Marrying Mr. English: The English Brothers #7 (The Blueberry Lane Series Book 11) by Katy Regnery Page B

reached the gates and struggled to pull the heavy wrought iron open, finally managing to slip through. He ran as fast as he could, pulling open one of the gates and racing onto Blueberry Lane, where he found her leaning against a brick pillar at the entrance of the estate, her shoulders hunched forward and head down.
    He stepped in front of her, reaching for her. “Eleanora.”
    She didn’t look at him. Tears fell from her cheeks, plopping on the ground at their feet. “Please let me go.”
    “I can’t,” he said breathlessly.
    “Please, Tom,” she sobbed. “I have a credit card that I use for emergencies, and if I can j-just get to the airport, I can—”
    Pulling her roughly against him, he crushed her to his chest, wrapping his arms around her and pressing his lips to her sweet-smelling hair. “Please don’t go. You can’t go. I told him to shove his money up his ass. I told him to go to hell. I told him I choose you, sunshine. I choose us.”
    She whimpered against his neck, a small keening sound that broke his heart even as her body relaxed against his. “Tom . . .”
    “I don’t . . .” He inhaled raggedly, still trying to catch his breath. “I don’t have all the answers, Eleanora. Maybe six months from now, you’ll think I’m a prick and leave. Maybe I’ll find out you’re crazy and beg you to go. But right here? Right now? I want you. I want you so bad, I can’t think straight. I want you so much, I just turned down fifteen million dollars. Like it or lump it, you’re my wife, and I just . . . God, I just want to give us a chance.”
    “You do?” she asked softly, her voice still a little shaky.
    “I do.”
    She leaned back, looking up at him with glistening eyes and a brilliant smile. “I want you too, Tom. So much.”
    He placed his palms on her cheeks and found her lips with his, parting them, claiming them, celebrating that they wouldn’t have to say goodbye, that for now they had chosen each other, and feeling breathlessly excited for their future.
    When they were both panting and trembling, he rested his forehead against hers. “You’re worth it.”
    “God, I hope so,” she murmured, laughing softly, her breath landing on his lips like a blessing.
    “We’ll have to move,” he said. “That penthouse belongs to my family.”
    “I’ve been comfortable with a lot less.”
    “I have several thousand dollars of my own money saved up. I’m not broke,” he said. “And I have a good education. I can apply for jobs in New York or Hartford maybe. I’ve worked at English & Son for years—I should be able to find something on Wall Street or in insurance. We’ll find a little place. Start small, but fresh.”
    “I’ll make it homey with very little. I know how to do that. And I’ll have breakfast for dinner waiting for you every night when you come home.”
    “Every night that you don’t have classes, you mean. You’re finishing college, Eleanora. Between my savings and whatever I bring home, we’ll make it happen. You could go to NYU or Columbia. We’ll check them out this spring and enroll you for the fall term. Deal?”
    She laughed softly again, leaning forward to kiss him. “Deal.”
    “I swear to you, I won’t stop working until we’re on our feet. I’ll give you a good life. I promise if you take a chance on me, you won’t regret it.”
    “But what about you?”
    “What do you mean?”
    She leaned back a little to gaze up at him, her smile fading, her fingers clasping his wrist.
    “What about the money? How can you do this? How can you turn it down for me?”
    “I want you more.”
    “Won’t you resent me?”
    “No, sunshine,” he said softly, threading his fingers through her hair and kissing her tenderly. “And besides, maybe he’ll come around one day. Once he knows you. Once he sees that he was right all along.”
    “ Right ?” she demanded, jerking back from him, her eyes wide and insulted. “What exactly was he right about?”
    He ran the