He raised his brow at me. “You’re not the only one he’s been reaming our entire lives. He’s always thought I wasn’t serious enough, and because I was the spare to the heir, he had to worry about me a little bit. I didn’t get it as bad as Arthur, and you got it way less harsh than either of us.”
“I don’t think that’s true.” Any time that man and I were in the same room he commented about something.
“That’s because you get to work in your office on the other side of the building. Everyday it’s ‘Samuel, the clients aren’t friends, stop being so nice.’ But I also get the most deals and that’s why.
“And the more I thought about what he said, the more I realized how wrong he really was. Rachel is perfectfor me.Not his vision of me, but who I truly am. So I proposed to her anyway and it’s the best thing that’s ever happened to me.”
I leaned back in the barstool, considering his words. I assumed Arthur had it much worse than all of us, but Samuel had always seemed so… normal. He was always happy and Dad didn’t say much, at least not in front of me. But maybe thatwas part of the problem. Maybe this was more of an act that I thought. His own form of being the family fuck up.
“We should all probably go to therapy, huh?” I asked.
He laughed then. “I am.”
My brows rose. “Really?”
He nodded. “Rachel convinced me to go, and it’s really helped.”
That made sense. Rachel was good for him. And even if I was joking, it was probably true. Though I thought therapy was a good idea, I’d never gone because any time someone talked about it my father gave the very patriarchal answer of “men don’t need therapy,” which had probably stuck with me longer than it should.
I added that to the mental list of things I’d tell my therapist one day.
“That’s great.”
We fell into a brief silence. It was snowing outside and I watched the flakes come down, bathing the world in a sheen of white. The large hearth crackled in the corner, and the smell of burning wood was heavy around us.
“I do like her,” Samuel said.
“Yeah?”
He nodded. “You need someone willing to tell you you’re wrong. And she likes when I make fun of you, and Rachel loves her. Can’t get any better than that.”
Over the past week, I’d seen her get closer with my family and had felt she had fit well, but hearing him say that settled that into place.
“Thanks, Sam,” I said.
He shrugged. “Hey, we’re all in this trauma bond together now.”
I laughed. He was right, and while I felt better, my head was still a mess about Juniper.
Juniper
The smellof the fresh ice hit me instantly. I was excited. Ice skating was actually something I liked, and I was good at.
“I can help you skate,” Ellery said as he laced up his hockey skates. “I’m pretty good.”
I almost told him I didn’t need help, but thought it would be nice to surprise him. “Sounds good,” I said.
I stared down at my laces. Though I did like ice skating, I hated lacing up my shoes.
“Here,” he kneeled in front of me and took my foot into his lap, keeping the guard on so as to not hurt his leg.
“Oh I can—”
“Don’t worry about it,” he said as he began tying the skates.
I watched as his deft hands laced them up. His curly black hair was perfectly styled, as always. Seeing him on his knees for me made me think about the other times he was on his knees for me in the past week. He looked pretty dashing today. He had on a black peacoat with jeans and a red scarf that covered the bottom half of his face. I was certain he could make anything look good, but damn did he have taste.
When he looked up, those bright blue eyes held mine captive. “Switch.”
