Page 124 of A Surprise For Sage

“Let’s not go there again and how I reacted.”

“After seeing your mother just now, I can understand some of it, as I said.”

“Before we go any further… My mother made a comment about millions and my father winning money.”

“You don’t need to explain your finances to me. We are dating,” she said. “What you got as an inheritance or make in your job is your business.”

His jaw dropped. “What? Really?”

“Yes,” she said. “Why are you so shocked? I think your business is pretty successful from what I can see. Your father had this house and another one. I knew that. He probably had a really good salary on top of it.”

“He did. Without his lottery win, I would have gotten over three million in cash, investments, assets and life insurance policies.”

His father was frugal for the most part with his money. Looking back, he wished his father could have enjoyed more of it before he died.

“Lottery?” she asked, laughing. “I’ve got to hear this.”

“You’re not upset that I didn’t tell you?”

“No,” she said. “I told you why. That is personal. You don’t know how much I’ve got in my savings or investments. You don’t know how much I make. I can assure you it’s nowhere near your worth, but we haven’t gotten to that part of our relationship where it’d be a conversation.”

He wasn’t sure why this never occurred to him. Why he never thought of it the same either.

But she was right. There were a lot of married couples that kept their finances separate, so why did he think that any girlfriend he had should know?

Even if he did see a future with Sage.

The fact she was so laid back about this proved she was the one for him.

“You’re right. But I want to tell you more so you know. I’m not going to give you details and specifics. But my father had a love for lottery tickets. The daily numbers, the scratch offs. All those things.”

She smiled. “Sounds like he was a bit of a dreamer.”

Knox wasn’t sure why that never occurred to him before. “You know, I’d never say that about my father, but you’re right. It drove my mother nuts that he’d waste money like that. It was his only vice.”

“And one that paid off in the end by the sounds of it.”

“Yeah. He won over thirty million.”

“That’s great,” she said. “How exciting.”

He was both baffled and annoyed with himself that he didn’t think she’d react this way.

“I guess so,” he said. “He told me right away when he won but said not to let other people know.”

“Your mother?” she asked.

“For one. We just kept it as quiet as we could for the most part, but it was hard. When I left my job though, he was the one who gave me the money to start my business. Get the office space, the equipment, float my salary. All those things. I wanted to pay him back and he said no. To him, my education didn’t cost a fraction of what he’d had put aside for it and it felt like the thing to do.”

Looking back, he believed his father might have done that without the lottery win, but Knox was never going to ask for it either.

“Was that the start of you two trying to get closer?”

“We’d been trying before the win, but that helped more. I still felt like we didn’t have a ton in common and when we did spend time together it was forced. But then slowly it became less forced. I can’t even explain why.”

“There is no reason to explain it,” she said. “Sometimes there doesn’t need to be an explanation. You just have to accept it for what it is.”

“I like that,” he said. “I was doing that. I think he was too. As I said, we had dinner planned for that night and then...”

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