Chapter 28
WESTON
Imade my way down the high street, Grandad’s letter in my pocket, and paused outside the solicitor’s office. Drummond & Kerr was printed on the door in gold lettering.
I didn’t know what I was doing here.
Not exactly.
But I wanted answers, and I didn’t know where else to get them since the man I wanted to talk to most in the world was dead.
I pushed inside, finding the front room empty.
“Be out in a moment!” a gruff voice called. About thirty seconds later, a short, balding man appeared, a cup of tea in his hand.
“Ah, Weston,” he said. “Good to see you, son.”
“Mr. Drummond,” I replied. He was the same solicitor who had drawn up Grandad’s will.
“Told you to call me Craig.” He waved me toward his desk. “Can I get you something? A cuppa?”
“No, no,” I said, crossing the office.
Craig sank down in his leather chair. “What can I do for you?” he asked. “You look like a man on a mission.”
I pulled the letter from my pocket. I didn’t know what else to do, how else to explain, so I simply handed it over. Craig lifted his glasses onto the end of his nose, then started to read. “Ah, yes,” he said simply.
“It’s true then?” I said. “Grandad was only bluffing about giving the estate to Jasper? This whole will nonsense—it was all about trying to force me to confront my feelings for Lena?”
“It wasn’t all nonsense. But if you’re asking me if there was a backup plan should you fail to get married within the thirty days…
” He climbed to his feet again, crossing the room to unlock a filing cabinet.
He flipped through it, producing a sealed envelope.
He handed it over. “Your grandfather also had this drawn up. What you saw was not actually the final paperwork. This was the final version of his will.”
I opened it.
“It gives the estate to you outright, with no conditions. If you hadn’t married within thirty days and Jasper tried to claim the estate, I would have simply produced this version.”
“Simply?” I said, my jaw tightening. Nothing about this process had been simple.
“Thankfully, it didn’t come to that,” Craig said, somewhat amused.
“And up until the day of the festival, I would have said that Pete was looking down on you, full of joy, thrilled that his plan had worked out. Now, of course, he’s probably looking down and grumbling about daft grandsons who can’t tell a good thing when they have it. ”
I sucked in a sharp breath. “Well, if not for his bloody meddling, I wouldn’t be in this mess!”
Craig sighed. “Look, son, your grandad and I had been friends for a long time. And I know all he wanted was what was best for you. He believed that doing things this way would make you open your eyes and reach out for someone who could make you truly happy.”
I shook my head, jaw set. “If I’ve learned anything, it’s that love will never make you truly happy.”
“Not if you let that young woman walk away from you,” Craig pointed out.
“I have a right to protect myself,” I argued, irritation prickling at the back of my neck. Why did everyone think they knew better than I did? “The way I loved Lena…it would have only led to disaster in the end. Loving someone that much…that passionately…it’s dangerous.”
“What a complete load of mince,” a familiar voice said. Jo stuck her head through the door from the back room.
I blinked at her. What the bloody hell was she doing here?
She walked into the room, coming to stand behind Craig. She put her hands on his shoulders, and for the first time I clocked the framed photos on the wall behind Craig. Jo featured in many of them. “I presume you’ve met my wife?” Craig said.
“Oh, we’ve met,” I assured him.
“Now, I don’t make a habit of getting into other people’s business,” Jo said.
I snorted at that.
“Okay, maybe I do,” she amended. “But only ever for good reason.”
“And you think this is a good reason?” I said.
“I do, in fact. Because if you carry on walking through life this stubborn and hardheaded, you’re going to ruin every good thing you have coming.
When two decent, honorable people love each other, there’s no such thing as too much love,” Jo insisted, squeezing Craig’s shoulder.
“Love isn’t the problem. The problem comes when the people involved are selfish—all they know how to do is love selfishly.
That kind of love can be destructive, but it doesn’t mean that all love is. ”
“It is as far as I’ve seen,” I said. “It always creates trust issues, and without trust, what’s left to build on?”
“Now that’s a lie if I ever heard one.”
I frowned at Jo.
“Your grandparents were the most besotted couple I ever saw in my life,” Jo pointed out.
I blinked at her.
“The fire didn’t go out of their marriage until the day your grandmother died. Their love made them better and stronger. That’s what passionate love can be.”
I opened my mouth but found myself pausing.
I’d truly never considered how much they’d loved each other.
When I thought of them, I usually thought about how much they loved me, doting on and supporting me.
But that love and support had grown from a place of togetherness.
It had been a product of the strength and passion and depth of their own relationship.
“All I’m saying is that when you find a love like that, a man with any sense in him isn’t going to just let it walk away. Or…” Jo added pointedly, “let it fly back to the other side of the world.”
She was right. Maybe things hadn’t worked out with Narissa or my own parents, but that didn’t mean that deep, passionate, messy love wasn’t worth fighting for.
If I could have a love like the one my grandparents shared, then maybe I didn’t need to be afraid of it.
But first, I needed to embrace the depth of my feelings.
I needed to give into my passion for Lena.
My grandparents had loved like that until the end of their days, and it would be a great dishonor to their memory if I didn’t at least try to fight for something similar. I turned on my heel, a flash of adrenaline surging through me as the path forward became clear.
“Where are you running off to?” Jo called after me.
I paused in the doorway, giving her and Craig a grateful smile over my shoulder. “I’ve got an apology to make.”