32. Miles #3
“I love you,” she replies. I’ll never get tired of hearing it.
“I’m so proud of you, Milo,” Lando says, throwing an arm around my shoulder, after Ruby runs off. “Everything you’ve achieved here . . . Look at this place.”
My head drops on his shoulder. “Thanks, Lan—”
“I’m serious, I’m proud of you.”
I know he is, but hearing him say it so forcefully and earnestly hits me dead in the chest, and I need to swallow down the lump forming in my throat.
His arm is still around me when we walk around the corner, taking the shortcut through the field. As we turn toward the club bar, a figure runs down the stairs directly into our path. One look at the four of us, and he quite rightly hesitates.
Alex reaches out and grabs him by the shoulder before he can bolt. “Not so fast, Sunshine.”
Santiago Torres looks absolutely petrified as the four of us glare at him, which has me grinning like the Cheshire cat.
“I think he’s about to puke, Hen.”
“Should I find a bucket?” Hendricks replies.
Torres’s eyes narrow to tiny slits as he glares at me. And I take great pleasure in wagging my finger at him.
“Nope. Don’t think so. If you’re looking to date our sister, you’re going to need to work on your manners.”
“She doesn’t need your permission,” he snarls, though the slump in his shoulders tells me he knows that’s not true.
I open my mouth to respond when Lando stops me. He steps into Torres.
“What do you want with Clementine?”
“None of your fucking business.”
“But it is our business, you see. She’s our sister, and we look out for each other. So do you want to try your answer again because I’ll give you one more chance—”
“One more chance than he fucking deserves.”
Torres lets out a long sigh. The anger disappears from his face, and when he looks at me, I almost feel sorry for him. “I didn’t know you were her brother when I crossed your line—”
I freeze. Of all the things I thought he might say, that didn’t even make the top hundred. “What?”
“You’d stolen two ponies from under my nose earlier that summer, and I was pissed. They were ones I had my eye on, and you came in, offered more, and took them.”
I rack my brain. I bought several ponies that summer, so I don’t know which specifically he’s talking about, but also, what the fuck? “So you tried to kill me because I took a sale from you?”
“It was an accident. I didn’t mean to cross you so close.
I didn’t mean for you to get hurt. I’m sorry, I’m so fucking sorry, man.
” He rubs along his temples. For the first time, I notice dark circles under his eyes, exhaustion marring his sharp features, and despite wanting to hate his guts, I don’t.
I’ve never seen anyone so pitiful. “I was supposed to travel to see Clemmie the next weekend, but she stopped returning my calls, and it was then that I put two and two together. She still won’t speak to me—”
“Don’t blame her.”
Torres turns to Alex. “Neither do I, but it doesn’t change how I feel. Or how I hope she still feels about me.”
“And what’s that?” asks Hendricks even though we all know what the answer is.
“I love her.”
Alex moves into the position of my favorite brother after his eye roll and loud scoff, but I suddenly feel sorry for the guy.
Ruby has completely softened me, which is weird because I don’t think she’d be quite so forgiving.
Had I not witnessed him groveling, I wouldn’t have believed a word out of his mouth.
Had I not recently experienced love, I wouldn’t understand his desperation either.
Doesn’t mean I’m not tempted to see if he’ll get on his knees and beg, just for shits and giggles, but I decide to be the bigger person. I’m definitely more mature since I met Ruby.
Eventually, I shrug. “Whatever. You want to be with Clementine, we’re not going to stop you.”
Lando nods in agreement. “She’s an adult.
She has to make her own decisions and her own mistakes.
But remember that she has four older brothers, and if you so much as hurt a hair on her head, we know how to kill you and make it look like an accident.
We own six hundred thousand acres of land and a private plane.
We can bury your body somewhere you will never be found. ”
“Shit. Remind me to never cross Lando,” mutters Alex.
“Well?” adds Lando, his eyes never leaving Torres.
“Yeah, got it. Whatever. You’ll fucking kill me . . .” His eyes dart between the four of us. “So does that mean I can talk to her?”
Lando nods. “I guess so.”
“Wait.” I stop him before he takes off. “What the fuck happened in that match?”
He tugs on the back of his neck. “I thought if I left you alone on the pitch, Clementine would notice.”
“You lost the match on purpose?” My mouth drops, along with my brothers’, because that’s insane. “Your team must be so pissed.”
“They fired me.”
It’s so pathetic that I don’t know how I manage to keep a straight face. “And why were you at Hampshire?”
Again, he looks so uncomfortable I want to laugh, but he eventually says, “I came to find you, to explain and apologize. But I saw you with your new wife, and it fucked me off, man. You get to be happy . . .” His jaw clenches, and he takes a deep breath.
“But I am sorry, and I’m apologizing regardless of Clemmie.
If she doesn’t want to be with me, then I’ll deal with it. ”
Hendricks mutters something about a tiny violin and receives a death glare in response.
I shake my head, still no wiser as to what my sister sees in him. But I can say with certainty he no longer has any bearing on my life. “You’ll probably find Clementine in the champagne tent.”
“He’s sprinting faster than Clover,” adds Alex, as Torres disappears around the corner.
I laugh, and my three brothers join in. “That guy is so whipped. Clementine will eat him alive.”
“Yeah, maybe we should warn him.”
Hendricks drapes his arm over my shoulder. “I’d rather have a drink first.”
There’s a chorus of approvals, and we all continue to the clubhouse when I stop. “I’ll catch you guys up there. I’m going to find Ruby first.”
“Torres isn’t the only one who’s whipped,” Alex drawls, the cheeky bastard.
“Engaged to be married, engaged to be married, practically married.” I point to all three of them. “Speak for your-fucking-selves. I’m going to find my wife.”
She’s in the first place I look—which, admittedly, is exactly where she said she’d be—leaning against Maverick’s stable door feeding him carrots, and even though I think I’m being quiet, she senses me and turns around.
“Hey, isn’t that the captain of the England’s Cup-winning team?”
“Damn right, it is.” I smile, stroking Maverick’s muzzle as he nudges me. “And aren’t you his wife? Or is it teammate?”
“I think we’ll go with wife for now.”
“Good decision.” I lean forward and surround her mouth with mine, suddenly overcome with exhaustion.
Gone are the days when I would party all night after a match and leave with a different woman.
Pulling back, I stare down into her beautiful eyes and want nothing more than to leave with her, and only her, forever and ever.
“Come on, Trouble. What d’you say we finish this at home? ”
“I like the sound of that. Lead the way.”