My parents had done the best they could. I believed that, most days. But they never would have dropped everything to help me.
I’d been on my own since I was old enough to reach the stove.
The last time anyone had offered to take care of me was in the early days with Silas. Red roses and champagne, promises whispered against my skin. I’d let myself believe that after everything I’d endured, I was finally going to get my happily ever after.
But Silas never gave me freedom or support. He used money and gifts as leverage. A gilded cage was still a cage.
This was different. Having a band of brothers offering me the keys and letting me decide where to point them?
I didn’t know how to process it.
Rainbow wiggled off Faith’s lap and waddled over to me, her three-normal-steps-plus-one-cha-cha gait making her look like she was perpetually recovering from a wild night out. She plopped down on my lap, her mismatched eyes somehow both looking at me and also definitely checking out the wine bottle on the coffee table.
“So, this is all because Knox told them to watch out for me?”
“Yep.”
My throat tightened. “Which means Knox could just as easily tell them to stop.”
Faith’s expression flickered. “First of all, that would never happen. Even in some alternate universe where Knox lost his mind and rescinded it, I’d be right there to reinstate it. You’re my best friend, Harper. I know we haven’t been friends long, but yousaw me through my darkest days.” Her voice thickened. “I’m not going anywhere. And where I go? Those five men go.”
My eyes welled with tears I refused to let fall.
“But like I said”—Faith’s voice softened—“you don’t have to worry about that. Knox would never do it.”
“Why?” The word came out smaller than I intended. “Why wouldn’t he?”
“Harper”—she angled her body toward me, her expression landing somewhere between pity and amusement for how oblivious I apparently was—“you know how Ryker is Knox’s lawyer?”
“Yeah.”
“Well, the side effect of that is, he talks about Knox constantly. Between Ryker and Dakota and the other guys, I hear about Knox pretty much every day.” She paused, making sure I was listening. “Aside from his ex and daughter, in fourteen years, Knox has never asked these men to watch out for a woman before. You’re the first.”
The words landed like stones in still water, sending ripples through everything I thought I understood.
“So, if he asked them to protect you”—Faith raised an eyebrow—“it means Knox cares about you. A lot. I bet he’s falling in love with you.”
My heart stopped. Stuttered. Restarted at twice its normal speed.
“That can’t be right.”
But even as I said it, something warm and terrifying bloomed in my chest.
Rainbow let out another earth-shattering fart.
“Oh my God, Rainbow.” Faith gagged. “You’re really killing the moment here.”
The dog thumped her tail against the couch, completely pleased with herself.
I laughed despite everything. Despite the tears threatening to spill and the way my world had just tilted on its axis.
Faith loved this ridiculous creature unconditionally. Genetic disaster and all.
There was something beautiful about that. Something that made me believe people could love the messy, broken parts of each other.
Maybe even the messy, broken parts of me.
Jace came and went. He studied my spreadsheet like it actually mattered, complimented the discipline behind every number, and helped me set up accounts where my money would actually grow. He even offered to buy me a house outright, framing it as doing him a favor.
