Part of Your World(74)

There was story after story.

The Grants were groundskeepers, I realized. Humble royalty. They tended to Wakan and its people with the same care that Daniel tended his garden and his house. It was bred into him, like medicine was bred into me. His kingdom was smaller and his legacy was different, but he was tied to his birthright just like I was tied to mine.

It was funny to think that for the last hundred and twenty-five years our two families had existed at the same time, doing the same things they were doing now. The Grants gave their lives to Wakan and the Montgomerys gave theirs to Royaume.

I bet abandoning his calling never once crossed Daniel’s mind.

I felt guilty wishing I wasn’t who I was. I knew the importance of the Montgomery legacy. I knew what I could do with it, how many people it saved, and how much difference it made in the lives of those it served. But I wished it wasn’t mine. I wished it belonged to someone who knew how to use it. I didn’t, and so I couldn’t honor it the way I knew I should.

Everyone would be waiting for me to become something exceptional, do something huge, make my mark. And I had no idea how.

I had a feeling I never would.

“Hey, you want to see something?” Daniel asked, breaking into my thoughts.

“Sure.”

We cut through the park next to the river and stopped at a statue of a man in the middle of the square. Daniel nodded up to it. “This is my great-great-great-grandfather. He founded the town.”

I looked up at the regal bronze figure. The plaque under it said JOSEPH GRANT.

The resemblance to Daniel was eerily strong. The same kind eyes and steady gaze.

Daniel stood there, peering up at it, and I studied the side of his face.

Daniel had to be here when the town needed him. Eventually, he would be needed, just like all the Grants before him. Because hardship was inevitable, and nobody cared more for Wakan than this family. That’s why they’d always risen to the occasion. And that’s why one always had to be here.

He had to be here. And he had to be in that house.

I knew in my soul that’s part of what gave him strength to do what he had to do. A Montgomery working in any other hospital would still be a Montgomery, but it weakened us, made our influence thinner. I had to be at Royaume, and he had to be within Grant House.

I was talking before I even had a chance to think about what I was saying. “If you need the money, I can loan it to you,” I said.

He turned to me and drew his brows down. “What?”

“The fifty thousand dollars. I can loan it to you.”

He blinked at me. “You have that kind of money?” he asked.

I nodded. “Yeah. I do.”

And it wouldn’t be a loan. It would be a gift. A parting gift.

If he knew I didn’t want it back, he wouldn’t accept it. He was too honorable. But I wanted to do this for him.

Maybe this was the reason I’d driven through this town all those weeks ago. The reason a raccoon ran my car off the road and a handsome stranger had rescued me. Maybe Popeye was right about the town getting what it needed. And it needed Daniel. I couldn’t stand to see him lose his castle, and I could make sure he didn’t. I was probably the only person here who could.

But he shook his head. “Alexis, I appreciate the offer. I really do. But I can’t.”

“Why? You’re working so hard. I have the money. Let me help you.”

He let out a long breath and looked away from me. When his eyes came back to mine, they were steady. “You’re not a bank, Alexis.” He closed the gap between us and slipped his arms around my waist. “But thank you for offering. It means a lot that you did.”

I shook my head. “There were people who helped me to get to where I am, and now I can help you. I wish you would let me.”

But his face was resolved.

I pressed my lips together. “Promise me if you can’t raise the money that you’ll let me loan it to you. Don’t lose your house.”

He let out a resigned breath. Then he nodded. “Okay. I promise.”

But I knew he wouldn’t. He wouldn’t because he wouldn’t take anything from me if we weren’t together.

And after today we wouldn’t be.

He hugged me. Then he started laughing a little.

I pulled away. “What?”

He shook his head. “It’s nothing. It’s just I offered you a rock and you offered me fifty thousand dollars.”

I snorted.

“Come on.” He chuckled.

He threaded his hand in mine, and we strolled out of the park onto the moonlit bike trail leading to the Grant House.

The night was beautiful. The walk was lined with apple trees in full blossom. White flowers in the thousands arched over the path and ensconced us in their light fragrance. It was gorgeous and surreal. We made our way slowly, looking up, our hands clasped between us.

Daniel stopped. “Hey, look at that.”

He nodded to a break in the trees at the full moon, framed between cloudy apple branches. It looked bigger than usual. Closer. I stared up at it, and a warm breeze rolled through the canopy and loosened a snowstorm of petals that drifted down around us.

It was like the universe had dipped a snow globe. Only the petals didn’t fall. They floated like dust motes. Flower fairies, twinkling in the moonlight.

“Do you see this?” I said with wonder.