03

It was still all wooden panels, checkerboard floors and laminate countertops.

It wasn’t a breathtaking sight but it was as familiar to me as my old house—which was why I should’ve suspected something when I didn’t spy people by the windows and the interior looked a bit too dark for this time of the day.

“Lead the way, madam,” Jake said as he swung the door open and held it for me.

I stepped in, poking my head around in the dark space of the diner for a heartbeat before the lights came on in a bright flash and a few dozen voices yelled in chorus with the loud toots of paper horns, “Surprise !”

My mouth dropped open.

The entire diner was filled with colorful balloons, big clusters of bright flowers and glittering party confetti still floating down to the floor after having been tossed into the air.

Familiar faces were beaming at me—Felicity, Anna, Tessa, Martin, Mattie, Aimee, Rose, Clyde, everyone who were dear to my heart, all the way down to the entire Marlow’s staff—their grins nearly matching as they laughed and giggled at what could possibly be a ridiculous expression on my face.

They parted for Brandon who came walking my way, absolutely devastating with his dark hair and smoldering eyes, holding a bright pink, long-stemmed rose.

He could’ve knocked me over with the flower when, in his deep, husky voice, he started singing the old-fashioned Happy-Birthday song, a soft smile crooked on his lips.

I pressed a hand to my wildly erratic heart, groping for something to say just as my other hand accepted the rose from my husband.

Sometimes, you’re at the top of the world—and it keeps getting better.

“Don’t cry, love,” Brandon said as he slid his arms around my waist and pulled me close, his lips gently brushing against my own which were apparently damp from the tears that were trickling down my face. “It’s your birthday.”

“That’s precisely why I’m crying,” I said with a wobbly smile as I gasped back the tears, dragging the back of my hand across my wet face. “You guys just couldn’t send a card or something. You had to do… this.”

“We figured that after you’ve been moping around the last couple of weeks, avoiding everyone, you’d need something a little better than a greeting card to be convinced that we don’t care about what happened in the past, Charlotte,” Anna said as she came forward to wrap me in a big hug. “Tessa and I couldn’t have found a better sister than you.”

I probably developed a condition with my tear ducts because I couldn’t stop the damned tears as I hugged Anna back just before Tessa threw her arms around the both of us.

That had the unfortunate domino effect of prompting the entire guest list of about fifty or so people to swarm us with greetings and hugs.

You never realize just how much guilt weighs you down until it comes off and you start soaring.

“We might have overwhelmed you a little bit,” Jake said with a sheepish smile as he pulled me in for a hug that lifted me off my feet. “But the look on your face was so worth it. Happy birthday, Charlotte !”

I smacked him lightly on the arm once he’d set me down. “I can’t believe I fell for your trick ! You sounded so desperate !”

Jake put a hand over his heart dramatically. “I am desperate. I still need that advice. But we’ll do that later after you’ve had a proper celebration. DJ ! Start the music !”

“First dance is with me,” Brandon said possessively as he stepped in and reclaimed his hold on me which he’d reluctantly relinquished after fifty or so people descended on us earlier. “The first and last dance will always be with me.”

“You’re just as sneaky as your old man,” I told Brandon with a grin, sliding my arms around his shoulders just as a slow dance song threaded over the fading, highly upbeat Happy-Birthday music.

I caught Martin smiling at us from his seat by the bar and I gave him a little wave. He lifted his glass in toast and grinned before tossing back his drink.

“We, Maxfield men, can be pretty creative when it comes to getting what we want,” Brandon said smoothly as he gently swung me over to the music. “Sometimes, it involves blackmail, complicated arranged marriages of convenience—you know, the usual.”

I cocked a brow teasingly. “I would never think you’d have to stoop to tricks to get what you want. Don’t you just snap your fingers and people scramble to do your bidding ?”

Brandon gave an exaggerated sigh of exasperation. “It used to be that easy. Apparently, the moment you came into our lives, we had to resort to tricks. Dad had to blackmail me. I had to bind you to me in a million-dollar ruse to pretend we were married for a year in order to avoid being married for real, even though I somehow must’ve actually wanted it to be real and just didn’t know it then.”

I laughed, my nose scrunching up. “That was the most confusing counter-strategy, if I’ve ever heard one.”

“Yeah, well. What can I say ?” Brandon said with a shrug. “I was prepared to battle but I promptly fell in love with my enemy instead.”

“You know what they say,” I murmured as I pressed up against him, tilting my head up until my nose grazed his chin. “Make love, not war.”

Brandon’s arms tightened around me as he dipped his head low to kiss me slowly. “I want to make love to you all the time.”

I smiled cheekily. “It’s too bad you have this day job of running an empire. It really gets in the way of non-stop, all-day sex.”

A low, rich laugh escaped Brandon. “And to think people resent me for having such a plum job. They have no idea how sex-starved I am because of it.”

“Don’t worry, darling,” I told him with a firm pat on his shoulder. “We’ll make do with the nights. You can ravish me then.”

Even though we were just naughtily murmuring to each other as we danced, there was no mistaking the flash of heat in Brandon’s eyes.

“Speaking of nights and ravishment, I have a surprise for you later,” he told me in a low voice that hinted at all kinds of possibilities. “I have something to show you after the party.”

My eyes widened. “I can’t believe you’re telling me that now. Am I suppose to wait in tortured suspense for hours ?”

“Have patience, love,” Brandon teased, slightly nipping at my tip of my nose. “For now, enjoy your party. People who adore you all came together for this—people you thought you lost.”

I sniffed. “I know.”

He lifted my hand to his lips and brushed a light kiss on the back of it. “It’s your birthday but I’m probably the happiest person about it. Twenty years ago, on this day, you were born. I had no idea who you were or what you were going to mean to me. Now that I’ve found you, I have my eternal gratitude to whoever lined up the stars or moved the hands of destiny, or whatever mechanism the universe has in arranging fates, because if not for that one miracle, I wouldn’t know that I can be this happy.”

My chin trembled at the threat of tears about to spill down my cheeks but I sucked in my lower lip in an effort at restraint.

Brandon had never really been a man of a particularly expressive nature, and his family and friends would support that statement, but when he did tell me things, they were always quite devastating to my heart.

For someone who never really had a chance to find out what she meant to the people she was supposed to matter to, it’s quite something to know she meant happiness to a man who already possessed every means to be happy.

I suddenly had more than enough reason to celebrate a day I only ever used as a bookmark of my passing years.