Page 50 of Marrying the Gardener
“The kind of money I’d need to be on equal footing with my family isn’t the sort of investment that anyone smart would make without an emotional motivation, and I’m not going to abuse my friendship with Viktor like that.”
“With or without the initial emotional influence, you’d makegreat returns. You’re brilliant.”
I finally clasp the piece and sit up. “If I’m so brilliant, why’d I lose at Monopoly?”
“That is, obviously, because I’m luckier than you.”
“Uh-huh. And doesn’tluckhave a place in actual business, too?”
Kaleb sets the organized money tray in the box. “I’m going to suggest that your accessibility to pitch an idea that Viktor Bachelor will accept counts as a sufficient amount of luck. Are you worried you won’t be able to stay afloat on borrowed money?”
I stare dully at the man who is legally my husband. “Am I worried that I, with zero real-life business experience, won’t be able to make good on my friend’s faith in me? Hm. I wonder.”
“You won’t have to approach it alone. Viktor knows how to run a small kingdom. He’d be happy to guide you.”
“I know. I never planned to forge blindly into a business, thinking that all my research would cover actual experience. All I want is to make sure I’m bartering with my own money, which was always meant to be mine anyway. Ethically, that makes me feel better, because then Viktor won’t be obligated to train me in order to protect his own assets. I’ll be able to stand on my own and rely on him as a friend, not an investor with skin in the game.”
“You’ve really thought all of this through, haven’t you?” Kaleb gathers the Chance and Community Chest cards. “You’re sure your motivation isn’t to spite your family and look at them and say how you did things on your own?”
“Kaleb,” I state. “My family consists of a bunch of moronic chauvinists. Do I come off so stupid to you that you think any of this is a matter ofpride? I’m fully aware that I could take over the entire world, and my father would somehow make it because he raised me right. This isn’t about spite or getting anyone back.This isn’t about proving anything to myself. It’s just about using money that doesn’t make me sick to think about. I can count on one hand the people in this world I consider friends. I am not going to take advantage of them, even for a moment. They are much too precious for me to consider anything that might lead to my losing them. And I’m sure you know what they say about going into business with your friends.”
Kaleb lowers his gaze. “Not to.”
“Exactly. Money causes problems, yet it’s also so often the solution to them. Family businesses get big and torn apart because of differing opinions on large-scale decisions. Heck, regular families can’t manage to keep themselves together when money issues arise. It’s the leading cause of divorce.”
“Aren’t the Bachelors different?” Kaleb asks, turning the little silver wheelbarrow over between his fingers.
“What do you mean?”
“The Bachelor brothers leave all business and money in Viktor’s hands. They let him take care of everything. Lukas has been bringing inmillionswhile he’s been on tour, yet every cent of profit funnels directly to Viktor, who handles it. Money to them isn’t as important as each other, and I know it wouldn’t be as important to them as you.”
Returning to the box, I put the top hat with the other playing pieces and lift Kaleb’s chin as I settle myself beside him on the carpet. “You’re a little idealistic, Kaleb. However they handle their own finances is a completely different situation; I’m not a part of their family. I’m not going to use them, so don’t bring it up again, okay?”
“What if you were a part of their family?” he asks.
My nose scrunches. “That would leave me to choose between Kyran or Lukas…and respectfully…no to both those options.” Kyran makesemo teenagerslook happy half the time, and Lukas? Lukas is six foot seven inches of raw, rippling muscles.You can’t keep a shirt on him, and I’m half convinced he’s absolutely insane. Skating my thumb over Kaleb’s lips, I murmur, “Besides…I thoughtyouwanted to marry me.”
Kaleb lifts a knuckle to my cheek. “I want you to be free. And I can’t bear the path you’ve found to that freedom. I dread the next time we have to go in front of your family. I hate seeing the person they turn you into. I hate being the person you need me to be.”
“It won’t be forever. It won’t even be long. When we were told a month ago, my grandfather’s cancer was rampant already, and since there’s only a low chance he’d survive at his age regardless, he’s denied all efforts of treatment beyond what will make him comfortable as his body gives out. His lifestyle has always been abysmal. I’m hardly giving it another month before we see a rapid decline, and…” Closing my eyes, I lower my head against Kaleb’s shoulder, oddly comfortable when he wraps his arms around me. “This is horrible, isn’t it? I’m hoping for someone to die so badly I’m counting down the days.”
“I don’t think it’s horrible to hope that the last thing standing in the way of your emancipation disappears. If I were still in your shoes, I’ve already confessed the lengths I would have gone to.”
Right. He’d have taken care of his parents himself. That makes me shudder, which makes Kaleb reel me in closer, until I’m seated on his thighs. His lips tickle my neck with soft kisses. I burrow, drawing from his strength, wondering why it doesn’t seem so exhausting right now. “It’s different, isn’t it?” I ask.
“What is?” He nips at my jawline.
“Your parents beat you.”
“Your father hits you, too.”
He does. But…less now than when I was a child. And he never beat me bloody. Not in the way it sounds like Kaleb’s parents beat him. “My grandfather has never hit me, though. It doesn’t seem right for me to want someone to die, even if he’sa pig. Wanting someone to die just because they’re crude and simpleminded is horrible.”
“Making someone’s life a living—” he swears, “—is cruel. The emotional abuse the leading men in your family subject you to is cruel. The expectations your father gives you while entreating you to behave as though you’re a thoughtless fool iscruel. Don’t compare your brand of slavery to mine. Regardless of the extent of the physical abuse, both are still demeaning and degrading. You don’twantsomeone to die, Crimson. You just want to be treated like a human with thoughts and feelings and worth. That isn’t horrible at all. That’s a bare minimum desire. Some would even argue that it’s a bare minimum right.”
His fingers comb through my hair as he kisses the crown.
I soak it in, reveling in the security.
