Heirly Ever After, Vernon, Magan [best thriller novels to read .txt] 📗

tried to speak, so I swallowed hard and tried again. “You didn’t need to do all of this just to try and win me back.”

He laughed softly, shaking his head. “Ah, it wasn’t all about you, but it did take meeting a damsel on a train for me to realize what I’d been missing out on. Not just my English family, but the woman who draws the most beautiful sketches I’ve ever seen. Who has hair the color of the sunset. Who I was a damn fool for ever betraying in the first place.”

“We can’t just go back to how it was…”

He took another step closer, lifting his hand between us. He still wore my scrunchie around his wrist, the velvet fabric rubbing against the bare skin below my neck. “I know I have a lot of making up to do, damsel. But I’m willing to try. I want to be the only one wearing this scrunchie. I don’t want to make the same mistake your ex did. I want you. I’m willing to do whatever it takes. For us.”

I let out a shaky breath, my mind still reeling from the certainty of his words. I wanted to try. I wanted to meet the real Jacob, without secrets. I wanted to see where this adventure across the pond really ended. And I wanted it to be with him.

“Just freaking kiss him already!”

I jumped and turned to see my sister not so subtly eavesdropping a few tables away from us. “Natalie!” I bellowed.

“Look, you’re either going to finish school here and live with Mom or you’re going to apply in Scotland to be closer to this man. So just get on with it and kiss, make up, or break up so we can move on.”

Heat flushed my cheeks so hard I was sure it would melt. “You’re okay with this? About school and everything?”

Natalie smiled her bright red lips, and instantly the room was lighter. “Of course I am. And of course I’m going to make sure that even if something happens between the two of you, you finish school this time. No bad breakups will stop you from your goals this time.”

“I won’t let her.” Jacob’s breath was hot on my ear.

My entire body shook as I closed my eyes then slowly opened them.

I never believed in happily ever afters or that fairytales could come true.

I glanced between my sister and the man who was willing to do all of this for me. My family. All those old stories about the damsel in distress were really onto something with the once-in-a-lifetime romance.

I took Jacob’s wrist, sliding my fingers against the scrunchie. “It’s going to take some time for me to fully forgive you, you know?”

“How about we start over? I’m Laird Lachlan Jacob MacWebley from Scotland. Odd duck of the MacWebley and the Webley family. Would you care for a dance with me?”

I bit my lower lip. “I don’t know…”

“We could flip a coin?”

He grinned, pulling out the gold disc from his pocket. Did he always keep it there? “Heads, you dance with me?”

I looked down at the disc and then picked it up. When I flipped it over, I froze. “Is this a two-headed coin?”

A flush radiated across Jacob’s cheeks. “Ah. My great-grandfather’s favorite.”

“So…all of these coin tosses?”

He laughed, taking the coin back and putting it in his pocket. “Always knew I’d win.”

I gasped. “That’s cheating.”

He shook his head, putting his hands on my cheeks. “What can I say? I’ve always been an odd duck. Quack, quack.”

I could have made a smart-ass comment back, and I would eventually. But in that moment, I wanted him to win, because I wanted to forgive him.

Because we may have both been the odd duck of our families, but he’d done more to redeem himself than any man I’d ever been with.

Because the truth was, I was in love with the Lord of MacWebley.

“Quack, quack,” I said with a smile.

And then all there was left to do was kiss my knight in shining Prada loafers.

Epilogue

Jacob

Six Months Later

Six months ago, I’d been on a mission. Ready to avenge my family and claim Webley as mine, like a dark knight intent on winning no matter the cost. But that was before a beautiful damsel in distress had literally knocked me on my arse.

The same damsel whom I was on my way to see.

“Are you finished with the icing?” I barked over Chef Rene’s shoulder.

“Do you want me to get the words right or do you want to keep breathing down my neck?” He didn’t even glance at me as he hovered over the new butcher block island installed in the MacWebley kitchen.

I’d spent all morning working on the sponge and fondant, but my hands were shaking so bad, I wasn’t sure I could do a straight line to get the words perfectly.

And they had to be perfect for the occasion.

Madison’s final project at uni was an art show.

All her family and the Webleys were coming in for the occasion.

And mine.

The first time the Webleys and MacWebleys would be in the same room together since the Webleys had taken ownership of our estate.

Sure, Natalie and Gavin had been by here plenty of times as Natalie had helped restore old pieces in the manor and worked to get the historical society of MacWebley up and running. But conveniently, my siblings and parents would always be out of town or running an errand when they were by the manor.

Now we’d all be in the same room, looking at the art pieces Madison had put together.

My jaw still ticked when I thought about her numpty of an ex breaking her heart and making her stop painting in school. Her recent canvases of the hills near Loch MacWebley absolutely took my breath away.

But she wasn’t with that numpty anymore, and I never wanted her to be with another one again. Unless, of course, that numpty was me.

“Okay, Laird Jacob, is this to your liking?” Rene asked,