The last few weeks had been fucking amazing. If I’d known that being with a woman like Laura could feel like this, then I would have done it a long time ago. Yet no one had sparked that kind of interest in me until now. No one but Laura. She really was special even if she didn’t feel it at the best of times. She was the kind of woman who made me feel so small. She seemed to think that because I was rich that I was in some crazy way superior to her. But she beat cancer and came up on top with a smile on her face all the time.

It was as if nothing could get her down and I had no intention of making her sad. I felt that I had something else to work towards and aspire to and that was being a good boyfriend. It was so much better than trying to be the perfect son. I knew I’d finally grown up in a short space of time and things could only get better.

I knew Laura had to work but she didn’t avoid me. She stopped by my room earlier, just as I was about to leave, and I cut five minutes out of her time for a long make-out session before we both had to get to work.

Days went by, and things only got better, even more amazing. I’d take Laura home in the evenings, and at times she’d invite me in. Or I’d have her come to my hotel room after work hours, and she’d spend the time with me. Sex happened, but it was so much more than that. We talked, and it was a nice surprise to learn we had some things in common. She was shocked when I told her about my past rugby career, though she’d teased me for being the typical high school jock.

I was fucking kidding myself if I thought that I just liked her. It was more than that. I was falling in love, hook, line, and sinker. I was fairly confident I wasn’t the only one, as Laura got less and less shy about us being together, and smiled every time she saw me, before worrying about what others would see or think.

We weren't secretive, and I didn’t care if the whole world knew about us. More to the point, I wanted everyone to know about us. I was so proud to go out with her and have her on my arm and let everyone know she was my girl. No one else’s, just mine.

Things with Dad got a little easier too, even though it was technically still me following his orders and ultimatums. Still, it was probably the one time I was happy to follow his orders, and he wasn’t avoiding talking to me anymore. He sought me out more often than I wanted actually because most of my attention was centered around Laura now, but we’d more or less made up.

I hadn’t told him about Laura yet, but I had a feeling he’d guessed something must have changed with me. Even Trent remarked once that I looked happier, which meant he must have seen through me before because the only difference was that my satisfied and still somewhat carefree attitude was genuine.

Within that time, I cleaned up my act, or at least I tried. I hadn’t had a party in a while because I was so busy, and I didn’t feel like having any anyway. The people on my friends list kept calling me up, and I’d give some excuse or outright ignore their calls, knowing that eventually, they’d stop trying to contact me and find some other idiot willing to foot their bill.

With everything else outside of my work, it still felt like I failed sometimes. Particularly with Laura.

We weren’t just sneaking around to each other’s places. She was the first person I’d ever dated, and I was insistent on taking her out. She didn’t seem to mind, but sometimes… it wasn’t that she looked at me with disappointment or anything, but with my latent talent of reading people, I could tell when she wasn’t exactly happy, even though she went along with whatever I wanted.

On her days off, I took her to other parts of North Carolina to explore and spend some time outside. It had been a surprise to me to learn she hadn't explored much of the state after moving, though the fact she’d moved late to the state didn’t surprise me at all, with her slight accent. But then there was this way she stared at the hiking trails we passed on our way to our destinations, that told me she’d rather do that than go wherever I was taking her.

Then when I’d propose we eat out, she’d recommend cheap food places. Also, she hadn't cooked for me. Every time I brought it up, she’d keep saying next time, and I let it go. And even after all those days passed and we grew closer, she still didn’t like to accept presents from me.

I didn’t understand why.

Before, I’d taken the initiative, and it was the wrong one. My intentions at the time weren’t above reproach, I’d pretty much seen her as she’d accused me—as a trinket—but I’d changed my thinking, hadn't I? So why did she still insist on fighting me when all I was trying to do was take care of her?

It left me puzzled, and there was nowhere I could go to look for answers. I was a little afraid of talking to her about it because while she’d said she wouldn’t run, I feared to give her reasons to want to. I would rather try to rectify the mistake on my own and go to her only after it had failed. But I had to try at least!

The next time Trent let me have the day off, I went back to the mansion, texting my sister to meet me in the lounge on the first floor closest to the foyer. She could be anywhere around the house or the grounds, and if I didn’t contact her beforehand, finding her would be a pain.

By the time I arrived, she was there waiting for me, with a tea set on the coffee table, with two cups and two side plates of assorted pastries and cookies. I arched my eyebrows at it and couldn’t help but take a dig at her.

“Is it tea time already? No dolls this time, Emily?” I teased, reminding her of all those times as a kid when she wanted to have a ‘tea party,’ and she’d get Mom to make me and Kevin join her because she didn’t have that many friends in her private school.

She looked at me with a frown. “No, Mason, my dolls will not be joining us today. They abhor your manners.”

I rolled my eyes and took a seat across from her. I poured myself some of the tea, picked up a pastry and sat back to eat. It was past lunch already and I’d eaten, but I didn’t mind a little snack.

“Now,” Emily said, pouring herself some tea. “Why don’t you tell me what this trip is about, big brother? You wouldn’t just come here to see me.”

“Why not?” I retorted, feeling crap that she’d spoiled my good mood.

She arched an eyebrow. “Don’t forget I know you. If this were just another visit, you’d have arrived then looked for me, not called me out to wait for you.”

I hummed, slowly nodding my head like I understood what she said. My attention had already wavered, as I thought of how to bring up my current issues.

“I did have a question for you,” I said after long minutes of silence. I would have held out longer, but I was feeling impatient, and she noticed, perking up.

“Oh? What could you possibly want to know from me? It couldn’t be woman trouble, right? The ladies love you.”

I sighed, and her eyes widened as she concluded rightfully that this was the problem.

“So, there’s this woman I’m seeing, and she’s not like any of the women I’ve been with before, so get that out of your head. You could say… she’s a woman that’s used to being around ordinary people. Well, people not raised in our world.”

“Ah,” she said, nodding in understanding. “It’s not someone at the mansion, right? Maybe at the hotel?”

I hesitated a little on whether or not I should give this detail, but in the end, I decided there was nothing particularly wrong with it.

“At the hotel. Her name… is Laura.”

I didn’t get the time to add more because Emily spurted out the sip of tea she was taking. I could only watch with my mouth open. She set the cup down with a loud clink and leveled a glare at me.

“Tell me you did not just say ‘Laura’? Are there two of them working at the hotel, or what? Because you better not mean who I’m thinking of.”

I arched an eyebrow, taken aback by the passionate response. Did she somehow know Laura? It was a surprise, only because Laura worked at the hotel, and Emily rarely ever went there. Laura had never been to the mansion, so how could the two have ever met?

“It could be the same person,” I said slowly. “Because as far as I know, there’s only one Laura working at the hotel…”

“Are you playing with her?” she immediately demanded. “She’s my friend too, Mason, so you better not be using her for one of your games. I mean, I don’t speak to her as often as I speak to Jessi, but you definitely will get into trouble with me if I hear from either of them that you made her cry.”

I frowned. “Who the hell is Jessi, anyway? And why the hell do you think I’d make her cry? I just told you I’m dating her, have I ever said that to you about a woman before?”

That was enough to give her pause, and she relaxed a little, though she was still frowning.

“You’re dating. Huh,” she repeated to herself. “What exactly have you done together?”

I arched an eyebrow but guessed she didn’t mean in the bedroom. My little sister might be twenty-one but she was still way too young to know about that side of relationships. At least in my opinion. As far as I knew, she’d never had a crush on someone in real life, maybe some of the boy bands and actors she watched on TV. So I told her everything I’d done with Laura so far. There was plenty more I wanted the two of us to experience together, but I didn’t mention those just yet because it was a pretty long list.

“You’re doing it all wrong,” she declared, once I was finished.

“What do you mean, all wrong?” I asked, narrowing my eyes.

“This is why, big brother, I always say you’re smart but a little stupid. Just think about it. At least you stopped it with the gifts but what you’re doing right now isn’t any better. As far as I know, Laura’s always led a pretty simple, but sometimes hard life. It’s never gonna be about your money or the gifts with her. If you want your relationship with her to go well, then what you bring into it, besides the riches, will matter more. Try doing things for her, simple things, instead of throwing the world at her feet, because it’s only going to make her uncomfortable.”

I understood what Emily was saying. I knew this much, like when I made her dinner and bought her groceries instead of taking expensive candy and flowers to her apartment that night. I still did that, and she was happy every time, but…

“I want to do more for her,” I admitted. “She’s the first woman I’ve cared this much about, Emily. I want to do… everything I’ve ever wanted to do with her. But that’s wrong?”

She sighed, rolling her eyes at me like I was the biggest idiot in the universe. A look that hadn't changed much since she was five and trying to get me to do things for her.

“That’s fine and all, but why don’t you start slow? Like, you know, doing what she wants to do first, then moving on to what you want to do later, but explain it to her. You could take her to her favorite places, for example, not just where you want to go. It would go over better, at least in the beginning. Because basically, what you’ve been doing is showing her that she’s missing something from life. From our perspective maybe it is but to her, it’s like telling her that her life wasn’t good enough, that she should be aiming higher. She might not want to do that.”

I sighed and leaned back in my seat, running a hand down my face. Emily was right; I’d been acting the idiot about this whole thing, like taking one step forward and two steps back.

“If you want to treat her right,” Emily continued, “then talk to her about things, don’t just assume. Laura would want the simple things, like going to diners and Mexican restaurants instead of luxury lunch in the family yacht or taking her somewhere expensive. She’ll want to go to the library, or to the hiking trails. It’s all she needs; you just have to focus on it.”

I nodded slowly. I would never have thought I’d be listening to my little sister talk to me about how to do right by a woman, but that was where I found myself. I had to compromise what I wanted to do if it would make Laura comfortable, make her happy.

So Emily spent the afternoon, and well most of the evening, giving me a long talk about the difference in lifestyle between me and a woman like Laura.