Chapter 24
24
XANDER
I was riding high from the success of the winter festival. Eli was already talking about making it something that occurred every Saturday in December, leading up to Christmas. That meant I was going to be busier than ever.
Killian was in town for Thanksgiving, so we were spending a lot of time together as a family. I hadn't seen Tori much, but then she'd been busy with some illness that was going through the schools.
I was afraid if we spent any time together, I'd blurt out my plans for her. I intended to propose to her at Thanksgiving dinner in front of my family and friends. That way, no one would question how I felt about her.
On Thanksgiving, we were in the kitchen preparing the meal when Eli asked, "How's Tori?"
"She's good."
"Why hasn't she been around much?" Oliver asked, placing the dinner rolls on a pan to slide into the oven.
We let our kitchen staff off on the holiday and prepared the meal ourselves. That didn't mean that Marcus didn't help us with a lot of the prep, but we finished the meal and served it, inviting our family, friends, guests, and community to join us.
"She was at the festival, and she'll be here tonight." She was eating lunch with her parents, and then joining us for dinner. "She's been busy at work." When Eli and Oliver didn't say anything, I asked, "Why do you ask?"
"You've been working a lot lately. I'm wondering if you're neglecting your relationship," Eli said carefully.
I frowned. "I thought you wanted me to be focused on work?"
"I do but not to the detriment of your health."
"I'm doing just fine. Besides, I intend to propose to her tonight."
Eli raised a brow. "You do?"
"Yeah, I thought it would make a statement to do it in front of family and friends."
"Are you sure that's what she wants?" Oliver asked.
"I want to show her how I feel, and this is the best way." Of course, if she said no, it would be embarrassing. But I had to do this for her to understand that my feelings were real.
"If you're sure it's what you both want," Eli said.
"Of course I'm sure," I said defensively, even though I wasn't sure at all. What mattered was that I was honest with her about my feelings. Then I'd do anything I could to show her how I truly felt. No more talk of fake relationships. This was real for me, and if it wasn't for her, then it was better to know that now.
"We support you," Oliver said.
Killian walked in, his cheeks flushed from the cold. He was probably snowboarding. "Who are we supporting?"
"Xander is proposing to Tori today at dinner."
Killian's forehead creased. "How long have I been gone that my womanizer brother is getting married?"
I grimaced. "I'm not a womanizer. I'm serious about Tori."
He slapped my shoulder. "I didn't mean anything by it. It was a joke."
Eli shook his head. "We're supporting his decision to settle down with Tori."
"Yeah, okay. When is dinner served?" Killian wasn't interested in our day-to-day lives. He was living in his own world where he trained and competed. He couldn't possibly understand what I'd gone through the last several months. How much I'd evolved and changed.
I just hoped he didn't ruin anything at dinner or make some crack about me not being serious about Tori. I was sick of that attitude.
We finished cooking, then carried the serving trays out to the dining room. Tonight, we'd eat buffet style. But before we got started, I wanted to handle the proposal. I figured I shouldn't wait. I was already nervous.
Eli stood at the end of one of the tables, giving the speech my father used to give, thanking everyone for coming. Then he said, "Xander has something he'd like to say."
I wiped my hands on my thighs. It was now or never.
Tori was seated at the end of the table like we'd planned so it would be easy for me to get down on one knee. I stood and moved around to her other side so I had room. "Tori, I'm so grateful that you came back to town, that you decided to make Telluride your home again."
She smiled. "I am too."
"But there's something I need to ask you." I dropped to my knee, and there was an audible gasp. I focused on Tori, and not fumbling, I opened the velvet box, showing her the diamond ring I'd picked out last week.
"When we were kids, we made a pact that we'd marry each other if we didn't have a significant other by the time we were thirty. Our birthdays are coming up, and it's the perfect time to tell you how I feel. I want to build a future with you. I want to grow old together. I love you, Tori. Will you marry me?" My speech was supposed to be longer, but that was all I could remember with my nerves and everyone's eyes on me.
Tori's brow was slightly furrowed. Was she not happy about this? Did she not feel the same? Then she looked around at all the people waiting for her answer and said softly, "Yes, I'll marry you."
I pulled her into my arms, kissing her softly. "I love you."
"I love you too." Then we were being congratulated by everyone. By the time we sat down to dinner, it was cold. I didn't have a chance to talk to Tori, but she stayed by my side.
Everyone had eaten, and holiday music played from a speaker overhead. A woman walked in, and Eli said, "There's plenty of food. Help yourself."
I hadn't seen her before. But she could have been a guest.
"I'm actually here to talk to Walker Wilde."
"He's deployed at the moment. Is there something we can help you with. I'm Eli, his cousin.”
Walker came to live with us when his parents died. My parents were his guardians until he turned eighteen and enlisted.
"I have a teenage girl whose mother just died. A letter was found indicating that Walker Wilde is her father. I wanted to talk to him before I introduce him to his daughter. I was hoping he was home for the holiday.”
The entire room was silent.
Walker had a daughter?
"I don't understand." Eli seemed at a loss for words.
I stood. "Maybe we should talk about this in private."
I gathered my brothers, and we met in Eli's office. When everyone was seated, I introduced myself, "I'm Xander Wilde, Walker's cousin, and you are?"
"Addison Montgomery. I'm the social worker tasked with transitioning Dakota to her new home."
"Were you saying that Walker hasn't met Dakota?" I asked, taking the lead since my brothers seemed to be in shock.
"That's my understanding. When I asked Dakota, she said her mother never talked about her father, other than to say he was just passing through. But there was a letter with her mother's will, indicating who the father was and that he should be contacted in the event she died. She had cancer, so her affairs were in order."
"That poor girl," Eli said. "What do we do now? Walker is still in the military. I'm not sure he's in a place where he could provide a stable home for her."
"Should we do a DNA test just to be sure? How do we know that she is his daughter?"
"That's standard procedure, and I'd insist on having that done before we rehome her. The thing is, we don't want to wait too long. She's in a foster home, but that's not ideal, especially if she has a biological father who could take her in."
"If Walker doesn't know about this girl, then it will be a shock. We need to get in contact with him and talk to him as soon as possible." Eli jumped to his feet and began pacing.
"If what you're saying is true, I'm sure he can secure leave to sort this out," I said.
My brothers were in shock, and I felt like I was the only one who was calm in this situation. It was entirely possible that Walker could have fathered a girl when he was eighteen and recently enlisted. If the woman didn't want him to know, or didn't bother to track him down, I could see how something like this could happen. But Walker would want to know and take her in, or at least I hoped he would. He knew what it was like to be orphaned, and this girl had lost her mother.
"Dakota is in a vulnerable place. She lost the only parent she's ever known, and if Walker is her father, she'll be moving in with a virtual stranger. As a result, the court has asked me to follow her closely, to help with the transition."
"That sounds reasonable. I'm sure Walker will want your help," I said, but she didn't look as positive as I felt.
"If Dakota is a Wilde, then she'll have all of us. We're a package deal," Eli said, and we all nodded. We took care of our own.
Addison stood and handed me a card. "Dakota is a lucky girl then, but it might take her a while to see it. She's understandably upset and grieving. If Walker is her father, she’ll have to leave her home and everyone she knows in Virginia. This is my information. Please let me know as soon as you've spoken with Walker. I'll need to see him when he's back in town so we can secure the testing and get the ball rolling on her transition. I don't want her in foster care any longer than necessary."
"That's what we all want," I said to her, seeing her out of the office. When I returned to the room, everyone was quiet.
Eli moved to his phone. "I'll get in touch with Walker."
"I'll clean up downstairs." I helped clear the leftover food and clean the dishes.
When we were done, I searched for Tori. "Where did she go?" I asked Noelle, who was watering the poinsettias.
"She said she needed some air."
Was something wrong? Thinking she'd probably gone to our trail, I put on my boots and grabbed my skis and poles. I had a feeling I'd find her at our spot overlooking the lodge. I saw the indentation of her skis in the snow and followed the trail off the path and into the woods.
She sat on the boulder. The lights were still twinkling in the trees. "Is everything okay?"
"My dad told me that you came to him."
It felt like I'd been sucker punched. "I didn't feel like I had any other choice."
Her gaze was on the snow in front of her. "You know I didn't want to pressure him."
"Yeah, but he needed to know how you felt."
Her face was pinched. "It wasn't your place."
"What did he say?"
"He wants to partner with Dr. Sterling, so that I can buy the practice from him in installments."
Relief surged through me. "That's perfect. That's exactly what you wanted."
She lifted her gaze to meet mine. "But I didn't want it to happen this way."
"I'm sorry I overstepped. I should have talked to you first. But it worked out."
Tori's gaze lowered to the ring that sat on her finger. "The engagement. Was it for show?"
"Of course not. Why would you think that?"
"Because this entire relationship was fake, and then you mentioned the marriage pact in your proposal. My birthday is on Saturday, and yours is on Monday."
"I wanted to show you that I was serious about my feelings, and I couldn't think of a better way to do that than to propose."
"We could have talked about it first. I just assumed it was part of our fake arrangement. One more way to prove that you were serious about your job."
I sat next to her, hoping I'd be able to convince her that she was wrong about me. "It stopped being about proving something to my family or yours a long time ago. I love you, Tori. I want to create a life with you. Everything I said was real, and I'm sorry if I made you feel like it wasn't. I've made a lot of mistakes in my life, and I'm sure I'm gonna make a lot more, but I'm hoping you'll be by my side."
"This is real? Your feelings. The ring. The house?"
"I want you to live with me in our dream home. If you don't like the one I put an offer on, then we can keep looking. I want every decision we make from now on to be joint."
"I love that house, and I want to live there with you. It's like every one of my dreams is coming true."
"If you need time to process everything, I'm a patient man. I'm not going anywhere. When we close on that house, because I'm putting your name on the deed, we'll move into it together. We'll get married when you're ready."
"How is this real?"
"All I know is that I'm grateful for that silly pact you insisted on us making when we were teens. It prompted our fake relationship and everything that came after."
"I am too."
I kissed her like I'd just come home from war. It felt like I hadn't seen her in a long time. I knew that things would be different now that we were both being honest about our feelings.
"What about that girl? Is she really Walker's daughter?"
"I don't know, but we're going to find out. One thing I know for sure is that if she is a Wilde, she's got all of us at her back. We'll get through this together."
"She's going to need every one of you in her corner."
"You're included in this. You're a part of my family now too."
"Who knew that our promise to each other at seventeen would lead to this?" Tori asked me.
"I always hoped it would."
I'd never been more grateful that I entered into that promise with Tori.