Page 67 of Billionaire Undeceived - Devon

“I know that,” I said ruefully. “But it wasn’t something I wanted to discuss with anyone until now. I just wanted to put it behind me and move on.”

“Reese changed all that,” Kaleb guessed.

“I had to tell her,” I told him truthfully. “I didn’t want her to think that I didn’t take our relationship seriously. I had a reputation as a hookup guy who never made a commitment. She needed to know why.”

Kaleb nodded. “I agree. I’m glad you finally decided to share it with us, too. Your whole attitude never made sense to me. Now it does. You finally found the woman you could trust enough to take a leap of faith.”

“I had to take that leap or let her go,” I said truthfully. “Reese could have never been a fling for me. She probably deserves a man much better than me, but I’ll figure out how to be a good boyfriend. I just don’t have much practice.”

“You don’t need it,” Kaleb informed me. “You already make her feel special every day because you put her needs before your own. You’re proving that right now. You kept your mouth shut about her going to Billings this morning even though I knew it was eating your guts out to let her go.”

“Did I really have a choice?” I asked drily. “Reese is her own woman. She was going to go.”

She’d already warned me about that, and I’d had to accept her decision.

“Maybe not,” Tanner considered. “But you could have been an asshole about it.”

“I couldn’t,” I told him. “She was too damn excited about the whole thing. For once in my life, it was impossible for me to be an asshole and spoil this for her.” I paused before I asked both of my brothers, “How else can I be the guy she needs? I’ve thought about dozens of things I could give her, but she doesn’t really care about my money or the material things I can give her.”

“Hannah and Anna don’t care about the material things, either,” Tanner told me. “Hannah has always had her own ambitions, even after I became wealthy enough to support both of us. Support Reese in hers. Don’t make the mistakes that I did. Her career is just as important as yours, even though you’re a billionaire.”

“Reese does something more important than I do,” I answered. “She saves lives and takes care of people. I just make a lot of money. Don’t get me wrong, I care about Remington as much as you two, and I wouldn’t want to do anything else, but Reese’s work is important. Anything that’s important to her is important to me. I watched and learned from your mistakes with Hannah.”

“That’s probably the one good thing about being the youngest,” Kaleb joked. “You can learn from the stupid mistakes we made and not make the same ones.”

I grinned at him. “It’s definitely a benefit. But it wasn’t always easy being the tag along little brother when we were younger.”

There wasn’t much of an age difference between the three of us, but I’d always felt like the one who was lagging behind sometimes.

“You weren’t that big of a pain in the ass,” Tanner drawled. “But I’m damn glad you’re with Reese now. What’s the future plan?”

I shook my head. “We haven’t looked that far ahead. I try not to go there and just appreciate the fact that she’s in my life and that she wants my sorry ass. I don’t want to scare her off by wanting to plan our entire future, but it’s not easy for menotto talk about it.”

“That’s probably a good idea given the situation right now,” Kaleb said. “I went through something similar with Anna. Her life was in Los Angeles. Mine was here. I would have relocated for her, but I’m damn glad that she liked it here and wanted to stay. If she’d wanted to keep doing big tours, I would have found a way to deal with that, too. I want to protect her, but I don’t want to stifle her career. She’s busted her ass and sacrificed a lot for her music career.”

“It’s going to be a little bit different for you,” Tanner warned. “Hannah grew up here and her mom is here. Anna didn’t have family in California. Reese’s parents are in Spokane, and from what I’ve heard, they’re pretty close.”

“I’m not even sure she’d be willing to relocate because of that,” I grumbled. “She’s an only child. Her parents are past retirement age, but they work because they still can, and they want to do it. She’s going to want to be close to them as they get older.”

“Can’t say that I blame her,” Tanner answered. “I know how important it is for us to be close to Mom so we can support her.”

“Don’t put those roadblocks in your way right now, Devon,” Kaleb warned. “If you love each other, everything can be worked out. Spokane isn’t that far away. You do have a private jet. I know the need to figure out your future is pretty strong, but sometimes you have to take things one step at a time.”

Love?

It suddenly hit me that I actuallywasromantically in love for the first damn time in my life.

Why was I only figuring this out now?

Maybe because it had started with friendship.

Followed by fondness and physical attraction.

And then it had morphed into this monstrous obsession that I couldn’t quite get a grip on, no matter how hard I tried to contain it.

I couldn’t say that it was love at first sight for me.

Then again, I was probably slow when it came to matters of the heart since I’d never found a woman I’d felt this way about before.

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