JADE
I found out later that day that I had gotten an interview for my dream job as a researcher/scientist in San Diego, so I knew I had to pull my shit back together.
It was Friday, and I had to be coherent by Monday.
Maybe I should have called Skye or Brooke, but I didn’t want to do much of anything except lie on my couch and devour as much ice cream as possible.
My food drug of choice was Stephen Colbert’s AmeriCone Dream that was made by Ben & Jerry’s. And I was well stocked. Besides the carton I had in my hand, there were four more in the freezer.
I dug my spoon into the caramel and chocolate-covered-ice-cream-cone mixture and shoved it into my mouth before I picked up the remote and started flipping through the channels.
Yeah, I realized that I couldn’t sit and eat Ben & Jerry’s every night, but I needed some time to get my head together.
Maybe approaching Eli to follow through on his offer to act as an intern hadn’t been a good idea, but I didn’t regret it. I’d learned a lot, and those few weeks had helped me gain some confidence in a world I knew nothing about.
I also didn’t regret the new wardrobe. I’d need it if I was going to start interviewing.
The makeover had boosted my confidence, and I finally felt okay in my own skin.
I was over my guilt about becoming a billionaire. I was more interested in figuring out how I could make a difference with my wealth.
At some point over the last several weeks, I’d changed. I’d stopped being the shy student, and had decided to be the best person I could be.
Eli had helped me get there, so I didn’t regret the time I’d spent with him.
What I really felt devastated over was the fact that Eli hadn’t returned my feelings, and I wasn’t so sure I was ever going to feel the same way about a man again.
I stopped changing channels when I got to Shark Tank, and tossed the remote back on the coffee table. I could listen to the show while I was answering my emails.
I opened my laptop and started deleting all the junk mail I got on a daily basis. It seemed like I unsubscribed from a million places, but I still had more ads in my box the next day.
I clicked on a notice from the DNA site I’d used when I’d discovered that Evan was my half brother. I went to delete it because I got ads or notifications almost every day, but I hesitated when I saw the first line.
I have a new match?
I clicked to the site and looked at the current entry. I scanned with a little more interest when I saw that I had a new relative match.
Relationship—Niece.
“What the hell?” I mumbled. “How is that possible?”
I was a scientist. And DNA didn’t lie.
My mind raced as I stared at the notification. There was no half designation, so the logical conclusion was that one of my brothers had fathered a child. But none of them were old enough to have a grown daughter.
“It wasn’t Brooke,” I said aloud. “It has to be one of my brothers.”
I couldn’t imagine any of my siblings walking away from their own daughter, but there was a possibility they’d never known that they had impregnated a woman they had dated. None of my brothers had lacked female attention, and they’d all had girlfriends. But the whole thing wasn’t sitting right with me.
How could they not know?
And which one of them had a child they didn’t know existed?
There was no real information about who my niece might be, but I could write to the relative through the site.
I wrote a few lines, introducing myself and letting them know that they’d matched to me.
I still had to wonder if the information was somehow incorrect.
I’d just reached for my cell to call Brooke when the doorbell rang.
Probably Aiden or Seth.
I got my rear off the couch and headed toward the door. I wasn’t exactly dressed for visitors, but it wasn’t like my brothers hadn’t seen me in my pajama shorts and a sweatshirt before.
I opened the door, startled at first because no one was standing there.
Then I heard a yelp of excitement.
“Charlie?” I opened the screen door and let the canine in, and then reached down to pet him. “What are you doing here?”
I frowned as I noticed something attached to his collar.
There was an envelope that said Read me first and a small box that said Keep me.
Both were lightly attached, so I pulled them off Charlie’s collar, sat down on the floor to cuddle with the canine I’d come to adore, and opened the envelope.
If Charlie is here, I know Eli isn’t very far away.
My heart stuttered at the thought that Eli was probably close by. What was he up to?
The big, gaping wound I’d opened when I’d confronted Eli this morning was still raw, and I wasn’t sure I could bear to see him so soon.
I pulled out the papers that were in the envelope, my hands shaking with emotion.
“Oh, Eli, what did you do?” I whispered as I looked at the quitclaim deed.
He’d deeded the Lucifer’s Canyon property to me.
I dropped the paper in my lap and wrapped my arms around Charlie as tears flowed down my cheeks.
I was pretty sure it meant that the property didn’t have a hold on Eli anymore. And if he was finally free of his demons, I was happy for him.
“It’s really hell when I have to be jealous of my mutt,” I heard Eli’s baritone say hoarsely from the door.
I got up, and picked up the box and the deed. “What are you doing here? And why did you do this?” I motioned to the paper.
He opened the screen door and stepped in. “Because I want you to have it. There’s no strings attached, no matter what you say about what’s in the box.”
“I haven’t opened it yet.”
“Don’t,” he requested. “Not yet.”
He took my hand and led me into the small living room. I grabbed the remote and turned off the TV. “I was just . . . eating,” I said as I grabbed the container of ice cream, took it to the kitchen, and tossed it in the freezer. Since it was a tiny house, I was back in seconds.
I stopped in front of him, my chest aching because he looked so damn good in a pair of jeans and a sweater. “Eli, I—”
He put his fingers on my lips. “No. Don’t talk. I have some things I want to say before you run away again.”
I nodded, and he started to use his thumb to wipe the tears from my face.
“I want to thank you for helping me get my head straight. I buried everything about my brother for way too long. So long that I guess I wasn’t sure what was me and what was Austin anymore. Because of you, I think I have everything figured out now.”
“So what was you?” I asked.
“When I started doing the things Austin did, I did it on my own terms. He did crazy things just because he wanted to do them. I did them to make money for my charities. So I guess some of it was always me. And there are a few things I actually do like to do for me, like the mountain climbing and the car racing. But I can do without the useless things. So I’ll do what I want and dump the others. I don’t have a death wish like Austin did.”
“And the tats?”
“Done to honor my brother. I don’t regret it.”
I didn’t think he needed to be remorseful about anything, but I didn’t speak because I wanted him to keep talking.
He added, “I framed all the pictures that Joel gave me. I realized that I can’t keep hating him for what my brother did to himself. My mother said that Joel cleaned up his act after Austin died, so one good thing came out of my brother’s death. And I think it’s time for me to remember the good things about my twin and not try to completely forget the past.”
“Do you regret that you gave up your own dreams to take over your dad’s interests?” I asked.
He shook his head slowly. “I don’t. It turns out that I can do both. I’m pretty involved in my aerospace company, and there’s a certain satisfaction in taking over companies and making them better than they were before.”
“What about your dad?” I questioned gently.
“I loved him. And I know he’d be proud that his company is thriving. But I just can’t grieve anymore. Even my mom has moved on. And she lost a son and a husband she loved. I need to enjoy the time I spend with her. She wants me to be happy.”
Eli’s mother was an incredible person, and I knew what he was saying was true.
“But there’s a problem,” he said.
“What?”
“I can’t be happy without you, Butterfly.”
My heart tripped as I asked, “What exactly does that mean?”
He took my hands and met my gaze. “It means how in the hell could you not know that I love you, too? I think I probably have for a long time, but I was too damn stupid to recognize it right away. The things I said in the beginning weren’t me, Butterfly. I was still a shell of a man who was trying to cope with losing his twin brother and his father so close together. But it’s no excuse. If you give me the opportunity, I’ll make it up to you for the rest of our lives.” He reached out and snatched the box from the coffee table where I’d dropped it to pick up my ice cream. “Which brings me to this.”
He held out the box, and I took it with shaky fingers. I popped the lid and found myself staring at the most gorgeous diamond I’d ever seen. “Oh, my God. Eli? What is this?”
“You know what it is,” he rasped. “Just put me out of my misery. Is it going to be a yes or a no?”
My heart was soaring as I threw myself into his arms. “Yes. Yes. God, I love you so much.”
Eli’s arms tightened around me immediately. “I love you, too, Butterfly. You fucking broke my heart today when you ran out of the office.”
“Why didn’t you say something sooner?”
He picked me up and flopped onto the couch with me. Eli held me like he was never going to let me go, and it made me cry even harder.
“I tried to tell you that I hadn’t called you because I’d been too ill to talk, and those texts had been the mindless ramblings of a man who was trying to tell you how much you meant to me, but I failed because I couldn’t form any coherent thoughts while I had a high fever. You didn’t seem to want me to talk about anything personal. At that point, I was already terrified that I’d lost you. I was willing to settle for having you as my intern for a while if it meant I’d get to see you every day.”
The text message really had been a mistake.
I threaded my hand into his hair because I had to touch him. “I was there because I wanted to be. You must have known I came to be an intern because of you.”
“I wasn’t quite sure what your motives were,” he admitted. “But I was so damn happy to see you that I didn’t want to scare you away. And then I ended up doing it anyway.”
“I couldn’t quite let you go, even after your text messages,” I admitted. “I had to make sure that we were never going to work, and that you really wanted me to go.”
He squeezed tightly. “I never wanted you to go anywhere. I always wanted you to stay, Jade. I guess I just didn’t know how to change things. I think I was fucked from the first time you walked into my office and told me off.”
“I thought you just wanted to fuck me,” I teased.
“Oh, I did,” he rumbled. “Still do. But I was a fool to think that I could just fuck you out of my system. There’s never going to be a day when my dick doesn’t get hard the second you walk into a room.”
“You say the sweetest things,” I said with a laugh.
“I’m not exactly good at saying sweet things,” he answered with a frown.
I thought about all the nice things he’d done for me in the past, and the fact that he’d outright deeded the land that he couldn’t previously let go of to me.
His actions said everything. “I was joking, Eli. The things you do matter.”
“Then tell me what the hell to do to make you happy, because it’s become a goddamn obsession for me.”
“You already did it,” I said. “But if you really want to make me happy, then take me to bed.”