Chapter 47 Violet
VIOLET
The house they’re renting isn’t what I expected.
It’s not some lavish thing, which they could clearly afford if they wanted to. Instead, it’s just a three bedroom two bath that could belong to anyone. All their cars are parked outside, and I feel weirdly nervous when I get out of the car and go up to the door.
I only have to ring the bell once before the door is being pulled open.
Rhett stands there, looking shaggy but good, and he stares at me for a second, before his lips quirk in a small smile.
“Hi,” he says. “Come on in.”
I step inside, grateful for the warmth of their house. I can hear Sawyer and Lennox bickering good naturedly from the living room, and that makes my chest ache with the familiarity of it.
My house has been so quiet without their banter to fill it.
When Sawyer and Lennox see it’s me, they both fall silent, and then I’m standing there with all three of them looking at me.
“What the hell were you thinking?” I ask, getting right to the point. “Why did you do it?”
“You might need to be more specific,” Lennox says. His eyes are soft as he looks at me. “We’ve done a lot of things lately.”
“I went to the bank just now, and there are fifty million dollars in my account. I just… why?”
None of them look even the least bit thrown off my by words or worried about the money.
“We did it so you would talk to us.” Sawyer shrugs. “The little things weren’t working, so we figured we should try something bigger.”
I stare at him for a long beat, and then look to his brothers to see if they have anything different to say. But neither of them speak up, so clearly Sawyer’s version is the truth.
“Wait. You put millions of dollars in my account just so I’d talk to you?” I finally manage to choke out, stunned.
“Yes?” Rhett answers.
“That’s the gist of it,” Lennox agrees.
“Don’t look so shocked, Peaches,” Sawyer says. “It worked, didn’t it? You’re here, talking to us.”
“I’m here because the three of you have clearly lost your minds,” I insist. “You can’t just—that’s so much money.”
“It’s what you deserve,” Lennox says. “And it’s yours now.”
That leaves me gaping at them, my eyes wide and my heart hammering in my chest.
“You can’t be serious.”
“We are, though. Like I said, you deserve it.”
“How? That’s more money than I probably would have made in my whole life! What could I have possibly done to deserve it?”
Rhett shakes his head. “You’ve just… been you. We want you to have it, Tink. It’s ours, and that means we get to decide what happens to it. So we’re giving it to you.”
“You’re crazy,” I say. “You’re all insane.”
“Maybe,” Lennox agrees. “Probably. But we’re crazy for you.” He takes a step closer to me, moving almost cautiously, as if he’s afraid any sudden movement is going to make me run away. “Will you hear us out, Heartbreaker? Will you give us a chance to tell you how we feel?”
All at once, I need to sit down. I feel like I’m reeling from everything that’s happened, and standing in front of all three of them again is a heady feeling.
Being apart for a week or so hasn’t diminished their attractiveness or their intensity, but it’s been enough time that having all that directed at me again is a lot.
I sink down onto their couch, trying to steady my breathing.
“Are you okay?” Lennox asks, concerned.
I nod. “Yeah. It’s just… I’m still trying to wrap my mind around all of this. I can’t believe you did that, just to get me to talk to you. All of this.”
“You don’t seem to understand,” Sawyer says. “We’d do anything for you.”
“Why?”
They seem to take that as their cue to start explaining, and I sit there, rooted to the spot.
“We don’t need the money,” Lennox tells me. “That’s not what matters. You’re what matters.”
“For what it’s worth, I wanted to give you more than fifty million.
” Sawyer grins. “But we didn’t want to freak you out too much.
We’d still happily give you everything though.
My brothers and I could work together to start a new company.
Rebuild our wealth as a team.” His grin turns into something softer, something warm and tender. “You gave that to us, you know.”
“Me?”
He nods. “If we hadn’t come here—if we hadn’t listened to you when you talked some sense into us—we wouldn’t have each other.
Getting my brothers back is one of the best things that happened on this trip.
The other one was reconnecting with you and getting to see what an incredible woman you’ve become.
You’re amazing, Violet. Is it any wonder we’ve fallen for you? ”
My eyes fly open wide. “Fallen for me?” I whisper, as if I’m afraid to say it too much louder than that.
“From the very first second we moved into your place,” Rhett chimes in, his tone serious. “You’ve changed us for the better, Tink. By reminding us who we used to be to each other. We never would have had a relationship with each other again if it wasn’t for you. Of course we love you.”
“Just because of that?”
Sawyer laughs. “Not just because of that, no. But you don’t see yourself clearly if you don’t see what we see.
You’re beautiful and clever and so hard working.
You care more than anyone I’ve ever met, except maybe Lennox.
” He shoots a wry smile at his brother and then turns back to me.
“We talked about my restlessness once, remember? And how I never wanted to put down roots. I never saw the point, when everything could be ripped away at a moment’s notice.
But you changed that. You showed me that there are things worth fighting for and things worth sticking around for.
So here I am. Sticking around because I love you. Because I see my future in you.”
“We could have had something once,” Lennox says next. “But I ran from you. Not because of anything you did, but because I was afraid.”
“Of what?” I whisper.
“Myself, mostly. That I wouldn’t be good enough. That you’d wake up and realize you didn’t want to waste your time with someone broken.”
“You’re not broken.”
He smiles. “I’m working on believing that.
You help more than you know, Heartbreaker.
I can’t stand here and tell you that I feel like I’m worth you now, or that I don’t still worry you’re going to realize you can do better.
But I’m not going to run away this time.
Because this time I’m confident enough to admit that I want you.
That I love you, and that I want to try to be the man you deserve. ”
My throat goes tight, and I can already feel tears welling in my eyes. I’m lost for words, not even sure what to say back.
Rhett steps up next, a little smile on his face.
“You know me,” he says. “I’ve never cared about society or what people think.
I like to be alone, and I prefer the quiet.
But being here with you showed me that I’m not the island I think I am.
That I need the company of people I trust. And people I love.
You’re my obsession, Violet. You’re the person I want to come home to, the person I want to provide for.
You make me feel like I can be myself, quiet or rough around the edges, and you’ll accept me and love me anyway.
It’s why I love you so much, in addition to all the wonderful things you are. ”
Their words are all so sincere, so beautiful, and I’m stuck on the fact that they all love me.
“But—I don’t have anything to offer you,” I tell them. “I’m infertile, and my business failed, and I—”
“Violet,” Lennox says. “You didn’t fail. It was taken from you, that’s different. And we don’t care that you can’t have kids. There are all kinds of ways to become parents, and besides, we have a family already. What we’ve built together. We don’t need more than that.”
“All we need is you,” Sawyer says.
The sob that’s been building in my throat this whole times spills out, and I cover my face with my hands, crying into them.
Gently, the three men pull my hands away and wipe my tears. They take turns kissing me, and I lean into each of them, overcome with emotion.