Chapter 43
“… Happy birthday, Elizabeth. Happy birthday to you.
It’s official. I’m eighteen freaking years old. An adult under the law. I can now vote. I can legally make my own decisions. It’s the second greatest monumental milestone to achieve in one’s life after turning sweet sixteen and getting a driver’s license.
I clench my eyes shut and take a deep breath in, preparing to blow out the eighteen sparkling candles on the gorgeous three-layer cake before me. One that Freda and Faith made me this year. A cake that Mom would’ve baked if she was here.
I never thought much of making wishes. It was just something fun to play, like wishing on a shooting star, or tossing a penny into a fountain, or this—blowing out your birthday candles to get one wish to come true.
But this year, as my heavy exhale extinguishes the tiny flames, I wish more than anything that Ryder gets better and beats the cancer.
As soon as cheers erupt around me in celebration, I discreetly slip away from everyone as Freda and Faith begin carving and serving the cake.
I need a minute by myself before I dissolve into tears.
Birthdays are supposed to be happy, but all I can think about is who is not here: Mom, Dad, and Ryder.
Walking down one of the lit garden pathways, I stop at a marble bench and sit down.
The Montgomery estate is just breathtaking at night when everything is lit up.
The backyard is an oasis of botanical beauty.
Mrs. Montgomery took me for a tour one afternoon when I was here visiting Fallon.
She explained that when she was growing up, her parents would take her to visit the Biltmore Estate in Asheville every year for the Azalea Festival.
She fell in love with the gardens there and wanted to recreate something similar here at the house.
I’ve been to Biltmore, and I have to say, Mrs. Montgomery outdid herself.
I’m looking forward to seeing it in the spring and in the summer when everything is lush with foliage and brightly colored with blooms.
A rustling sound to my right catches my attention. I shift forward on the bench and look around. My eyes meet Mr. Montgomery’s and we both freeze.
“Sorry. I didn’t realize you were there, Elizabeth,” he says, giving me an apologetic look. “Beautiful night,” he comments, walking over. “Would you mind?” he asks me, gesturing to the bench.
I slide over a bit to make room for him.
“Having a good birthday so far?” he asks as we look up into the starlit night sky.
I spot Orion immediately, the three stars of his belt very recognizable. “It’s been wonderful, thank you.”
We sit in silence as we continue to gaze up into the heavens. While on the patio, I was kept warm by the large, glass-enclosed fireplace. The cold nighttime temperatures are now beginning to chill my body, so I tuck my hands into my coat pockets and cross my legs.
“Fallon wanted to do this for you,” he says, turning his head my way. “My son cares deeply for you.”
“I care about him, too. Fallon is…special,” I finish lamely, not knowing exactly what to say to the father of the guy who has changed my life.
Mr. Montgomery chuckles. He has a nice, deep voice that reminds me of Dad’s.
“That he is. Patricia and I were worried about him for a while. I don’t think I’ve ever seen my son happier.
You bring out something in him. A lightness, I guess.
It’s hard to explain. He’s more focused now. Not as angry. He smiles more.”
“Your son is my hero,” I tell him. “So are you. Thank you so much for everything you’ve done for me. I still don’t understand why.”
Mr. Montgomery searches the stars as if the answer to my comment is somewhere up there. “I had such a huge crush on your mother in high school,” he says, taking me by complete surprise.
“I didn’t even know you and my mom knew each other,” I stutter out, shocked.
He nods. “You look a lot like her.”
Swallowing thickly, I lick my cold lips. “Did you know her well?”
He nods again. “We grew up together, but I knew her more from afar. I was very shy when I was younger.”
That is hard to believe. Mr. Montgomery has always been this powerful, self-assured businessman in my eyes. He and Fallon both carry this aura of power and strength and cockiness.
“Besides, I never stood a chance because she was head over heels for your father, John. They were high school sweethearts.”
Mom and Dad used to tell me and Hailey stories about how they met at sixteen. Love at first sight, they said.
He continues. “I didn’t know him well, but I could tell that your father was a good man. A kind man with a good heart.”
I choke up. “He was the best. I miss both of them so much.”
Reaching over, Mr. Montgomery pats my arm. “Ann would be so proud of the woman you have become.”
I give him a self-deprecating quirk of the eyebrow. “I don’t think the whole pregnancy thing would have gone over too well. Or the running away with Fallon and flying around the world.”
He smiles at me. “I think you don’t give your mother or your father enough credit.”
I have to admit he’s right. Mom and Dad would love me regardless of my faults and mistakes—which have been many this past year. I nibble on the inside of my cheek before speaking again. Carefully, I brooch the subject. “Has Fallon talked to you about going to college?”
Mr. Montgomery’s sapphire blue eyes turn my way. Fallon’s eyes are lighter in color like his mom’s, but they have a darker blue ring surrounding the irises, the same shade of blue as his dad’s.
“He has.”
“Do you agree with him?”
If Fallon spoke with his father about college, then he surely mentioned our conversation where Fallon basically said he was coming with me, and he would drag me kicking and screaming to CU if it came to it.
“I do.
I can see where Fallon gets his propensity for speaking in short, to-the-point answers.
“Elizabeth, if you’re worried about the job at MP, don’t. There will always be a place for you at my company if that’s what you decide you want to do. But you need to ask yourself: is that what you really want? Is that your dream? Or is it a choice you think you’re stuck with?”
There’s the mention of choices again. It’s become a word that I feel I will never escape.
“What if I choose wrong?” I ask him, looking back up at the sky. A streak of faint light zooms overhead. A shooting star. Another wish. Should I make one?
Mr. Montgomery stands up and shoves his hands in his dress pants’ pockets. “That’s the beauty about choices. They are like forks in the road. Even if you choose to go left, you can always turn around and go the other way.”
With that cryptic advice, he bends over, kisses the top of my head, and strolls back toward the house where the party is raging on.
Alright. Here goes nothing. I close my eyes and make my wish on the shooting star. Just as I open them, I yelp.
“I swear to God, you have to be a ninja with how you can always sneak up on me,” I chastise Fallon for scaring me.
“Was that Dad I saw walking off?” Fallon comes to stand in front of me and offers me his hand. I take it, and he pulls me up from the bench.
“Yeah. We ran into each other and had a nice talk. Your dad is a really kind man.”
Fallon maneuvers my left arm so that it rests on his shoulder, then he takes my right hand with his left.
“What are you doing?” I ask.
“I’m dancing with the birthday girl in the garden,” he replies as he begins to guide me in a makeshift waltz around the crushed slate path.
I don’t think there will ever come a day when Fallon doesn’t surprise me.
As silly as it sounds, I press my cheek to his chest and imagine that we’re characters in one of my historical romance novels where I’m a common girl who catches the eye of a prince, like the story of Cinderella but without all the mean girls.
Well, maybe Maria and Samantha can play the wicked stepsisters.
“Secret for a secret, Fallon.”
He slowly and gently dips me, then brings me back up so we are chest to chest and face to face. Even in the faint lights that line the pathway of the garden, his eyes sparkle like blue diamonds
“I’m going to give you until the count of three,” he says, his voice low like he’s telling me a secret.
“Why?” I whisper back, but my heart is already thumping against my chest. After the New Year’s Eve countdown, I will never be able to hear numbers recited backwards again and not think about that kiss.
“One,” he says.
My legs give out and turn to noodles.
“Two.” He takes my face between his hands and my eyes lock on his lips.
I think I’m on the verge of hyperventilating. Or perhaps I’m having a heart attack. Panic attack? Out-of-body experience?
Fallon dips his head, so our noses touch and our lips are close. My eyelids flutter closed, and my hands fist the front of his jacket.
I can’t let this happen between us again, regardless of the fact that his New Year’s kiss took me by surprise and wasn’t planned.
Even though Ryder broke up with me, I can’t allow someone else’s lips to kiss mine.
Not yet. Not until I know for sure that Ryder and I are over.
I’m also a mess and not ready for any type of romantic relationship right now.
“Thr—”
I’m about to step away from Fallon and tell him no when I hear, “Fallon, man, it’s almost ready!” Jayson calls out as footsteps come down the garden path.
“To be continued,” Fallon tells me and presses a kiss to my forehead before we move away from one another just as Jayson and Julien come into sight.
“What’s almost ready?” I ask the twins, noticing their excited faces.
Jayson lifts me in his arms, and I grab his shoulders. “Look over, princess.”
There’s a dark form of something enormous growing up from the ground. I watch as a bright, orange flame erupts up in a pulsing rhythm, the sound it makes similar to that of bellows used to stoke a fire. The massive object slowly takes a recognizable shape.
“Is that a hot air balloon?” I ask incredulously, not believing what I’m seeing. How could I have missed noticing that enormous thing when I arrived?
“YOLO list number twenty-one,” Jayson happily explains. “Happy Birthday, Liz.”
He puts me down and I reach for him, Fallon, and Julien, bringing them in until I’m surrounded by a wall of hot, gorgeous men. These wonderful, thoughtful guys are mine. My family. My best friends. The guys who stole and own equal pieces of my heart.
“I can’t believe you did this for me.” My mind is blown.
“Because it’s night, we can’t take it for a flight around town,” Julien says.
“As long as it stays tethered to the ground, we can at least go up. Kind of like the Tower of Terror ride at the fairgrounds without the sudden drop back down to earth,” Jayson says.
I smack Jayson in the shoulder. “Not the thing to mention right before I get inside it.”
“You ready, kitten?” Fallon asks.
With them by my side, I’m ready for everything. No more what ifs. I can have all of my dreams come true. I just need to say…
“Yes.”