Married to His Business (Millionaire of the Month #5)(37)
Author: Elizabeth Bevarly

"And Luke?" Kendall asked. "Are you happy for him,

too?"

Matthias recalled the last time he’d seen his brother, how desperate and terrified Luke had been when he thought he’d lost Lauren. Helping Luke win her back was the first time he and his brother had worked together to gain something since. He smiled. Wow. That had probably been the first time in their lives they’d ever cooperated together by themselves to achieve a common goal. That it had been to enable one brother to win the heart of the woman who’d been engaged to the other.

Well. That was actually pretty cool, now that Matthias thought about it.

Things between him and Luke were better than they’d been a few months ago, but they still weren’t quite settled. Matthias wasn’t sure if he and his brother could ever go back to the glory days of college, the one period in their lives when they’d been as close as, well, brothers. But he was willing to put forth the effort if Luke was. In addition to reuniting what was left of the Barton family, burying the hatchet with Luke would be a nice way to honor Hunter’s memory. Hunter had been the one who reconciled the two of them at Harvard, by convincing them that brothers were supposed to be at each other’s sides, not at each other’s throats. Hunter had, in his way, made all of the Seven Samurai feel like brothers. Shame on all of them for not maintaining that brotherhood after his death.

And shame on Matthias and Luke in particular for allowing the gap Hunter had helped close to open again.

"I’m happy for Luke, too," Matthias said.

"Really?" Kendall asked.

He nodded. "Really. He’s a good guy, even if he’s acted like a lunkhead over the last several years. I guess, in a way, he had his reasons."

Of course, his reasons had been totally misguided, since he’d thought Matthias had cheated him—both years ago and as recently as a few months ago. They’d cleared the air about that two months ago, here at this very lodge. Now it was time to clear the air about everything else, too.

"Luke and Lauren both deserve to be happy," Matthias said. He smiled at Kendall. "Just like you and I deserve to be happy."

"You should call him," Kendall said.

Matthias nodded. "I will. I have a few things to talk to him about, not the least of which is to build a bridge that

we should have built years ago." He met her gaze levelly now, wanting to gauge her reaction when he said the rest. "I also want to ask him about being best man at the wedding. My wedding, I mean, not his." He held his breath as he added, "Provided there’s going to be a my wedding in addition to his."

She studied him in silence for a long time, her eyes never leaving his. He had no idea what she could be looking for but she must have finally found it, because she smiled. Not a big smile, but it was enough to tell Matthias that everything was going to be okay.

He hoped.

Finally, she said, "What do you mean your wedding? I assume there will be someone else at the altar, too, right?"

"God, I hope so," he told her. "It wouldn’t be much of a wedding without her."

"It wouldn’t be much of a marriage, either," she pointed out. "Since, I assume you’re taking into consideration that after the wedding ends, there will be a marriage hanging around your neck."

He tilted his head to the side, feigning consideration. "Mmm, I don’t know. I thought I might wear my marriage on my sleeve. Next to my heart."

Now she rolled her eyes. "No one could ever accuse you of wearing your heart on your sleeve, Matthias."

"Maybe not before," he told her. "But I do now."

She bent forward and craned her head to look first at his left arm, then at his right. "I don’t see it anywhere."

Catching her under her arms, he lifted her from the love seat and into his lap, then looped both arms around her waist. Oh, yeah, he thought. Everything was going to be just fine.

"Sorry, my mistake," he said as he pulled her close. "My heart isn’t on my arms. It’s in them."

She smiled at that, cupping her palm softly over his cheek. "What a coincidence," she said. "My heart is surrounding me."

"So is my love," he told her.

She smiled. "I love you, too."

Very, very fine, he thought, relief—and something even more wonderful—coursing through him.

"Enough to marry me?" he asked.

"As long as it’s not convenient," she replied.

He brushed his lips over hers, once, twice, three times, four, enough to get both their hearts pounding, but not enough to scramble their brains—at least not yet. Then he pressed his forehead to hers and pulled her closer still.

"I think I can safely say there will be no convenience in our marriage," he told her. "Love, honor and cherishing, but no convenience."

"Good," she said. "Because convenience just gets too messy sometimes."

He sighed. "I must be absorbing the subtlety gene through osmosis," he said, "because I’m pretty sure you just told me you won’t be running Public Relations conveniently, either."

"Oh, don’t you worry your handsome little head about that," she told him. "I know what I’m doing. Trust me."

He wasn’t much surprised to discover that he did. He trusted Kendall implicitly. And not just with the business, either. Which meant he was so far gone on her, he was never coming back. All the more reason, he thought, to stay together forever.

"I love you, Kendall Scarborough."

"I love you, Matthias Barton." "Then you’ll marry me?"

She nodded. "As long as you promise me you’ll never let anyone program your BlackBerry but me."

He chuckled and kissed her quickly on the lips. "It’s a

deal."

The first deal he’d ever made that would enrich his personal life instead of his professional one. A very sweet deal indeed. Starting today, Matthias Barton was no longer a man who was married to his business. Starting today, he was a man who would be marrying his love. His life. The love of his life.

Life was good, he thought as he dipped his head to Kendall’s again. And from here on out, it was only going to get better.

Epilogue

So tell me more about this picture," Kendall said.

She and Matthias stood on the stairway landing their last day at the lodge, having made their final run through the house to make sure they hadn’t left anything behind. Well, other than some wonderful memories. Which, she supposed, they would actually be taking with them after all. They were dressed for the drive back to San Francisco in blue jeans and T-shirts, hers pale yellow and his navy blue, a stark contrast to the suits they’d be donning the following Monday, when they went back to work.