Page 129 of Courage, Dear Heart

I cover her hand with mine and drag in a slow breath, attempting to keep my galloping heart steady.

She smiles. “I don’t want to break up. I’m happy when I’m with you. Jamie is happier when you’re around. I’m a different person—not only from who I was when I lost CJ. But different from who I was before, too. I’ve grown a lot in the last few months. Found my footing for real this time. I spent the last two years in survival mode. And it took meeting you and losing my home and my store to snap me out of it. I love that place and all the memories CJ and I created there. But what used to be a safe port became an anchor dragging me down, holding me in place. I don’t know what the future holds beyond having a new place to live and a new job, but I want you to be in it. With me and Jamie.”

“And Daisy.” I smile. And then I kiss her because kissing her is vital for my survival. I kiss her because I have to. I kiss her because with her words, she erased every fear, every worry, every sleepless night since the day of the fire. I kiss her because I love her with everything I am and everything I have.

And she kisses me back with just as much need and want.

Until Jamie’s giggles break us apart like a bucket of icy water.

We both look at him and he’s hugging himself and making kissing faces. Then he goes up the ladder to the slide again, and we’re both giggling, too.

I take her hand. “My turn for confessions.”

She nods, waiting for me to speak.

“Let me fill you in on what’s been happening at the firm and the reason Leonora sold the building. And why I was stuck working with my father and couldn’t leave.” I feared mentioning the building would make her close up, but all I see in her eyes is curiosity.

Pulling her legs up on the bench, she turns—her full attention on me. And I tell her everything. Starting with my call to Grace to ask her for help in buying the building from under my father’s nose. “I would have bought it myself to keep the firm and my father from it if I had the means to.”

Jillian puts a hand up. “Wait, Grace bought the building?”

“No. I did. Grace lent me the money to buy it.”

Her mouth falls open with a gasp. “You own the building?Mybuilding?”

“Yes, and I’ll pay her back once my trust kicks in in two years.”

She blinks. “Trust?”

“Yes. That’s the other thing I wanted to talk to you about, the reason I can’t leave the firm. My grandfather set up a trust for each of his grandkids at birth. And mine is contingent on me working for the firm until I’m thirty-five. After that, I receive the money and I’m free to do whatever I want.”

She shakes her head. “I think I’m having information overload. Let me get this straight. Grace loaned you money to buy the building, and Leonora is in on it. That’s the reason she sold it, because she knew it was for you personally and not your father or your firm.”

“Correct.”

“And when you turn thirty-five, you’ll inherit some money and will pay your grandmother back.”

I nod. “Yes.”

“But what about your father? Isn’t he mad as hell? How will you work with him for the next two years? He’ll make your life miserable.”

“My father is no longer with the firm. Nor are Josh and his father. They quit.”

“What?”

I laugh at her expression. “Grace called a company meeting and brought in her lawyers. With the evidence I gathered?—”

“What evidence?”

I wince. “Yes, something else I didn’t have a chance to tell you.” I explain how I broke into my father’s office and what I found and everything that transpired since I found the notebooks and how Grace took over and gave the reins to me, my cousins, and their father.

“Holy shit.” She glances at Jamie to make sure he didn’t hear her. “That’s a lot to process.”

“And I couldn’t say anything until it was all set. I didn’t want to get your hopes up in case we didn’t succeed. Plus, the NDA.”

“You signed an NDA? Why are you telling me all of this?”

“Because it includes you. All of this includes you. If you had read those papers you signed, you would have seen that half of the building is yours. Leonora sold it to me with the contingency that you would be co-owner.”

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