Was this her way of reminding him where he came from? That it was all right to have connections to things, to people? His mother might have been gone, but he still had family here, despite the vast differences among him and his brothers. They were
his
family. They were his home. Sterling had reminded him of that. She had given him a sense of home when he thought he’d never feel that again.
“Jack?” Neil voice snapped him back to the moment. “You look like you’re going to puke. What’s wrong?”
“I’m in love.” Jack looked up from the pages of the scrapbook. “And I screwed it all up.”
“Damn right you did.” Penn waved off Cole’s groping for pictures and crossed her arms over her chest. “Sterling would rather die than take the easy way out. Frankly, she’s a sitting duck for takers. Her parents take, her sisters take,
you
take. People are always shitting on her and I’m tired of it.”
What the hell was she talking about?
“You may not have had a stable family growing up, Jack, but it was probably for the best. Sterling lived her whole life taking care of assholes who have no regard for her hard-earned money, or her feelings.” She walked around the table and squeezed her way beside him. “This isn’t my place but you need to know. Sterling supports her parents, who at every turn get her deeper and deeper in the hole.”
Now he really was going to puke. “I’m a piece of shit.”
She leaned closer. “You’re just figuring out that now?”
“Get your ass over there and apologize, Jack.” Of course Finn would be the one to nudge him toward true love.
True love?
He nodded and his chest filled ten times its size. It
was
true love.
“Right. I can win her back.” He had to. His future just didn’t look right without Sterling in it.
“I thought you were leaving?” Neil asked.
That was the plan. It had always been the plan. Until he met Sterling. He knew that very first night on the boat that she was different. Special. He just didn’t want to believe it. But now, staring at the appreciative faces of his brothers, he knew without a doubt this was a person he never wanted to live without.
He looked up at Neil and shook his head. “I have a foundation to run.” Jack turned and scooped Penn into his arms. “Thank you.”
She tensed with his close contact and he could have sworn he heard a growl over his shoulder from where Cole was standing.
He’d just convinced his brothers to agree to the auction. He had a business that required his attention. But none of that mattered. None of it mattered if he didn’t have Sterling to share it with.
“Penn, I’m going to need your help.”
He loved Sterling. And it was time she found out.
“I’ve got some major groveling to do.”
…
Sterling stepped out into the blinding sun, holding the door for a woman and her child as they scurried into the office building. She had just signed for a new mortgage. Rose’s mortgage broker contact had come through, able to consolidate her parents’ debt and even lower her monthly payments.
As she walked to her car, her cell phone rang from inside her purse. She fished it out and said, “Hello, Penn.”
“How did it go?”
“It was positive. Everything seems to be on the right track.” At least for now. She still didn’t trust her parents. She didn’t think she ever would again.
“Listen…” The tone in Penn’s voice was all too familiar. She was about to ask for a favor. “Your meeting was in Bloor West Village, right?”
“Yes.”
“The highway is only a hop, skip, and a jump from you. Do you think you could meet me at Yonge-Dundas Square?”
“Why the hell would I go all the way downtown?” Something was up. Penn’s usual requests were more along the lines of “if you’re in the area can you grab me a coffee?” or “since you’re at the drugstore, why don’t you grab me some tampons?”
“Penn, what’s wrong?”
“Nothing. I just need to talk, and as far from the Madewood brothers as possible. Can you meet me in front of the Hard Rock Cafe?”
Something must have happened with Cole. “Honey, I’ll be there in half an hour.”
Sterling parked in the closest garage to the restaurant. She could only imagine how much this parking spot would set her back.
She had agreed to meet Penn because her friend sounded distressed, but also because she was in no hurry to return to her empty basement apartment. The fight with Jack last week tainted her living space so much that she barely spent any time at home. His accusations had broken her heart. But the loud
crack
she heard when he reminded her she was holding on to something she could never have confirmed that her heart had not only been broken, but her so-called life was not a life at all.
She’d told herself all along that this was a fling, something temporary to get her mind off the drama in her real life. A once-in-a-lifetime experience with an amazing, attractive man. Despite telling herself that every day, her heart apparently didn’t get the memo.
But getting involved with Jack Vaughn had taught her a valuable lesson. She was in control of her life. She was her own worst enemy. And it was time to fight. Starting with the mooches who lived in her home.
Next month, she would move out of her apartment and into her house. The house that she bought. The house that had her name on the mortgage. Her parents would move into her basement unit and her sisters would remain with her in the house until they left to pursue postsecondary education. She would never make the mistake of leaving them with her parents again.
She walked out onto the street. The air felt different against her skin. It even smelled different. And it had nothing to do with the unbearable humidity. She was free.
And all alone.
She’d tried fun and exciting. She’d broken out of her shell, even if only for a little while. But would she be able to maintain this new way of living without Jack?
Chaos and disorder led to trouble and she’d had enough of that as a child—even as an adult. She compartmentalized her life, neatly packaging herself. If she planned and plotted and organized everything then she would succeed. She’d have a perfect trouble-free life.
What a dummy she’d been.
No matter how organized she was, it didn’t stop the fact that she owed the bank. It didn’t stop her parents from screwing her over. It didn’t stop Jack from believing the worst.
She wiped a tear from her eye and turned the corner, walking a few blocks. When she reached the cafe, she waited. And surveyed the crowd. No sign of Penn. She paced the street, walking closer to the square. It was filled with people, and not just locals but tourists, cameras in hand, taking in the sights of the venue and the billboards. Traffic filled the streets. Cars were lined up bumper-to-bumper, waiting for their light to turn green as pedestrians crossed the four-way walkway.
As she turned in a circle, her eye caught on something across the street. An advertisement. She recognized the logo for Bistro, one of the Madewood restaurants. Also a new logo, one she had brainstormed with Jack only last week. The billboard was an announcement for the Vivian Madewood Foundation Charity Auction.
She gasped. He’d done it. Their plan had worked. Her heart leaped with excitement for Jack. She had no doubt this would be the first of many events that would make a difference in the life of a foster child. But he wouldn’t be here to attend any of them. Because he had left. Without a word.
The memory of that night, of his accusations, still stung. She didn’t think she’d ever be able to forget the look on his face when he registered the information on her bank statements. His behavior only proved why she couldn’t, wouldn’t, trust the opposite sex. They fell for the fantasy, the perfect-on-paper Sterling, and when reality came crashing down, they turned and ran.
“Sterling Andrews.” Her name was called out from above the crowd in a muffled tone, the voice oddly familiar.
She rose on her tiptoes, trying to see above the crowd, but she didn’t have to try very hard. It parted in front of her and she walked into the throng of people, a nervous excitement in her stomach.
“Keep moving,” the voice directed. “Thank you very much.” It grew louder.
When the crowd had fully parted she spotted Jack at the end of the square, a bullhorn in his hand. She froze. What the hell was he doing here? Where the hell was Penn?
Damn it, Penn!
She had been duped again. She had to give her best friend credit. She was an excellent liar.
When the crowd had parted further, she noticed a cameraman and a woman with a microphone standing beside Jack. She gasped and lifted her hand to her chest. It wasn’t just any cameraman. She recognized the red lettering and the logo for
Toronto Gossip.
The city’s most trashy—and most visited—gossip blog.
When Jack finally spotted her from the other end of the square, he planted his feet on the ground and motioned for the cameraman to turn the camera in her direction, then put the bullhorn to his mouth. Was he really going to air their dirty laundry in the most intimate and public way possible?
“Sterling Andrews, I’m sorry.”
Maybe he was. She smiled, unable to stop her feet from walking toward him.
“I was a jackass,” he continued. “I let my insecurities push you away.”
She walked closer still, the eyes of the crowd following her as she approached. Given her current situation, she now knew why Jack disliked being in the public eye. It was unnerving.
“I have all the money in the world and I realized I want the only thing that my money can’t buy.” He paused and her heart seized, waiting for his answer. “You. The only thing in this world I want…is you.”
She had closed the distance between them now. A woman sighed to her right.
That sigh, that romantic gesture, forced Sterling to growl in disgust. She’d bet the two dollars in her bank account the woman wouldn’t be swooning if she knew exactly what Mr. Vaughn had accused her of.
“Please tell me I still have a chance with you. I’m so sorry.”
She’d spent the last couple of days moping around, depressed that Jack thought so poorly of her, but now anger simmered beneath her skin. She crossed her arms over her chest. “What made you change your mind?”
The cameraman panned over to Jack.
He stood straight, breathing at a rapid pace. “Well…” He grinned. “I got this really cool scrapbook.”
She was happy he appreciated her efforts. But was it too little too late? She tapped her foot in a steady rhythm, waiting for more.
He placed one hand on her shoulder and squeezed her tightly. “And because I love you.”
She sucked in a hard breath just as the cameraman swooped in for a closer shot. “What did you just say?”
He lifted the bullhorn to his mouth. “I—”
Sterling swatted it away. She didn’t understand. He hated his private business being splashed around the Internet.
Her heart fluttered. “Jack… This is all on camera.” She pointed to the man standing beside her. “This is very public. I thought you—”
“I love you, Sterling. I want the whole world to know it. And I want you to know that I’m willing to do the one thing I despise to prove to you just how much.”
Even if his confession was true, there was no way he could continue to love a woman who had let herself get caught up in her parents’ addiction. She shook her head. “There are things you don’t know. Things that would make you think twice about loving me.” She looked over at the camera, tears welling in her eyes. It seemed as though not only Jack’s dirty laundry was going to be exposed today.
He smiled. “I know all about your parents.”
“How…” The reporter shoved the microphone closer to her mouth. “What…”
“Penn told me.”
Damn Penn sticking her nose where it didn’t belong. Again.
“So you know…”
He nodded.
“And you still said…”
He nodded again. “I didn’t think I’d ever find a woman who would love me for more than just money, and everything that comes along with being a part of the Madewood legacy. Then I met you.”
She shook her head. “I’m broke. I have addict parents. I have siblings who are going to need to be put through university. I—”
He swooped in and kissed her. She softened against him, responding to the heat and hard flesh of his body. She would never get used to this. His kisses. Every time was like the first time.
“You have more money than you can spend in five lifetimes. You can go anywhere, do anything, be with anyone you want. Why would you want to be with me?”
“Because when the rest of the world has me pigeonholed, you have an uncanny ability to see me—the real me.”
Tears stung her eyes. This was exactly what she wanted to hear. “But… You’re leaving. You…left.”
He shook his head and pointed to the billboard. “I have a foundation to run.”
She gripped his shoulders, her arm bumping into the microphone. “I knew you could do it.”
“Sterling, this last week without you has been torture. I’ll still be able to run my restaurants, check in with them when I can, but my home is here. With you.”
The reporter sighed beside them just before she was bumped from behind and stumbled into his body. Behind them the crowd returned to their business, obviously bored with their spectacle. The entire world had fallen away. That’s what happened when he was near. She loved him. All of him. With or without money.
“I get butterflies every time I think of you,” she blurted. “I realize now that everything in my life was boring.
I
was boring. But I like salsa dancing, puking off the side of boats, and having sex on countertops and the beach, and—”
He raised his hand and squeezed her lips between his thumb and forefinger. “I’m the one supposed to be making the speech here.”
She laughed. She did sort of take the situation and run with it. But when the realization hit, there was nothing that was going to stop her from getting what she wanted. And what she wanted was right in front of her.
“I don’t care if you’re boring. I just need you.” Jack brought the bullhorn up to his mouth. “I love you, Sterling Andrews.” His declaration was likely heard from blocks away.