Page 77 of Promise You Forever

“No crying allowed.” Amber squeezes me in another tight hug.

“Yeah, I’m just a private jet flight away.”

“Don’t tempt me.” She starts walking back up toward the boardwalk. “I can’t feel my feet anymore. Let’s go grab a drink somewhere.”

Bittersweet nostalgia settles over me as we walk off the beach. I know I’ll be back to visit, and she’ll come see me, but deep down I know that once I walk back onto the ranch, everything will be different. I’ll be settling into my future with the ranch and with Luke. Butterflies fill my belly at the thought.

Thirty

LUKE

Charlie hears Eli pull up before I do. She takes off running to the door, her tail wagging a mile a minute. I don’t know if I should stay sitting casually or stand. I should stand. I’ll be able to take her bag that way.

Actually, should I even be in here at all? What if she wanted to come home to an empty house? I glance out the back door and weigh my options. I realize it’s too late when the door opens and she walks in, dragging a suitcase behind her.

She looks beautiful. So absolutely perfect with her hair up in a messy ponytail and an oversize sweater hanging over skintight black leggings. The moment those steel gray eyes lock on mine my chest squeezes with nervous anticipation.

“Hi.” Her lips lift into a smile, and then she drops to her knees to love on a very happy Charlie.

“How was your flight?” I cringe at the unsteady tone of my voice.

“Nearly empty, so I was able to stretch out and relax. It was nice.” She pushes up to her feet and grabs the handle of her suitcase, rolling it behind her as she walks toward the laundry room. “It’s really clean in here.”

“I couldn’t sleep, so I did some deep cleaning.”

“I’m sorry to hear that.” She leaves her bag in the room and walks back toward me. “Was Charlie good for you?”

“She was,” I say with a nod, fidgeting with my baseball cap. I probably should have taken it off. We’re so awkward and stilted right now, I hate it. “I wanted to show you something.”

“Can we talk?” she asks at the same time.

We smile at each other with uneasy chuckles.

“You first,” I say. I don’t want her to see the bedroom and think I did it as some sort of manipulation tactic. Showing her the bedroom might sway her feelings, and I want her to be completely honest with me, even if it hurts.

“Are you sure?” She tilts her head. “I’m curious about what you have to show me.”

“I’m sure. Please.” I gesture toward the living room, regardless of what she wants to say, we should probably sit.

Dread pools in my stomach as she sits down on the couch and watches me sit on the other end. A whole cushion lies between us. It might as well be the space between earth and the sun for how cold and empty the air around me feels. She takes a deep breath as I hold my own.

“I’ve done a lot of thinking the past week about us. I really need to know that there’s nothing else you haven’t told me, no secrets or revelations to come out of nowhere. Because finding out that you were behind my scholarship made me feel as though my agency had been violated. I was so proud to have earned that on my own, on the merits of my intelligence and accomplishments. It feels like I cheated the system somehow.”

“I’m so sorry that I made you feel that way. I truly meant to tell you, there is no excuse for letting you find out that way. You have to know that you are smart, though. You would have succeeded without my money, I’m sure of it. I just wanted to be able to ease your mental and emotional load in the only way I could back then.”

“Would you change what you did if you could go back in time?”

“Honestly? No. I would still have formed the scholarship fund and awarded it to you, but I would change how you found out. I would have told you straight away.”

She frowns at that answer, but I refuse to lie to her. Being able to financially contribute to make her life easier fueled me. It kept me sane when I would lay away in bed replaying the look on her face when she locked the deadbolt to me on the balcony. Given the chance to change what I did afterwards wouldn’t matter because I’d always do this.

“That’s something at least,” she murmurs.

I can’t take the distance anymore and scoot closer to her, so I can wrap my hands around hers. “I need you to understand that if I have the opportunity to make your life easier, I’m doing it. There’s no amount of money, time, or effort that would be too much. You deserve the world, and I’ll do whatever it takes to give it to you.”

“Anything?”

“Anything.”

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