow.”
“We can head east whenever you want. I’m not averse to giving you all the time you want,” he answered hoarsely. “Right now, I’m not sure I’ll let you get out of bed in the morning.”
“I’m not sure I’ll want to,” I answered.
He picked me up and spun me around before setting me on my feet again. “We’ll figure it out,” he said, his eyes burning into me as he pierced me with a covetous glance. “Right now, I just want you naked.”
He clasped my hand and we started making our way back to the car.
Luckily, I wanted exactly the same thing he did.