Page 10 of The Aster Valley Collection, Vol. 1

Aaron bustled around handing out paper plates and napkins.

“The delivery crew said the order was made by someone pretending to be Gentry Kane. He said to make sure Winter Waites eats something.” He glanced at me with a giant knowing grin.

“I said, ‘Girl, he wasn’t pretending. Gent’s a friend of ours. ’ Not sure she believed me.”

My heart flew in wild, wobbly circles in my chest. I grabbed a slice of the nearest pizza and used it to keep from blurting out lovesick exclamations. When I finally had a few minutes to myself late that night, I texted Gent.

Thank you for the pizza. That was incredibly generous.

Gent

Did you eat? Did it help at all?

A lot. We’d barely had time to grab stuff out of the vending machine before that arrived.

Gent

That’s what I was worried about. What else can I do?

Hold me , I thought. Come back to me .

Keep being you. Take care of yourself. Have fun.

Gent

I meant, what else can I do to make your life easier and keep you healthy?

Just knowing you’re out there in the world caring about me is pretty amazing.

Gent

I do. So much. More than you know. Get some sleep, sweetheart.

I fell asleep hugging my phone.

Two weeks later, my sister called and shrieked intelligibly into the phone. “Oh my god you did not! Oh my god! Oh my god! I can’t believe you did this!”

I was at work in the locker room, changing into running shoes after attending a meeting. “I have no idea what you’re talking about,” I told her. “And you’re deafening me.”

“The car. The car . Winter. Holy shit!”

“What car? I have no idea what you mean.”

“I am standing outside of my dorm building looking at a brand-new Mini Cooper All-Wheel Drive… like… I can’t even breathe right now. Cherry red. Two sunroofs. I can’t… I can’t even believe this. How the hell can you afford this? It’s too much!”

“Summer, stop. I did not send you a car. I can’t afford it. It’s a mistake. Tell the delivery person they made a mistake.”

I heard muffled noises, then the sound of a man’s voice. “Yeah, uh, this Summer’s brother?”

“Yes, sir. I didn’t buy her a car. You have the wrong person.”

He chuckled in a low, easy way. “He said you’d say that. We got the right lady. It’s a gift from Kevin Jones for Summer Waites.”

I opened my mouth to tell him I didn’t know any Kevin Jones, when suddenly I remembered. Kevin Jones had been the name on Gent’s OT paperwork.

I stared at the chipped paint of the locker in front of me. “Are you sure? Do… do you have an address for Mr. Jones?”

He read of an address in Los Angeles, and my hands and feet started to tingle. “Was there a note? A gift message? Anything?” I asked, holding my breath. This couldn’t be real. Why? Why had he done this.

“I gave it to her. Hang on.” He gave the phone back to Summer.

“Winter, fuck. I can’t believe this. Who the hell is Kevin Jones?”

“What does the note say?”

“It says, ‘Winter adores you. Hope this helps make your life a little easier.’ Oh. I just saw the name Winter and thought it was from you. What does this mean?”

I barked out a disbelieving laugh. “It means I’m friends with a crazy person who doesn’t know how to create reasonable boundaries.”

“But who is it? Who’s Kevin Jones? I thought you were seeing a guy name Brian, but then you two broke up.”

I hadn’t even spared Brian a thought in all this time. Just went to show everything had worked out for the best. “No, this… Kevin… is someone I met after Brian. But we’re just friends.”

“Friends don’t buy strangers cars, Winter,” she said incredulously. “Did you sleep with him?”

“Listen, I have a patient waiting for me. Can we talk about this later?”

“Can I keep the car?”

I planned on saying no because of course we couldn’t accept a gift like that from Gent. But then I remembered him telling me how excited he was to buy his brother a horse. “It felt amazing to do something like that. To make a dream of his come true. I was so grateful I could do that for him.”

“I don’t know,” I finally said. “Let me think about it. Accept delivery, but then let me be sure before you get excited, okay?”

She squealed a little before hanging up, and I couldn’t help the grin on my face.

I didn’t have time to message Gent, and I knew he was sleeping anyway.

Trying to find a time when we could catch each other on the phone was almost impossible.

If I called him right when I got home from work, he could talk to me as he was waking up from a late-night concert.

But then he’d inevitably have to go somewhere for interviews or radio shows before heading to the concert venue for sound checks.

I missed him so badly.

After work, I texted him.

A Mini Cooper???

Gent

If you refuse delivery, I’m calling Summer directly and reminding her she’s a legal adult.

You can’t do things like that. We barely know each other.

Gent

If I told you I was doing my car dealer friend a favor, would you believe me?

No. Were you?

Gent

No. But now at least we both know you’re a little liar.

I grinned.

Stop doing generous things. I don’t need your help. I just need you.

Gent

You’re killing me. I miss you. Please let me substitute money for my presence. I read in a book it’s what millionaires do. Show their feelings with money.

Now I was full-on laughing.

And what are your feelings Mr. Millionaire?

Gent

I put them in a song just for you.

My heart leapt.

You finished the song?

Gent

Yep. The band loves it. They want me to play it at a special show in L.A. when we get back.

You should. Your fans would love it.

Gent

I only care about one of those fans. Will you come if I get you a ticket?

Do you even have to ask?

The following day, a thick envelope arrived at work addressed to me.

Inside was a plane ticket to LA, information about the town car that would pick me up upon arrival to bring me straight to the concert, and another envelope that looked like a bill from my student loans company.

Like I’d somehow accidentally snagged it from my kitchen counter by accident.

Only it had been in this envelope delivered to me at work and not on my kitchen counter.

I opened it with shaking hands.

We are pleased to inform you that the following loan has been paid in full.

I stared at the paper, uncomprehending. “What?” I breathed, turning the paper over to see if there was any additional information.

The letter was addressed to Winter Waites, care of an attorney’s office in Los Angeles, California. Gent had paid off my loans? This wasn’t okay… was it?

“Sweetie.” My coworker June frowned at me. I’d stopped in the middle of the hallway outside of the staff break room on my way back to the nurses’ station to update some charts. “You okay? You look like you just got bad news.”

I glanced up at her. “Not bad news… exactly. Just… strange. Can I ask you a question?”

Her face softened and she pulled me back into the break room. “Of course. Why don’t you sit down and let me grab you some water?”

June was one of the nurses at our clinic and loved to mother everyone. She’d been working there for years and years and was beloved by the entire staff. I trusted her to be sensible.

“If you met someone and hit it off with them right away, but it wasn’t really… it probably wasn’t going to turn into a relationship for various reasons. But maybe friendship. And that… that is, the person you were friends with—your new friend—has lots of money, but?—”

June’s understanding smile was accompanied by a hand on my arm as she leaned in closer. “Are we talking about a certain celebrity friend? Don’t worry. I’m good at keeping confidences.”

I was sure she was, so I nodded. “He just paid off my student loans out of the blue,” I whispered. I was afraid of saying it out loud because I felt like a selfish ass for even considering accepting the gift. “I can’t accept it, right? How do I… how do I get the loans back, though?”

I handed her the letter. She read it and put a hand to her chest, much like I’d done with the first note Gent had left for me. “Oh, honey. He wants to help you. He wants to take your burdens away.”

“It’s a hundred thousand dollars, June. I can’t accept it.”

She nodded. “I understand why you feel that way. You’re proud, and I get it.

When Rudy and I first got together, his parents tried to give us the down payment for our house.

I was very uncomfortable with it because I was so dead set on proving myself.

I was fresh out of nursing school with a good job, and Rudy had started teaching at the community college.

I thought their offer was a statement that we couldn’t afford it on our own. ”

I knew the feeling. I felt like I’d spent years trying to prove myself to myself and others, and now here I was being treated like a charity case.

She met my eyes. “My mother-in-law saw right off the bat I wasn’t going to let Rudy accept the gift.

So she looked at me and said very serenely, ‘Gifts aren’t always for the recipient, June.

It would make us very happy if you’d let us be a small part of your future this way.

’ And, man, that has stuck with me, it sure has. ”

“But he doesn’t want to be part of my future,” I said, hoping the words I said weren’t true, but needing to believe them anyway in order to protect myself.

“Mm, maybe so. But he cares about your future regardless. He wants you to be at ease and go through life with one less burden.”

I let out a laugh. “It’s a hell of a burden he’s trying to lift. I don’t even know what my life would look like without any student loans to pay.”

“Talk to him before you make a decision. Give him a chance to plead his case. If nothing else, it will give you an idea of how important this is to him.”

She was right. “Thank you,” I said, leaning in to give her a hug. I felt better after speaking to her about it, but my stomach was still low-key wobbly the rest of the day.

Thankfully, when I got home, I was able to catch him on a video call. He was still in bed. His hair was messy, and the hotel sheets were rumpled. He looked amazing, and it made my heart squeeze.

“Hey, sweetheart,” he said in a low, grumbly voice. “How was work?”

“It was fine until?—”

His eyes widened as he remembered something. “Wait. Oh shit. I remember now. You got the package I sent. Please don’t tell me you’re calling to say you can’t come to LA for the concert. Because if not, I’m canceling it and coming straight to Aster Valley instead.”

I smiled at Dillie, who was licking her paw on the back of the sofa. I couldn’t believe he thought the most important part of that package was a trip to see a concert. “I can come to the concert. I already got my shifts covered.”

He let out a breath and ran fingers through his messy hair. “Thank god. I’m barely keeping it together right now. I’ve never… I’ve never missed anyone like this before. Is that okay for me to admit? I don’t want to scare you off.”

“Of course it’s okay. I feel the same way. But, about the loan payoff…”

His eyes stayed focused on mine. “I know it’s creepy. Is it creepy? I’m sorry. But, before you say anything… shit, I don’t know how to make this case. You’re better at arguing than I am.”

“It’s too much,” I said, smiling apologetically. “Way too much.”

“I have more money than I could ever spend in a lifetime,” he said. “Please. Please let me do this for you. No matter what happens down the road with us, I just want your life to be easy and happy.”

“And I just want to see you in person about a thousand times more than I want my student loans paid off.”

Gent’s face turned serious. “I want to take care of you.”

My heart took flight. “It’s not fair. I can’t reciprocate. I don’t want us to be so… unbalanced.”

He laughed and looked up at the ceiling before staring back into the phone camera with an intense gaze. “If you only knew the gifts you’ve already given me…”

“What do you mean?”

“I’ve spent a lot of time thinking. About us. About my life. About what I really want.”

My chest was going to explode. “What do you really want?”