Jack made good on his promise. We returned just after noon to find Henry waiting on my porch, his hat in his hand. He glanced up as we pulled into the drive. My heart took a hard knock at the sight of him. So tall and strong, and so beautiful he had me blinking back tears. He raised a hand and I got a glimpse of white bandage. The tears came welling up anyway.
“Don’t let him see those,” Jack warned. “He’ll take them for pity.”
I touched my fingers to my lashes as I climbed out of the car so Henry wouldn’t see. Jack was right. Henry would see them for what they were—pity tears—and all of this would be over before he got one word out. Jack had been cagey at breakfast about just what sort of offer Henry might have for me, no matter which way I pressed him.
Henry’s gaze stayed on mine as I walked toward him. When we reached him, Jack put his arm around my waist. Henry noticed it, but kept his features schooled, showing no reaction whatsoever to Jack’s hand on me.
“Hello, Ruby,” Henry began. “I was wondering if I could speak with you for a moment.”
I inclined my head. “Come inside. I’ll put some coffee on.”
While I fussed in the kitchen, Jack stayed close to me, frequently touching me, and even got so bold as to kiss me on the cheek in front of Henry. He wasn’t trying to bait Henry—that was really clear—and Henry only smiled mildly when I checked for his reaction. What was going on here?
When we were all seated around the table, Jack and I turned to Henry and waited for him to say what he’d come to say.
Henry took a sip of coffee—for fortitude, no doubt—then cleared his throat and began. “I owe you an apology for last night. I owe one to Jack too. I’m sorry,” he said to his cousin. “For what I forced Ruby to do.” He turned to me. “I apologize for saying the things I said and for trying to twist you up. I’m sorry I made you give up Jack. Something I could clearly see hurt you.” He cleared his throat again and tentatively took my hand. I let him. “I love you, Ruby. More than anything or anyone.
“I know I don’t have a right, but I’m begging your forgiveness. It’s your choice if you want to stay with Jack. In fact, if you do, I won’t stand in your way. You could have a child with him, Ruby, just the way you’d always dreamed of. I want to marry you, but only if I can offer you everything you’ve ever wanted.”
Jack took my other hand. “If you want us both, you’ve got us. If you want only one of us, you only have to choose and the other will walk away. I love you, Ruby, and I too want you to have everything you’ve ever dreamed of. I’d like a child with you. And with Henry, if that’s what you want.”
Henry placed his other hand on top of Jack’s and mine.
I shook my head. “I don’t understand. How would that work?”
“If you want us both, you have us,” Henry said. “We could be a family. An unconventional family to be sure, but then nothing about you or what’s between us is conventional, is it?”
“What he’s trying to say,” Jack cut in, “is that you’ll choose who to be with and when. We’ll share you the way we have been. If that’s what you want.”
“In the same bed?”
Jack laughed. “I love my cousin, but not in that way.”
“No more jealousy.” Henry raised my hand to his lips and kissed it. “I promise. I want to give you everything, Ruby. If that means giving you Jack and his children, then I’ll give you that and more. I realized something last night. I need you with me more than I need you all to myself. I’ve offered Jack a room in the house down the hall from mine. We could make it work, but as Jack said, it’s up to you.”
The tears came for real now and there was nothing I could do to stop them. “Are you sure?” When Henry nodded I turned to Jack. “And you’re sure too?”
“It was my idea to introduce you to Henry. I could hardly start having an issue with it now. Not when it means I might get to keep you.”
“I don’t know what to say,” I told them.
Henry kissed my hand. “Think about it.”
“Are you sure? Are you very sure?” I asked him. This was such a sudden turnaround for him I could scarcely believe it.
“I will be,” Henry said. “I can’t say I’ll get used to it overnight, but I’ll try. For you. Anything for you.” He kissed my hand again.
“Jack, would you mind giving Henry and me a few minutes?”
He glanced at his cousin before rising from his chair. “Some fresh air would do me good.”
I waited until Jack was gone before I pulled my hand from Henry’s. “I don’t believe you’re really fine with this…I don’t know…compromise, are you?”
“I can be.”
“All of that jealousy, where will it go? I’m going to smell like Jack and like you. I can’t take baths all day. How will this work?”
“I’m not exactly sure about that.” He stared into his coffee cup. “It wasn’t his scent on you. It was knowing you’d been with him or with Aaron, and them being able to give you what I couldn’t. Last night? I’d spoken with Jack earlier in the day. He told me he’d just returned from seeing you. That’s how I knew you’d been with him.”
“You dirty rat! I nearly scrubbed myself raw, trying to make myself perfect for you! And then you sent your butler in to bathe me…” I gave him my fury and shame. “How could you? How could you mortify me like that? Like I was some dirty mutt who’d rolled in the mud then tracked it into your house?”
“I’m sorry. That was my own insecurity making me act like a jackass toward you.” Taking my hand once more, he dropped to the floor on one knee. “I swear if you’ll let me, Ruby, I’ll spend the rest of my days trying to make it up to you. Please.”
With my other hand, I pulled down his sleeve. “What of these? What am I supposed to make of these? Will I live in fear that one wrong move will send you back to the place where this made more sense than working things out with me? Because I can’t live like that, Henry. I shouldn’t have to and neither should you. I love you, but I can’t live with that kind of pressure. I need to know you’re going to be okay. That no matter what happens, we’re going to be okay.”
“I didn’t cut deep enough. I wasn’t even trying. My head was just so full of losing you…”
“So it was what? A cry for help? A tantrum? What?”
“I don’t know what it was. It was stupid of me to even play at it. I know that now. Jack spent a good hour lecturing me for it. He said the bandages would scare you and I can see that they do. It’s not as bad as it looks, I promise.”
“I lost the first man I ever loved. I couldn’t bear it if I lost you too, especially if it was you who chose to leave me that way. I’d never get over it. Please promise me you’ll talk to Jack or Charles or me if you ever start to feel that way again.”
“I promise. I swear it. Please don’t cry.” He put his forehead to mine. “I can’t bear the thought of bringing you pain. At the time I only thought of my own. It was all I could think of.”
“I can’t bear the thought of you harming yourself. Please promise me that whatever happens, you’ll never do it again.”
“I promise.”
“I love you.”
“Oh, Ruby. I love you too.” He kissed me with an urgency that more than proved his words. When he lifted his head, he smiled and thumbed away the last of my tears. “I should’ve said that last night instead of all of the other things I said.”
“Yes, you should’ve, you silly man. That’s the first time you’ve ever said it to me.”
“It won’t be the last. If you’ll have me, I’ll say it a thousand times a day, every day.”
“I expect you to live up to that promise.”
“Oh, I will. Never fear.”
“Will you tell Jack to come back in? I’ve made my decision.”
“Anything for you.”
He rose and came back in with Jack. The two of them resumed their seats and looked at me expectantly.
“Jack, you know how much I care for you.” I took his hand in both of mine. “You’ve been so good to me. I truly believe that one day you’re going to find a woman who loves you, and you’re going to have a good life with her, filled with children and happiness. But that woman isn’t me.”
“Ruby,” Henry gasped.
“I’m in love with Henry, and while your offer is tempting I know I’ll have everything I’ll ever want or need with him. Including children if the good Lord should choose to bless us.”
Jack nodded. “I thought that’s the way things might go. You don’t look at me the way you look at him.” He glanced at his cousin. “The lucky son of a bitch.”
“Are you sure?” Henry’s voice was a thin wisp of disbelief and happiness.
“I’m sure.” I kissed Jack on the cheek and released his hand. “Thank you for everything you’ve ever done for me. You’ve given me more happiness than one woman deserves and you’ve been good to me. I’ll love you and thank you for it the rest of my life.”
“But not in the way you love Henry.”
“No.” I shook my head. “Not in that way.”
“Well then.” He stood. “I’ll leave the two of you to it. Be good to her,” he told his cousin. “You ever hurt her, you’ll answer to me. Got it?”
“I got it,” Henry answered, but he was staring at me when he said it. Tears stood in his eyes. “Are you—?”
“I swear, Henry, if you ask me one more time if I’m sure, I’m going to clock you.”
He pressed his lips together and shook his head.
“That’s more like it. Now take me to bed and show me just how much you love me.”
“Gladly, my Ruby. Gladly.”
Thank you for reading PIANO LESSONS! Each of the books in the CRAZY ON YOU series is a stand alone novel. Have you read the first novel in the series—CAPTIVE?
Sergeant Major Sofia Pia Martinez’s men caught covert special ops agent Jake Callaghan spying on her country’s very secret operation on the San Pablo coast. Whatever should she do with him?
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