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White pine stood like skeletal bones, new framing replacing the once black and crumbled walls. The sheet rocking had begun in the section near the study. Shingles replaced the charred ceiling.
A newly constructed frame and roof covered the blackened bookshelves, still filled with old knick-knacks from my past.
“Oh my god.” My throat was thick with emotion, my eyes burning with tears, my chest filling with overwhelming gratitude. “Oh my god, Rook. Why?”
He didn’t answer, instead pointed towards a large portable storage. “I tried to save some of your stuff. I think some of it is salvageable.”
I swirled in his arms, and clasped his face, tugging it down so he would look at me. “Why, Rook? Why are you doing all this.”
He didn’t speak right away, but only stared at me; the silent, resolute man slowly warming to me, finally answering, “Because I wanted to.”
I slid my hand down to his chest, over where his heart would be, pressing it there, feeling so grateful that I would’ve done anything in that moment. Somehow I felt that Rook knew me better than I ever understood. That, maybe, possibly, he was closer to me than I ever knew.
Because he’d always paid particular attention to my house, from the very beginning. Either trying to get me to leave it, or buy it from me, or fixing it up.
My house wasn’t just a house to me.
It was my home, even though I’d practically grown up at Crestmont Prep.
It was memories, packed full of a mother who loved me. A father who cherished us. Where Callie and I had played together. Where my dad would tell us bedtime stories. Where we spent so much time in the garden or out by the swamp, watching the wildlife, the smell of saltwater filling our noses.
It was the heartbeat of my family.
And, as I watched him take pride at the work his men had done to restore the house, somehow… somehow, I felt that Rook had been a part of that once, too.
And now, I was determined to find out exactly how.
CHAPTER 29
Rook
“Don’t be that man,” Lux’s voice chastised me through the car speakers.
“What kind of man is that?” I bit out, angry. Lux and I had always gotten along, worked well together. But the day Summer entered the Magnolia, we’d argued non-stop.
It started with me, chastising her for letting Summer into the bank. Her, arguing back that she had no choice. Since then, we’d been at each other’s throats, our partnership quickly souring.
“The kind of man who takes advantage of a foolish girl,” she hissed. “She’s a child, Rook.”
I gripped the steering wheel, staring up at my house. Feeling Summer’s presence from all the way out here.
Ever since that day at the club, I hadn’t been able to stay away from her. In fact, I was cutting my working hours early, just to be with her.
“You, out of all people,” Lux kept on, “I would’ve thought better. But, maybe you’re like all the other men in the Magnolia. You just hadn’t found the right one yet. But now that you have?—”
“Hey, Lux?” I interrupted.
“Yeah?” Skeptical.
“Go fuck yourself. And if you ever call her foolish again, I will cut your tongue from your mouth.” I hit the screen, cutting off her angry response. I was tired of her nagging, and we weren’t even married.
And yet, she was right. Her words seeped into my mind like poison—I shouldn’t take advantage of Summer, not like this.
And I’d tried, I really had, avoiding her as much as possible.
“Kiss me,” her words, haunting me, that night at the club. I’d taken her there because young women shouldn’t be stuck in my stuffy home, all by themselves. They should be out having fun. Getting drunk and flirting with other people.
I’d meant to take her there and hang back, let her make some new friends. Have a life.
