Page 41 of Where Secrets Lie

The bush shivered, but not from the wind. A figure with dark hair stood from behind the leaves. She blinked. “Blake?”

Carrying a camera with a high-powered lens, Blake stepped from behind the bush. “Sorry to scare you.” He was trying notto smile, but a grin kept peeking through. When he glanced at Hez, they both chuckled.

“What are you doing here?” She turned and checked Hez’s incision. It had been spared the onslaught of mud and no blood oozed out. “What’s going on?”

Hez wiped red mud from his cheeks. “I asked him to come. He’s supposed to be taking pictures of me proposing. This wasn’t quite how I imagined it playing out.” Hez gestured for Blake to come closer.

Blake reached them and turned the camera around to bump through a series of pictures. There was a perfect shot of them walking through dappled sunlight with her hand on his arm and another of them looking toward their names in the tree bark. The next one showed Hez starting to go down on one knee while Savannah stared at the camera with sheer terror on her face. When the last picture flipped into view, it was of Hez face down in the mud with Savannah on top of him.

Laughter bubbled up in her throat. “It looks like we were about to go head-to-head in a mud fight.” Her smile faded. “I did it again, huh? Ruined a proposal? You’re going to get tired of trying.”

“Third time’s the charm?” He sank onto one knee and pulled out the velvet box while Blake took a few steps back and raised the camera. “We’ve had rough spots, my love—horrible, agonizing experiences—but one thing has never changed. I love you—I always have and I always will. I love the sound of your laughter and the way your mind works. I love hearing you talk to the dog first thing in the morning like he’s a person. I love the little line between your eyes when you’re concentrating, and I love how your eyes reflect your mood.”

He reached out to curl a lock of her hair around his finger. “I love the way your hair glows red in the sunshine. I’m a better man when I’m with you, Savannah. I hope you know that. I want us to experience all of our tomorrows together.”

When he opened the lid of the box, she gasped at the sight of a halo of rubies around a familiar diamond. “It’s beautiful.” She stared into his hopeful blue eyes, and her chest expanded with the strength of the love she felt for this man.

“Will you marry me again—this time forever? I won’t fail you again, babe.”

Joy overwhelmed her, and she could barely breathe, let alone speak, so she managed a nod before she could force out a trembling, “I will.”

Hez plucked the ring from the box and slipped it onto her finger. It fit perfectly, and she flung herself into his arms. They toppled over together, right smack in the middle of a mud puddle.

Hez held her and laughed in her ear. “Life will always be an adventure with you, but I’m ready.”

Chapter 23

It finally happened.

The realization hit Hez as he drifted into wakefulness. He and Savannah were actually getting married again. The ring was out of his pocket and on her finger. It was official.

He stretched and rolled over, relishing the sensation of being in his own bed for the first time in a week. Better yet, he’d slept through the night without having anyone come in and check on him—except for his dog. Cody had been overjoyed when Hez arrived home yesterday evening and had been very clingy ever since. Cody was a rescue and feared being abandoned again, so he hadn’t taken Hez’s weeklong absence particularly well.

Hez rolled out of bed and walked into the kitchen. Sunlight streamed in through the windows, creating warm, bright spots on the hardwood floor. He stood in one while he made coffee. He inhaled deeply, savoring the rich aroma of brewing coffee as he poured himself a bowl of granola and sliced a banana on top of it, all while his emotionally needy dog kept trying to trip him. It was wonderful to be back in his own space again.

It wouldn’t be his space for much longer, though. He pictured Savannah walking out of the bedroom, lured by the scentof fresh coffee. The sunlight would bring out her first-thing-in-the-morning beauty: the gold flecks in her sleepy green eyes, the highlights in her auburn hair, her perfect zero-makeup skin. She’d slip into his arms, still warm from the bed.

Would they stay in his condo? Probably not. Savannah’s cottage was just off campus, so it would be more convenient for them both. But her place wasn’t much bigger than his, and hopefully they’d need room for a nursery soon. He smiled at that thought and carried his breakfast into his home office to do a little virtual house hunting.

He turned on his computer—and was greeted by a notification that he had 536 unread emails. He sighed and took a swig of coffee. Maybe he could look at houses while he took a break later in the day.

Since Hez’s surgery and in-hospital recovery had gone well, his hospital discharge instructions had been mostly limited to incision care and avoiding driving or strenuous activity. However, the neurologist had warned that he might have problems with his vision and ability to focus for long periods. An oversized monitor and the large-font option on his computer solved the vision issue. The big, steaming TGU mug next to his keyboard helped with his focus.

The first mug powered him through an initial pass as he culled spam, notices of meetings that happened while he was in the hospital, perky announcements about campus recycling day, and the sort of things even his foggy brain could handle. By the time he went back to the kitchen for a refill, his inbox was down to 253 and he felt pretty productive. But his ears were ringing and his vision was blurry. It was probably time for a break, but he couldn’t bring himself to stop now.

He finished his breakfast and half his second mug as he triaged the remaining emails. He flagged the ones that could wait until he was back in the office in a week or so when he could think more clearly, starred the ones he needed to deal with before then, and put exclamation points on the handful he really should get to today. Fortunately, most of those didn’t require much work.

Hez drained the last of his coffee and took his dishes to the sink. Cody had been asleep under the desk, but he woke as soon as Hez moved and trailed him into the kitchen, his nails clicking on the floor. He even tried to follow Hez into the bathroom and sat outside, whimpering and scratching the door until his owner reappeared. The poor dog really was convinced that Hez could vanish without warning again if he let him out of his sight.

Despite the heavy dose of caffeine, Hez yawned as he sat in front of his computer again. He shook his head. Despite a good night’s sleep and having worked for barely an hour, he felt a nap coming on. He decided to knock one last item off his to-do list. Then he could find a sunny spot on a comfy couch and browse real estate listings until he drifted off.

He opened the email from Savannah with the attached loan documents she’d asked him to look over. It had arrived in his inbox at almost the same moment he was attacked. Was that a coincidence? Or was someone trying to stop the loan from going through? He couldn’t be sure, but that just made him more determined to read the documents before he did anything else.

Hez wasn’t a corporate lawyer, but he could see why Jess was eager to close the loan. TGU currently had over two dozen loans from eleven different lenders, each with its own termsand payment schedule—and none of those looked as good as this one. The interest rate was lower than any of the other loans, there was no prepayment penalty, and TGU could make payments either monthly or annually. Not bad. Not bad at all. The numbers and letters danced a bit in his vision, and he blinked before continuing.

Hez had never heard of the lender, Hornbrook Finance, LLC, but that didn’t mean much. New York was full of serious financial firms that no one outside of Wall Street knew anything about. After a little googling, Hez was satisfied that Hornbrook was a serious company. The founder, James Hornbrook, had left Goldman Sachs a decade ago to found his own firm. Jess had also worked at Goldman, which was presumably how she knew him. Hornbrook had over $3 billion under management, so he would have no trouble making the loan to TGU. Besides, he had a dog in one of his publicity pictures—a magnificent cream-colored golden retriever—which boosted Hez’s view of him.

Hez could feel the tug of his overstuffed sofa in the sunlit living room, but he forced himself to read—or at least skim—the dozens of pages of boilerplate terms. Even blown up to sixteen-point font, they made his vision blur. These turgid, complex clauses had all been written by Hornbrook’s lawyers, of course, so they favored the lender. Hez was pretty sure this was all standard language that Hornbrook included in all deals and that he wouldn’t be willing to negotiate. Still, Hez owed it to Savannah and TGU to have at least a general idea of what these documents said.

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