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“No matter where I go, I think this will always be my favorite place in the world.” She breathed out the words with a reverence he completely understood.
Before his mouth ran in a direction he couldn’t control, he lifted his foot onto the rock in front of where he sat and rested an elbow on his knee. “I get that I’m a Grade A specimen, but I gotta know where’s this whole marriage thing coming from?”
She tilted her head back and a waterfall of auburn locks flowed over her shoulder and she groaned. “This is going to be a long story.”
He shot her a wink and grinned broadly. “Lucky for you, you’ve got me all day.”
***
Jillian
Present Day
Keeping secrets from Dean was a foreign concept, but the shame of the truth was nearly suffocating and something she wasn’t certain she could share…even with him. Her gut created a new knot to add to the collection that had formed over the past two weeks.
“The simple answer is money.” A portion of the truth tumbled from her lips and she barely restrained the desire to physically put a hand to her mouth and halt the flow of more words. Like the entire, ugly reality.
Disbelief settled across his face a moment before he erupted into a deep baritone laugh. “Come on, Jillybean, be serious.”
She slid off the large stone and held up a hand toward him. “Just wait right there.”
The short jog from where Dean still sat to the truck wasn’t nearly long enough to silence the voices in her head screaming and pleading for her to trust the bond they had and disclose the truth.
Jillian closed her eyes and took a deep breath before digging through her carry-on bag for the large manila envelope she’d worn down over the past few weeks pulling the papers out and then returning them to the safety of the envelope over and over. She’d meticulously read every line, every word of the document, certain she’d find some loophole buried deep inside. Hours of reading and rereading resulted in the same conclusion: this was her last option.
She clutched the envelope to her chest and returned to him at a much slower pace. She twisted her mouth to the side as she resumed her seat beside Dean. Without the explanation, in nearly every gory, embarrassing detail that he deserved, she dropped the papers in his lap.
He looked over at her, cocking his head to one side, brows deeply knitted together. Dean opened his mouth, but before the first word could come out, she held up a hand.
“Just read it. Please.”
Jillian knew the exact moment he landed on the dollar amount by the widening of his eyes…followed shortly by a coughing fit when he read the clause.
His gaze bounced from the paper clutched taut between his hands and her before returning back to the page. “This is a joke, right? An archaic and sadistic joke, but definitely a joke.”
There were a lot of words to describe her grandfather. Most of them were glowing and loving. He might not have been the playful grandfather some of her friends at school had in their lives, but he was the one member of her family she knew without a doubt loved and supported her. Her socialite mother threw an apocalyptic fit when Jillian announced her intention to have a meaningful life where she truly made a difference in the world. Not one where charity was synonymous with pretentious galas where the bill for the event was almost bigger than the total sum raised.
However, her grandfather not only offered the emotional support for her choice, but routinely made large contributions to ensure every trip was possible. His passing five years ago heralded the greatest loss of her life. And one of the millions of times she’d needed Dean and he’d been right there.
“You know my grandfather. He was eccentric and old-fashioned.”
Dean’s stormy expression melted into something softer before confusion took up residence once again. “Then why would he do this?”
Jillian shrugged, helpless to answer the same question that had run circles around her mind since she’d discovered the clause. In a will she’d had no interest in until it meant saving…everything. “The only thing I could think of was that he had some crazy idea that he was ensuring I’d be taken care of for the rest of my life.” She offered a small laugh that barely made it past the nerves gripping her throat. “Maybe he didn’t believe I’d get married or settle down otherwise.”
Several minutes ticked by as Jillian stared at the fingers knitted together in her lap, unable to meet the stare she could feel boring into her from a few feet away. She knew he had questions, hell, she did too, but she only had a few answers and even less she was actually able to speak.
Wordlessly, Dean settled beside her, sliding the manila envelope into her fidgeting hands. The early evening sun dipped behind the trees in the distance. The beginning of pink and purple tones heralding the sunset stretched across the once bright blue spring sky.
Silence was never awkward or uncomfortable between them, except for in this moment when she was asking for a blind acceptance of something so big she was certain he’d decline until she bared every detail.
“There’s only one thing that doesn’t make sense, Jillybean.” His voice was so soft and centered she found it hard to believe it was attached to the rash, slightly conceited boy who’d been her best friend for nearly as long as she could remember.
Finally she forced her eyes to lift and meet his. “What’s that?”
“How is it that the only girl I’ve ever known to not give a damn about money other than how many vaccines or antibiotics it could supply to countries in need would suddenly want to get married and stay married for eighteen months to cash in on an obscene inheritance?” He tempered the question with a wink and cocky grin. “Although, like I said, I get why you asked me.”
Because that many zeros are what’s needed to save my family from themselves.She owed him the full explanation but she couldn’t bring herself to speak the words she hadn’t fully processed herself.
