5
Andy
“This issome straight up Downton Abbey bullshit,” I said, fiddling with the strap of my bag as I stared up at theactual goddamn country manorthat was apparently Kit’sancestral fucking home.
I wasn’t getting used to that anytime soon.
He’d explained everything to me in the car. About his dad being the head of the foundation we both worked for, about Alderwold Hall, which he called his familyseat. About the fact that Stanley had known him since he was a baby and worked for his dad for almost forty years.
Then he’d explained that his surname really was Everly, that Oakesbury was atitle, and that was different. Somehow.
When I tried to think about it, my brain just threw up a wall of static. This wasn’t happening. Thiscouldn’t behappening.
“Mm,” Kit agreed, standing with his hands in his coat pockets. “I think we have actually loaned it out for a period drama or two. Mother would know which.”
He looked so much like the Kit I’d always known, but he suddenly wasn’t. Not entirely, anyway. This was a whole new side of him I hadn’t known a goddamn thing about.
I wasn’t stupid. I’d known Kit had to come from money, and I knew he played it down. Probably because one of the first conversations we’d had was about the obscenity of billionaires in a world where people were starving, homeless, and dying of preventable disease.
I didn’t meanKitwhen I said that. He was clearly one of the good guys.
And he was my friend.
And his family owned a house so big I couldn’t see the whole thing from where we were standing.
And they didn’t evenlivehere.
I was still working on making room for all of those things in my heart. I hadn’t realized he came fromthiskind of landed-and-titled money, and I would never even have thought to ask. I’d thought maybe he came frommy dad’s a lawyermoney.
This was something else entirely.
“Is this why they call you Prince Charming in the IT department? Did I miss the day you told everyone about this?” I asked.
“I always thought that was more about the accent. And perhaps a certain air of snobbishness I can’t quite shake.”
“I’ve watched you eat a taco,” I said. “Snob is... not a word I’ve ever associated with you.”
“I’m not sure I shouldn’t take that as an insult.”
Another silence fell between us as Kit looked down at the same red canvas sneakers with the holes in them that he always wore, and I fought the sinking feeling in my stomach.
Okay. Okay.
I could handle this.
“You know, umm,” I began, fighting my tongue to make it say what I wanted to say. “You know how, when we have pizza nights, you always offer to pay, and I always insist on splitting the bill?”
“Mm,” Kit said, still staring up at the house as though it washisfirst time seeing it, too.
“You’re buying from now on.”
Kit snorted, a smile tugging at his lips for the first time all day.
I liked it when he smiled. His smile made it a little more bearable. A little more like looking at the Kit I’d always known.
“Every Friday night for the rest of our lives,” he promised.
I took a deep breath and let it out slowly, watching the cloud of fog billowing in front of me. It was a lot colder here than it’d been in London. The morning frost hadn’t even evaporated yet, and the air was sharp enough for snow.
