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Penn burst out in hysterics beside him and snatched the picture out of Neil’s hand. “I’m so keeping this for blackmail purposes.” She looked inside Cole’s box. “There has to be some good ammo in here of you, Mr. Uptight.” She nudged Cole in the ribs and thrust out her hip trying to block him from grabbing the box.
Jack placed the scrapbook on the table. “As I recall the only reason I had to wear that costume is because I lost a bet.”
“You never could beat me at racing games,” Finn said.
He remembered that day. It was a good day despite his unfortunate clothing. And the memory of that day was something he shared with his brothers. All of the pictures in these boxes were memories he’d shared with them. And Sterling knew all along how important these photos were to his family.
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.”
