Page 34 of Marrying the Gardener (The Bachelor Brothers #3)

?

When things don’t go to plan, make a new one.

Kaleb

Two days after the hospital visit, I receive the call from Crimson’s father that her grandfather has passed.

The information stings, and I can only assume it’s because of the sudoku book on my nightstand.

For some reason, being granted the little book of puzzles that kept a dying man entertained in his final hours feels monumental.

Or at least it does up until the moment Crimson’s father relays the information that the portion of the business intended for me belongs to him until he decides I’m ready to manage it.

As those words buzz through the speakerphone, I watch Crimson’s face shatter. Her eyes lose all light as her lips part.

“He left Crimson a bakery,” her father continues. “It was a side project of his. I’m proud to know he thought so highly of my only child…but I’m sure you’ll have to manage it lest it go under, Kaleb. It can be practice, prepare you for the rest to come in time.”

In time.

In more time than it will take to divvy up the assets, sign the papers, get divorced, and free Crimson.

Remembering myself, I say, “Thank you, Dad.”

Crimson flinches .

I close my eyes so I don’t have to watch her pain swell and crash in the hollow depths of her broken eyes. “I’m sure Crimson will be thrilled to hear about her bakery.”

The farewells pass in a blur, and I hang up before daring to meet Crimson’s eyes again.

Her lips tremble. “How long… How much longer…” Her eyes close; precious crystal tears cascade.

“My father won’t relinquish anything until he’s dead, too.

I know that man. No one is ever good enough for him.

And I… I can’t do anything with a bakery .

A bakery, Kaleb?” Her shaking hands bury in her hair.

“He headed a multimillion dollar conglomerate. With thousands of assets. If I even try to live peacefully off the returns from a bakery and stop pandering to my father’s constant demands of babysitting his clients, he’ll overrun me out of spite alone. ”

“We’ll make a different plan, Crimson.”

“A different plan?” she croaks. “The only other plan is to wait for my father to die .” Her head shakes. “I can’t subject you to this for that long. That’s cruel. To both of us. To my staff. To everyone .”

“Crim—”

She turns, marching away from me, toward the closet that connects our rooms.

Leaving my phone atop the sudoku book, I follow her. “Crimson, there are other options. We can figure this out.”

“We will,” she says, opening a drawer in her desk, taking out a page, and grabbing a pen. “But not like this.” She clicks open the pen.

I grab her hand. “What are you doing?”

“Filling out my petition for divorce.”

“Crimson…”

“The sooner we’re divorced, the sooner we can get remarried with the right intentions.

I’ll take your last name. We’ll go somewhere else.

” Breaths short, she blinks back tears. “It’s not ideal, but I don’t know what else to do.

I’m so sorry I’ve put you through this, and it’s amounted to nothing .

If you can forgive me, if you can still love me…

” Her body crumples as she covers her face with a hand.

“…I want a life with you. I’ll explain everything to Crisis, and Ava, and the other girls.

I’ll find places for them. Can we do it?

Will you come with me? Can we disappear? Please? ”

My heart breaks as I pull her into my arms. “Crisis isn’t going to let you disappear.”

She shoves out of my arms. “I can’t take her fiancé’s money, Kaleb! That’s not how this works.”

“What about mine?” I ask.

“Yours?” She laughs. “How many jobs have you done if you have the kind of money we’d need just lying around? And, also, no. No . I am not going to take anyone’s money on a hope and a prayer that I’ll actually know what to do with it.”

“So you’re going to run away instead?”

Her teeth grit. “I thought you’d understand that solution.”

My chest twists, and my fists clench at my sides.

“You’re right. I understand that it’s not a solution.

I understand the regrets I can’t shake. I still feel like I’m on the run.

Even when I’m home, I don’t know how to mend the rift I opened when I ran away.

I know I’m the only one holding it there, but I can’t get past the fact I was the only one who got out yet I didn’t take a single one of them with me.

I can’t handle the shame that I bailed on a family that made me their first priority the moment it was safe. ”

“What are you talking about?”

“My parents are dead. When they died, my big brother found me and brought me home. I spent every year I was gone trying to forget my entire childhood, but the very moment the monsters who made it a living nightmare were gone, he remembered me. And he brought me back home, here, to Sunset.”

Crimson’s body slumps, and she looks at the paper on her desk. “Your family…is here. In Sunset.”

“Yes, it is.”

Her eyes close. “You can’t leave them again.”

“That’s not the point of what I’m saying. The point is I regret leaving them, and I don’t want you to regret leaving your family, too.”

She fixes me with a grimace. “The whole point of this was to leave my family, Kaleb.”

“I’m not talking about your father and the rest of the Nightingales, Crimson. Crisis. Ava. Charlotte. Everyone who became a family to you when your flesh and blood failed, those are the people I don’t want you to regret leaving behind.”

“I… I don’t know what else to do…” she whispers.

“I don’t want to leave them. But I can’t keep living like this.

I work so hard. All the time. On things that benefit a man who will leave everything to you.

I am enslaved to a man who doesn’t even believe I can run a bakery without another man’s help.

I’m… I’m worn , Kaleb. I am fed up and worn out. ”

I catch her hand. “I know. I know what a breaking point looks like, Crimson. Can you please… please trust me?”

“You have a solution that doesn’t involve taking advantage of the people I love?”

“I have a solution that involves trusting the people who love you.”

“That sounds like a scam.” She tries to pull her hand out of mine; I won’t let her. She swallows, hard. “Kaleb, please let go.”

“I need your answer.”

“In case you haven’t noticed, blind faith isn’t my strong suit.”

I kiss her fingers. “That just means it needs some exercise.”

“Give me something to go off of before I agree. Please. Some actionable step that makes it feel like I’m not losing all control.”

Without lifting my head, I say, “I need you to file for divorce. I need a list of your father’s clients. I need your phone. And I need a week.”

Her fingers tighten. Calculating moments pass. Finally, she says, “I don’t understand.”

Head still bowed, I meet her eyes. Gold glitters in them, sparkling like galaxies. Gentle, I say, “My love…it would not be trust if you did.”

Two tears slip down her cheeks, dampening her freckles. A shuddering breath fills her. Then she nods. “Will you need my phone all week?”

“Yes, I’m sorry.”

Her head shakes, and her nails bite into me as she crushes my hand. “It wouldn’t be exercise…if it were easy.”

My eyes burn as I rise and envelop her in a hug. “I love you.”

“I…” She buries herself against me, clutching my shirt. “…trust you.”

Capturing her mouth, I linger in the kiss, then I wait while she gathers what I asked for, then…I leave, knowing the next time I see her, I’ll have been served.

This deal we forged a little over a month ago will be on its way to officially being closed out, leaving me open to propose, the right way.

As a Bachelor, with—hopefully—the key to her freedom…if she’ll take it.

?

“Viktor.” With my own phone pressed to my ear, I scroll through Crimson’s contacts, connecting them with her father’s clients on the sheets she printed off for me before I called a cab.

In ten minutes, I’ll be back home. Which means I have ten minutes to convince Viktor to drop everything and help me for the next seven days.

“Crisis isn’t here right now,” he says.

“I’m calling to talk to you.”

Silence. Pending silence. After several long moments, Viktor asks, “Is everything all right?”

Blowing out a breath, I tackle my own issues with needing support and say, “Yes. Sort of. I need…help.”

He doesn’t pause. Doesn’t flinch. He just says, “Tell me everything.”

I’m still in the middle of telling Viktor everything by the time the car pulls up in front of the Bachelor house, and I hear the echo of my own voice on the line when I meet Viktor at the top of the stairs.

Feeling for the first time in years like his younger brother, I meet his eyes, swallow, and hang up my phone. “So? Will it work?”

“You’ll need a website,” Kyran murmurs from beyond the cracked door behind Viktor. A spark of electricity lights in his ice blue eyes. “I love websites. Looks like we’re teaming up again, Zakery.”

Zakery beams. “Maelin can model for us this time.”

“Um. I’d rather not,” Maelin calls, deeper in. “But…is there anything else I can do to help?”

Viktor takes the sheets of paper from my hands, scans them, and nods. “It looks like we have a lot of people to contact. I’ll call Crisis.” The hard line of his lips softens as he meets my eyes and clamps his free hand to my shoulder. “Don’t worry. We will make it work.”

A frisson of heat starts in my chest, sending prickles out to my limbs. “Thank you.”

Viktor’s smile heals some cowering child inside me before he drops his attention back to the pages and sighs. “You know Crimson’s not going to be thrilled about this, right? I’ve offered to help her countless times, with less effort.”

“She doesn’t want to gamble with someone else’s money or take someone else’s efforts as her own, but this—” I touch a finger to the pages. “—this would be a direct result of her own effort. And if she hates me for doing this, it will already be too late. She’ll be free. That’s all that matters.”

Viktor scans me, then rubs his stubble. “Make sure you’re clear when you tell her that this is just what family does. At any time. For any reason. Family is just there for you, willing to help, and willing to welcome you with open arms.”

“I…will.” I stuff down a lump of emotion rising in my throat and repeat, “Thank you, Viktor.”

“We love you.”

Zakery says, “Loads.”

Kyran rolls his eyes, leaning against Zakery’s shoulder as he says, “You’re our big brother. I’ve only got three of those, so you’re pretty important, you know?”

My chest tightens.

“Three?” Zakery says. “I’m your big brother, too.”

“Oh, I’m sorry,” Kyran drawls. “I thought you disowned me.”

“Guys.” Viktor pinches the bridge of his nose. “Please. We’ve got work to do.”

Zakery draws a heart in the air with his fingers, meets my eyes, and mouths, You’re my favorite , while Viktor begins delegating, “Kyran, we need a landing page, a newsletter. Zakery, logos, banners. Maelin, can I count on you to keep him focused…and not crying over his sketches?”

She salutes. “On it.”

“I don’t cry,” Zakery protests, dropping his hands and folding his arms. “I wail. There’s a difference.”

Viktor rolls his eyes down to his phone, smiling. “I’ll get Crisis over here. She can handle emails. Kaleb, you make the calls. We have seven days, right?”

“I asked for a week. And I took her phone. So…yeah. Seven days, max.”

He nods, chuckling. “Seven days to usurp a business…”

Filling my lungs, I say, “More than enough time.”

Swinging his arm around my shoulders and drawing me into my home, Viktor says, “Yep. At least for the Bachelor brothers it is.”