Chapter Seventeen #2
“No, Taylor, that’s not it at all. She loves you.
She even told me that she had faith that you’d have no problem with this because you’re so strong and practical.
And you love me. Granny is just looking toward the future.
She has to. She has a huge estate to protect.
The way she put it is that by doing this, family money stays in the family to be passed down from generation to generation.
” Harper had been thinking about this all afternoon, and the idea of a prenup was beginning to make sense to her.
“Why should all that my grandparents built be at risk when someone new marries into the family?”
“At risk? That’s how you see marrying me?” Taylor tossed the pillow across the room.
“No!” Harper suddenly felt sick. She could see Taylor beginning to blow up. This was her worst nightmare coming true. “Of course not. I love you. I trust you.”
“But you don’t trust me with your money.”
“I do!” Harper cried, and put her hands over her face.
“I don’t care about my money. You know that.
I never have. But it’s not just the money, can’t you see?
It’s the estate, the family property. That’s more important than just money.
Granny James is rather insisting. Oh, Taylor, I don’t know what I should do. ”
Taylor rubbed his forehead with agitation, then let his hand drop. He reached out again to bring Harper close to his chest. She slunk into his arms and wrapped hers around him.
“I don’t want this to come between us,” she said miserably.
“It won’t,” he said in a low voice. “We won’t let it.”
Harper sniffed and wiped her eyes, feeling suddenly a world better.
“It’s just the way I see it,” Taylor continued, “is being married means we’re in it together.
Married couples ought to protect each other by being fair and generous in all ways, including financially.
So it strikes me that starting our marriage with financial negotiations and withholding property isn’t a very good way to begin a relationship that should be built on love, trust, and mutual protection. ”
“I agree with the heart of what you’re saying.
Really, I do, and I said just as much to my sisters earlier this afternoon.
If I weren’t the heir to the James estate, we wouldn’t even be having this discussion.
But the fact is, I am. That puts a different slant on things.
But a prenup would be simply protecting property that has been in my family for generations. ”
“Still, there’s no way it won’t disturb the balance of power in our marriage. You’ll control all of our finances. I’ll always feel like it’s your money at the end of the day, your decisions. That’ll make me feel less than an equal partner.”
“Taylor, Sea Breeze is already in my name and you don’t have a problem with that.”
He looked at her, his brow raised mockingly. “I don’t?”
“What?” she exclaimed, shocked. “Do you?”
“Of course I do. But your grandmother bought you this place. What was I going to say? No, I won’t live here with you?”
“I’m going to repay Granny once I get my trust fund.”
“What difference does it make? I didn’t buy the house. Nor could I. Not in several lifetimes. And you using your trust-fund money”—Harper didn’t miss the emphasis he placed on your—“to repay your grandmother won’t make Sea Breeze feel any more like mine. Like ours.”
“Don’t you like living here?”
“What’s not to like? Except, it feels like I’m living in your house. Because, frankly, it is.”
“I didn’t know that’s how you saw things.” The words slowly dropped into her brain like stones into a deep, empty well. She was silent a moment, then asked in a whisper, “Do you want to move? Is that what you want?”
“Frankly, as long as you’re asking, I have to say I wouldn’t mind it.”
Harper moved her head to look up at him. She couldn’t believe what she was hearing.
“Harper, look. It hasn’t been easy moving into this place, knowing it was paid for by you. It’s beyond anything I could afford. Hell, I’m not even paying rent.”
“That’s not true. You’re paying for all the maintenance and household bills. You buy the groceries. It’s an expensive house to maintain.”
“Well, I can afford those ancillary expenses,” he replied flippantly, “especially since I didn’t even have to buy you a ring.
” He picked up her left hand and let his thumb run over the large mine-cut diamond on her ring finger.
It had been a gift from Mamaw on her engagement, a ring that Harper had always loved.
“Some would say your grandmothers have made my life very easy. I’m sure some think it in not the kindest way, either.
But they’d be wrong. I feel like a freeloader. ”
“Oh,” Harper said, crestfallen. She didn’t know his feelings about all this ran so strong. “I’m sorry. I had no idea.”
“I didn’t want you to feel I wasn’t grateful or that I was being small-minded. It’s a great house. I just don’t feel like it’s our house.”
Harper slid down beside him on the bed and laid her head again on his shoulder. She didn’t want him to see the crushing disappointment on her face. “Maybe we should consider selling,” she said in a choked voice.
“Maybe we should.”
Harper swallowed hard, closing her eyes tight.
She’d expected him to counter her offer, to tell her, No, of course not.
This is our home. Or something along those lines.
The thought of selling Sea Breeze, leaving this place she loved, filled her with despair.
She moved from his shoulder to her side of the bed, her back to him.
There was no point in trying to deny her true feelings.
“I love this house,” she said in a shaky voice.
“This is more than just a place to live to me. It’s my touchstone.
I have memories here. Family. I spent the past year tending the house and garden with thoughts that it would be our forever home.
Where we’d raise this baby, and hopefully others.
Where you and I would grow old together. ”
For a long time Taylor did not say anything. Then he reached over to turn off his bedside light and settled on his back on his side of the bed.
“Let’s sleep on it,” Taylor said into the darkness. “This is a lot to think about. In the meantime, I’ll talk to Imogene about this whole prenup business.”
“No, I will.”
“No,” Taylor said in a voice that brooked no further discussion. “I will.”