Page 24 of The Marriage Deal (Sunset Falls #1)

“My stepfather was a good man. I told myself I’d be like him one day. I wanted to be like him.” Briggs huffs a small laugh in memory as he adjusts where he leans against the counter, folding his arms over his chest. “He had a farm in Alberta. A big and profitable one. He worked hard.”

I tense for the bad I suspect is coming.

“He died on the job. A fluke accident with a piece of machinery. It was instant.”

I gasp. “Briggs…”

His eyes cut to mine, severing breath with their intensity. “I was young. Too young to take over, even though I wanted to.”

“Oh, Briggs.” My hands ache to touch him, but that’s not what this is. It’s not what we are.

I feel helpless.

“Mom was forced to sell. I lost my father—the only dad I’d ever known—my home, and my future all in one go.

” He pulls in breath as I fight to swallow down the swell of emotion I feel for him.

“Mom got a lot for the farm. Enough to set us up for a comfortable life if we were smart. But I was lost with the loss of everything I’d ever known.

I went from waking up before the sun every morning to help my father with the farm to aimlessly wandering the concrete streets of the neighborhood Mom moved us into.

I think most kids would have started sleeping in, but I couldn’t.

I’d woken before the sun for so long, I just couldn’t break the habit. Still can’t.”

He laughs, and I ask, “So you just walked?”

“I walked and I thought. I thought about a lot. And then I turned to computers. I’d always been good with machines. With technology. We didn’t have any machines after we sold the farm. Computers were the next best thing.” He gives me a slow grin. “I’ve never been great with people.”

“I think you’re all right with people.”

“You’d be the only one.”

I smile. His eyes drop to it and my belly flutters in response. Another shiver has his eyes dropping again to my chest and I remember I’m only in silk pajamas.

I clear my throat and prompt, “You turned to computers?”

“I did.”

“And?”

“I discovered I was good with them. Really good. So good that I independently studied robotics, cyber security, and weapons design. Truthfully, I was obsessed. When I turned eighteen, I received my inheritance and put nearly the whole of it toward my first startup, a simple robotics automation algorithm I combined with cyber security. The company was my single obsession for the next six years of my life. I thought I’d manage that company forever, took business courses to ensure I’d have the intelligence to do right by it.

I thought I’d make enough from the company to buy back my dad’s farm.

” He chuckles again. “I don’t think I had the ability to understand just how big that company would become.

Keep in mind, computers were relatively new then.

Not a lot of people had stepped into that field.

And those that did didn’t stick with it.

Anyway, I sold it when I was twenty-four for more money than I ever could have imagined possessing. ”

“Did you buy back the farm?” I ask quietly, hopefully.

He shakes his head. “The family wouldn’t sell. It had become their legacy, and there was no money that could convince them to hand it over.”

“I’m sorry.”

“I understood where they were coming from. Had someone tried to make my dad sell, he’d have said no, too. That farm is a way of life. A legacy. It’s part of the soul, and that’s not something you give up unless there’s no other choice.”

My heart aches, because in Briggs’ case, no choice meant the tragic and unexpected death of someone he dearly loved.

“What did you do next?”

“I invested in Nash. He’d been struggling with his construction company, and he was one of my only friends. I had the money and figured why not. We founded Landon Alder Homes and Landon Alder Construction. Again, the company took off.”

“So, you worked construction as well?”

“I handled the paperwork. The legalities.”

“You’re smart.”

“Some say I am. I see patterns easier than others. Have a focus I’ve been told is unmeasured.”

I snort. “I’d say they were right—but you are marrying me so…”

“Lilah,” he calls. I can’t help but give him my eyes. “There’s not another woman I’d choose to be my fake wife.”

I roll my eyes to deflect the way his words make me feel warm. “What came next?”

“You’d think Landon Alder Homes and Construction would be enough, but I was bored.

I started helping Nash with the builds, getting my hands dirty.

But it didn’t feed me the way the farm fed me, physically.

I still missed it, and again, I turned to computers.

Drones were starting to get big, and with my history in robotics, I designed a drone that would later secure a military defense contract and then a buyer in Europe. I sold that startup at thirty-three.”

“How old are you?”

He shoots me a wry grin. “Your internet sleuthing didn’t tell you that?”

I pout. “Perhaps I’m not the best internet sleuther.”

He chuckles. “I’m thirty-six.”

I wince. “You’re old!”

He fakes offense, but growls huskily, “Bite your tongue, little lunatic.”

His words are said with such seriousness, I can’t help the bark of laughter. It eases a little of the shock I feel after hearing about his life. Then I ask, “Why did you keep Alder’s last name?”

“A couple reasons, I think.” Briggs pushes off the counter.

“Daniel Alder might have been a class A asshole, but his dad was a good man. He remained a part of mine and Mom’s life even when Daniel didn’t.

Second, I think my mom was afraid if she attempted a name change or official adoption, it would cut Daniel’s ego in a way that would bring him back into our lives. She didn’t want that.”

“He never tried to have a relationship with you?”

“He did, in his own half-assed way.” He gives me his back to open the fridge. “But he really started to try in the couple years before he died.”

“He knew he was sick and wanted to make amends.”

Briggs doesn’t reply as he pulls out eggs, a pack of sausage, peppers, and cheese. “Omelet?”

“Um—” I shake off the whiplash of the change. “Sure.”

Briggs heats butter in a pan as he whips the eggs. He asks, “Feel like you know me any better now? Or am I still just a stranger?”