He was talking calmly. Not like he was mad or upset and she was even more confused. “What is there to tell? I’m sure you know all about dyslexia. You know everything.”

  “That’s it, isn’t it? Because I’m smart. A genius you said.”

  “Just stating facts.”

  “And those facts don’t change the person that I am. Yes, I know about dyslexia. I’ve had students with it. Smart students. You know as well as I do that struggling to teach your brain to read the letters and spell them correctly doesn’t mean you don’t understand things. It doesn’t mean you’re stupid. It just means you have to work harder, but it’s possible.”

  “It is,” she said. “I’ve tried for years to improve. I’ve got apps and stuff. But I like what I do for a living and I don’t need to read more. I mean...”

  “I get it. I know what you are saying. You know your strengths in life. You know what you’re good at and you are thriving at it. That’s my point to you. Smart people work efficiently. Effectively. You spend a lot of time on your recipes and cooking and baking, right?”

  “Yes,” she said.

  “So you work hard to get better at that. You still run your business. You do your own books and pay your own bills, don’t you?”

  “Kind of. I mean I do, but I hired an accounting firm that does payroll. I do all my ordering and invoices and bills and then submit to them so they can give me a profit and loss statement and double-check any errors I might make.”

  “Do you understand everything they give you?”

  “Yes. I wouldn’t be able to run my business if I didn’t.”

  “I wouldn’t know the first thing that was given to me for that. I’d have to learn it. Just like most people have to learn something new. Don’t you get it? You know your weaknesses and you’re smart enough to find a way to compensate for them. You’ve spent too much of your life letting what others say about you bring you down.”

  “It’s hard not to let it get to me when it’s been said my whole life. When no one understands you. No one gets you and tells you to take the easy way out. That I should just use my looks to get ahead in the world. Do you know how hard it was to hear that the first time? That my parents were excited some stranger wanted me to model for him and encouraged it. They didn’t even consider it might be some ploy or set-up. I said no way! And then to hear it again and again, especially from the people who love you.”

  “No harder than it was for me to be used for what I knew by women.”

  “What?” she asked, not expecting those words to come out of his mouth.

  “You heard me. It all started in high school. The popular girl, the head cheerleader, homecoming queen. All of a sudden she had eyes for me.”

  “I’m sure I couldn’t blame her.”

  “You don’t get it. I wasn’t in her group. I didn’t play football. I didn’t hang out with her friends. Didn’t sit at her table, didn’t go out and party. I wasn’t a complete nerd but I didn’t run in her crowd either.”

  “I didn’t think you were. I mean you don’t look the part.”

  “That’s the other thing. People judged you by how you looked. I didn’t look the part and attracted attention for both reasons. But mostly it was girls who wanted to be with me to get me to help them. That I ‘looked good’ was a side benefit. But we never had anything in common. I lost track of the number of times that they’d break up with me when they got what they wanted and the answer would be, ‘we just didn’t click or like the same things.’ Or how about as I got older the women who thought I was wasting my time teaching. That I could do more. Should be doing more with my education and background.”

  Wow. She never expected to hear this. “So that is why you stopped dating women who looked like me? Why everyone said you had a type and it wasn’t me?”

  “Yeah. It wasn’t just high school, but college too. There were lots of women there that slept around to get what they wanted.”

  “Did you sleep with women as a trade?” she asked, hoping to hell he didn’t.

  “Of course not. You don’t think I’d do that, do you?”

  “No. But I wanted to be sure. So what happened then? Was there one thing that turned you that way?”

  “I guess. Her name was Marcella. I knew what she was after. What she wanted. Everyone knew on campus she slept around to get help in classes. To get what she wanted. She had her eyes set on me and I helped, but I didn’t sleep with her. She offered, I declined. The worse part was, people assumed it, and she didn’t deny it. She let them believe.”

  “Most men wouldn’t care though.” At least in her experience.

  “I did. I thought better of myself. Just like I’ve tried to get you to think better of yourself. Word got out and the next thing I knew I had another year of it at college with girls offering themselves to me for help. It soured me in general. I just decided that I was going in another direction with women. I wanted someone who wanted me for me.”

  “I can understand that,” she said.

  “Then why couldn’t you see that I just wanted you?” he asked, showing some anger. “What’s the real reason you ended things? I’ve thought about it. Everything was fine until we ran into Adam. Then it all changed.”

  She knew now was her only chance to be honest. She didn’t think it would change the outcome no matter how much she wanted it to though.

  “It just reminded me I’d never be good enough for you. That I had this secret and you didn’t know.”

  “But it’s not that big of a deal,” he argued.

  “It’s big enough for me. And you were encouraging me to expand my business, which would mean less time we could spend together. I just thought you were trying to put some distance between us.”

  “I was trying to encourage you! I saw how your mother was with you. I’ve heard everything you’ve been saying for months and I told myself no one ever seemed to back you or help you. Encourage you to keep going. I wanted to be that person.”

  Oh my God, her aunt was right. How was it possible that the ghost she didn’t believe she was talking to was right all along? She was going to be ill.

  “I didn’t know. I guess I was so self-absorbed,” she said, bursting into tears.

  “No, you were looking for the negative. Always looking for the bad and not the good.”

  She flung the tears away with both hands. He wasn’t as calm as he was when he first sat down. “I’ve just always been that way.”

  “I get it,” he argued. “But I’ve never given you any reason to be that way with me.”

  “No, you haven’t.”

  “I want you to be truthful with me. If we didn’t run into Adam would you have broken up with me? Not just a few days after, but done it in general?”

  “I don’t think so. I don’t know. I mean I had this fear you were going to end things with me. That you’d find someone better or someone you had more in common with. Someone that didn’t work as much. There were all these fears you would end it with me first.”

  “So you didn’t want to be on the receiving end of it again?” he asked, narrowing his eyes.

  “I guess.” Who was this guy that had never been anything but calm and happy all the time? He sure didn’t look either of those things now. “I never really took your feelings into consideration. I mean it’s not like we’ve ever talked about the future.”

  He snorted. “I’ve talked about it more than you. All you ever did was go weekend to weekend. You never even left any clothes at my house and I’ve suggested it several times.”

  He had and she hadn’t wanted to get too comfortable. “I just thought you were being nice.”

  “That’s me, the nice guy that everyone wanted something from. The truth is, I’m not all that nice when someone pisses me off. It just doesn’t happen often.”

  “And I pissed you off?” she asked, knowing the answer by his mannerisms.

  “No. Yes.” He shook his head rapidly. “You hurt me. Hurt me bad.”

  He had to care for her in order to say that. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to do that.”

  “You’re crying. Why?”

  “Because you weren’t the only one hurt.”

  “How could you be hurt?” he asked. “You broke up with me?”

  “I didn’t want to.” She slapped her hand in front of her mouth.

  “I knew it.” He pointed his finger at her like he was accusing a student of something in his class. “So tell me what you feel for me.”

  “I broke up with you. If I tell you how I feel you won’t believe me. You’ll think I’m wishy washy.”

  “You don’t know what I’ll think. Just tell me.”

  He wasn’t giving her any indication of anything and she wasn’t sure what to do. But then she remembered her aunt’s words. To take a stand and stop letting what people say about her hold her back.

  She took a deep breath and let it fly. Took that chance. “I love you,” she said.

  He stood up and reached for her, the smile filling his face, showing her the expressions in him she’d come to love, pulling her into his arms. “See, that’s the funny thing. I love you too. And that’s why I was so hurt. Because I thought you were feeling the same way and then, bam, you end things with me and I wonder what the hell I did wrong and I couldn’t figure it out.”

  “And we know you have to find the answers to everything,” she said, laughing when he hugged her tight, spinning her around.

  “I do. And I want you to know that I forgive you for being a fool. For not believing in me and not believing in yourself.”

  “I’m glad you forgive me. In time I think I’ll forgive myself. If you’ll take me back, that is?”

  “No way I’m ever letting you go. And no more secrets. Do you hear me?”

  “I hear you,” she said, reaching up and kissing him on the lips. “No more secrets. No more foolishness.”

  Epilogue

  “What a beautiful wedding that was,” Payton said when they got back to Bryce’s house.

  “Ella looked stunning. It’s so nice to see them all happy,” Bryce said. “It’s been a long time coming. Next wedding is Sam’s in the spring.”

  “It’s like wedding fever with your family,” she said, laughing.

  “Yes, it is. That and babies. Well, babies for the Five. Not so much for anyone in my family. Unless Ryder has a kid no one knows about.”

  “You better not say that in front of your mother. I think she’d probably hit you.”

  He laughed. “After she hit Ryder.”

  “That’s true. Have I thanked you again?” she asked.

  “For what?”

  “For showing up on my doorstep after I made a fool of myself. If you didn’t I’d still be miserable about throwing the best thing in my life away.”

  “You’ve thanked me plenty of times,” he said. “But you can stop now. I think you would have come to your senses and come back to me.”

  She hoped she would have but wasn’t really sure. She was glad she wasn’t put to the test though. “And now we don’t want to spend any time apart. You’re probably getting sick of me.”

  “Never,” he said. “What I’d like is if maybe we could start living together. Maybe find a place of our own. Both of our apartments are kind of small. I was thinking of looking for a house.”

  “You want me to house shop with you?” she asked, shocked.

  “I want us to house shop,” he said.

  He walked over to the bookshelf, the one he’d wanted her to read the instructions on assembling all those months ago and she wouldn’t do it. He opened a drawer and pulled out a box, came back over and put it in her hand.

  “What’s this?” she asked, her hand shaking like crazy.

  “Open it up and find out,” he said.

  She flipped the lid and saw a sparkling diamond staring back at her. “Oh dear. Is this what I think it is?”

  “Yes.” He took the ring out of the box and grabbed her hand. “I was working on my paper the other day. I’m making progress on it.”

  She didn’t know where he was going with this. “Okay...”

  “And I think I discovered what happens when the world stops moving for two seconds.”

  “What did you discover?”

  “That you could lose the best thing in your life if you didn’t grab it by the hand and make it yours. So that is what I’m doing right now. I want to make you mine. Will you marry me?”

  “Yes!” she said, knowing it had to be one of the most romantic things she’d ever heard in her life.

  He kissed her hard and he kissed her fast and then he stepped back and said, “Sorry, but I need to tell my mother you said yes.”

  She burst out laughing. “What?”

  He dipped his head down, all shy like in a move she’d never seen before. “She helped me pick out your ring.”

  “What? Why?”

  “Because I wanted it to be just right and she’s been on the ball with you all along.”

  “What does that mean?”

  “It just means she gave me the push to open my eyes and see how much I loved you and that you loved me too, and I just had to find it in myself to fight for you. That you’re what I wanted all along and I had to stop feeling sorry for myself thinking you didn’t want me. Thinking that I wasn’t enough. I owe her a lot for what she’s helped me with in life. And I knew she’d help me with this.”

  “She did a beautiful job. It’s stunning and you can tell her I said so,” Payton said, looking down at the square cut diamond that was bigger than any ring she thought she’d ever own.

  “We can tell her that together. Why don’t we go over and share the news?”

  “Why don’t we?” she said, knowing that she was truly accepted into the Fierce clan now.

  ***

  “That worked out just the way I thought it would,” Diane said once Bryce and Payton left.

  “You were nervous there for a bit, admit it,” Grant said.

  “Only after Bryce said Payton broke up with him. But after that Sunday dinner I knew they’d be fine.”

  “Come on,” Grant said. “Even you couldn’t have known he would have gone over to her house the minute he left here to confront her.”

  “No, I figured he’d at least wait twenty-four hours, but I guess he knew what he wanted and he was going after it. Sounds like some other man I know.”

  “You loved that about me.”

  “And I still do,” she said, moving over to the chair he was sitting in and climbing into his lap.

  “Well, you can officially pat yourself on the back. Two for two.”

  “Time for Ryder now,” she said. “You better get your thinking hat on.”

  “No. We need a break. Garrett and Carolyn can have their turn. And trust me, things are getting pretty spicy with Drake.”

  “I noticed that at Ella’s wedding.”

  “Yeah. It’s getting interesting. I just want to sit back and watch this one. We’ve got time yet for Ryder.”

  “I’ll take your word for it...this time.”

  The End!!

  To be continued...for Drake Fierce.

  Other Books from Natalie Ann

  The Road Series-See where it all started!!

  Lucas and Brooke’s Story- Road to Recovery

  Jack and Cori’s Story – Road to Redemption

  Mac and Beth’s Story- Road to Reality

  Ryan and Kaitlin’s Story- Road to Reason

  The All Series

  William and Isabel’s Story — All for Love

  Ben and Presley’s Story – All or Nothing

  Phil and Sophia’s Story – All of Me

  Alec and Brynn’s Story – All the Way

  Sean and Carly’s Story — All I Want

  Drew and Jordyn’s Story— All My Love

  Finn and Olivia’s Story—All About You

  The Lake Placid Series

  Nick Buchanan and Mallory Denning – Second Chance

  Max Hamilton and Quinn Baker – Give Me A Chance

  Caleb Ryder and Celeste McGuire – Our Chance

  Cole McGuire and Rene Buchanan – Take A Chance

  Zach Monroe and Amber Deacon- Deserve A Chance

  Trevor Miles and Riley Hamilton – Last Chance

  Matt Winters and Dena Hall- Another Chance

  The Fierce Five Series

  Gavin Fierce and Jolene O’Malley- How Gavin Stole Christmas

  Brody Fierce and Aimee Reed - Brody

  Aiden Fierce and Nic Moretti- Aiden

  Mason Fierce and Jessica Corning- Mason

  Cade Fierce and Alex Marshall - Cade

  Ella Fierce and Travis McKinley- Ella

  Fierce Family

  Sam Fierce and Dani Rhodes- Sam

  Bryce Fierce and Payton Davies – Bryce

  Love Collection

  Vin Steele and Piper Fielding – Secret Love

  Jared Hawk and Shelby McDonald – True Love

  Erik McMann and Sheldon Case – Finding Love

  Connor Landers and Melissa Mahoney- Beach Love

  Ian Price and Cam Mason- Intense Love

  Liam Sullivan and Ali Rogers - Autumn Love

  Owen Taylor and Jill Duncan - Holiday Love

  Chase Martin and Noelle Bennett - Christmas Love

  Zeke Collins and Kendall Hendricks - Winter Love

  Troy Walker and Meena Dawson – Chasing Love

  Jace Stratton and Lauren Towne - First Love

  Gabe Richards and Leah Morrison – Forever Love

  Blake Wilson and Gemma Anderson – Simply Love

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