Chapter 59

59

STERLING

I sat at the gate waiting for my flight, the events of the last few weeks playing on an endless loop through my mind. Every fiber of my being rebelled against the thought of boarding that plane and the more I thought about home, the more convinced I was that I shouldn't be leaving.

But I have to, or do I?

I'd spent half my life to get to where I was. But the real question is whether I want to spend the rest of it in the place I got to.

As the question echoed from the deepest recesses of my mind, I frowned. The truth was that regardless of how hard I'd worked, I didn't want to spend the rest of my life working sixteen-hour days in Manhattan.

I wanted to spend them on the farm, helping my dad and going home to Daphne at night. I wanted to be there when the farm became everything it could be again, and I wanted to have been part of making it happen instead of just being the money behind the transformation.

More than that, I didn't want to do this thing with Daphne from over four hundred miles away. I didn't want to spend a weekend with her every couple months when I could get away and only see her for a few days over the holidays.

I wanted to decorate the house with her for said holidays. I wanted to spend the entire weekend, every weekend with her, doing whatever it was happy couples did with their time off. On the other hand, farmers didn't get weekends off, but even that didn't matter to me.

"Something the matter, son?" an elderly man in the first-class waiting area asked, his voice kind and gentle.

When I looked up, I found him and his wife staring at me from the other side of the little coffee table. Their eyes were kind, interest splashed across their faces. I tried to force a smile, but it didn't work.

"Why am I on this flight if the girl I love is in Vermont?" I asked, not really sure why I was explaining my dilemma to these folks, but I genuinely didn't know what I was doing here anymore.

The older man frowned at me, his hair silver and his skin wrinkled and wispy, like it might split if he moved too fast. He reached for his wife's hand, both of their golden wedding bands looking like they'd grown onto their fingers, which meant they'd been married for a long time.

Probably the right kind of people to ask for this advice.

"Why are you on this flight if the girl you love is in Vermont?" he repeated the question slowly, his bushy white eyebrows rising. "I don't know, son, but you shouldn't be."

"I'm starting to think that too," I said miserably. Sighing, I shook my head. "It felt like I had to, but do I?"

"No," the woman said easily, her kind eyes fixed on my own. "What is your gut telling you?"

"That leaving is wrong." I didn't even have to think about it. "That I should get my ass back to Allisburg and tell her that I'm staying."

"Then that's what you should do," she said as if it was the simplest thing in the world. "Do you really love her?"

"Yes." I didn't have to think about that either. "I've known her for most of my life, but she's my best friend's sister, so I spent most of that time ignoring her existence. Things have changed now, though. I've never felt this way before."

"You definitely shouldn't be here, son," the man said, jerking his head at the exit. "Go to her. If you don't, you'll regret it forever."

"You think?"

He sniffed, glancing at his wife before he nodded at me, his expression suddenly a little grave. "I don't think, I know . Love doesn't come around every day, and if you ignore it when the time is right, you might never get a second bite at the apple."

My teeth sank into my lip. "We're going to try long distance. It could work. Maybe I've just been here too long. Maybe all this indecisiveness will melt away when we land in New York."

The older woman tilted her head, a thoughtful look in her eyes as she ran them over me. "You don't seem like the indecisive type."

"I'm not. Not usually, anyway. Lately though, I don't seem to know anything for sure."

Her eyes widened. "You seem rather confident that you love this girl."

"Well, yeah. I do. I love her more than anything." Wholeheartedly. Without reservation. "Okay, so that's one thing I know for sure."

The man chuckled. "The indecisiveness isn't going to melt away when we land, son."

My nose wrinkled. "Why not? It could."

He shook his head slowly from one side to the other. "It's not going to happen because it's not indecisiveness. It's your gut telling you that you don't belong there. You just said so yourself."

"I know," I admitted on a quiet mutter as I ran my hands over my face. "I'm just not sure what to do about it."

"Why on earth not?" the woman asked, sounding genuinely confused. She blinked a couple times, glancing at her husband before frowning at me. "That's the problem, darling. Ernie is right. You're not indecisive. You're at war."

"I know that too," I said as I moved my gaze between them. "What do I do about it, though?"

"You said you had to go, but do you really?" she asked, her brow furrowing as she stared at me. "What's in New York that could possibly be more important than love?"

"My job. My apartment. My—" As I said it, I realized how little I cared about any of those things anymore. In fact, just rattling it off like that made me feel like a superficial, materialistic asshole. "Nothing. Nothing there is more important than love."

The woman smiled. "Well, then. There you have it. Where are you from, boy?"

"Allisburg," I said.

She chuckled. "The love of your life lives in your hometown. Your home . What on God's green earth are you doing at the airport?"

"You know what? I honestly have no idea." It felt like mental shackles fell off as soon as I finally said it out loud. "I shouldn't be here."

As if I'd been struck by a bolt of clarity, all that bullshit indecisiveness I'd been feeling for so many months just disappeared. Fuck the job. Fuck the firm. So what if I worked hard to get there?

I'd done it to make money, and I'd made it. A lot of it. Sure, I'd splurged a lot too, but I was only one person. I hadn't lived a particularly lavish lifestyle. I'd worked too hard to jet around the world or eat expensive dinners every night.

Besides, I could sell the apartment and the cars, and I'd make a profit on the real estate and I wouldn't have lost on the vehicles, which meant that my greatest expenses so far wouldn't really have counted.

With every thought, I felt lighter and lighter. I'd been letting myself be held back by shit that didn't really matter. I'd left Allisburg for money. To lift my family out of our constant struggle. If we were smart with what I'd already made, I'd have achieved that goal. Even as things stood now, we'd be able to survive for a few years without another penny coming in.

I wasn't failing by leaving the firm. I'd simply done what I'd gone to New York to do. I was free to leave now, simply moving on to bigger and better things.

Gathering my stuff, I shot up and grinned at the elderly couple who were watching me like I was some long-lost son they were exceptionally proud of. "Right. I'm going now. Thank you."

They smiled at me, the woman even reaching out to squeeze my hand before I turned and strode away. It caused a bit of a commotion when I tried to leave just before boarding, but the older woman cheered me on. "Let him go, ladies. He's not going to hold up our flight. He's going to go get his girl."

The airline staff who had been telling me that I needed to stay put finally stepped aside, and then a few more people started cheering. I raced out of the waiting area and clear out of the airport, fumbling around on my phone to get an Uber as I ran.

Thankfully, there were a few waiting at the airport and my ride request was accepted instantly, the driver waiting for me right outside the terminal doors. I practically leaped into the backseat, leaning forward before I buckled up.

"Could you step on it? This is pretty urgent."

"You got it, sir." The guy pulled away from the curb immediately, muttering under his breath for cars to move as we made our way out of the parking area.

Once we hit the road, he pressed his foot down on the gas, apparently happy to be driving like a race car driver. Thank you, universe.

I grinned as I leaned back in my seat. If I was the kind who was constantly searching for sign, I would have taken getting the speediest of all Uber drivers as a positive one.

Before I even knew it, we were pulling up outside Daphne's house. I patted the driver on the shoulder. "Thank you, man. You have no idea how much this means to me."

"Good luck," he said. I got out and his tires squealed as he drove away.

Opening the app, I added a generous tip while simultaneously dropping all my stuff on the sidewalk in my rush to get to the LaSalles front door. The squealing tires must've tipped Janet off that something was happening outside. She opened the door before I'd even knocked, blinking hard when she found herself looking at me.

"Sterling?" Her brow puckered. "Daphne's not here, honey."

"Where is she?" I asked urgently.

Janet arched an eyebrow at me, a slow smile spreading on her lips. "Why, she's at the airport. She got herself on the red-eye to New York."

Fuck. No. Fuck . "Thanks, Janet."

I spun around, frantically re-opening the Uber app, but this time, there were no cars simply waiting. Eric walked out of the house as I was trying to get a ride. Frowning, he came to stand next to me. "What are you doing here?"

"I'm not leaving. I love her, Eric. I can't go while she's here, but now, it sounds like she's on her way to New York and I'm stuck in Allisburg. How did my driver disappear so fast?"

Logically, I knew the answer to that question, but shit. Eric groaned, pulling his keys out of his pocket and inclining his head toward his truck, which was parked on the other side of the street. "Let's go, bro. I can't actually believe I'm saying this, but let's go get her."

"Are you serious?"

"Just get in the fucking truck," he grumbled before jumping into action, sprinting across the street with me hot on his heels. Once we were racing back to the airport, he glanced at me. "You're really going to stay in Allisburg?"

"I am." With confidence in my decision surging through me, I turned to look at him. "I love her, I love Allisburg, and I love Northfield Farms. I had my reasons for leaving, but I'm back now. For good. I hope you can accept that, but if you can't, then so be it. I'm not changing my mind and I'm not letting her go."

He paused for a beat, then started laughing and finally put an arm out to clap me on the shoulder. "There he is. I've been waiting for you to show up, Sterling. Shit. It's taken you long enough. If you love her enough to stay, then I can accept it. As long as you really are committed enough to her to stick around and give it a real shot."

Relief flooded me, but I couldn't focus on that. I would speak to Eric later. For now, I just nodded, my jaw tight. We sped toward the airport. If we missed her and her flight had already taken off by the time we arrived, I was screwed.

The next flight out was tomorrow morning.

"Here we are," Eric said as he came to an abrupt stop in front the departures terminal. "Good luck getting through security."

"Shit. I hadn't even thought of that." I jumped out of the car, flat out running through the airport in search of my girl.

She was nowhere to be found, though. Eventually, I checked the board and saw that the last flight to New York was leaving in an hour, which meant she would already be at her gate, waiting to board.

Rushing to the security point, I eyed the burly guards and decided to simply throw myself at their mercy—and show them my ticket. My flight had already left, but this would help make sense of my situation.

"I know this is out of the ordinary, but I need your help," I said as soon as I reached them. Then I explained what had happened as fast as I could, causing a hold up and a scene, but eventually, they let me through—with one of them as an escort to make sure I was really there to do what I'd said I needed to do.

As he and I ran to her gate, I finally saw her, nervously sitting on one of the seats in the waiting area. Her spine was ramrod straight, her documentation clasped in her hands and her head swiveling back and forth.

She hasn't boarded yet! Thank God.

She looked around, though I wasn't really sure what for, but she spotted me racing toward her, and when she did, time seemed to stop. Her eyebrows slowly inched up. Her lips parted as she blinked like she didn't trust what she was seeing.

"Sterling?" she mouthed as she stood up, but she didn't move away from her chair.

It was like she was still too confused, her head slowly tilting as she watched us hurry toward her. When I reached her, I grabbed her hands and pulled her to me, lowering my lips to hers. Relief unlike anything I'd ever felt sped through me.

"I'm not leaving," I murmured against her lips, my heart pounding. I looked into her misty blue eyes. "I'm staying in Allisburg. I'm moving home, and if you'll have me, I want you by my side."

"You're staying?" she whispered, her eyes bouncing from one of mine to the other. "Are you really moving back?"

"I am." I smiled and tucked a loose hair behind her ears. "I love you, Daphne. I'm not going anywhere. It was stupid of me to even try. I knew what I wanted and where I wanted to be, and I knew that it wasn't New York. I guess I just needed to almost leave to realize that it was the most idiotic things I could ever possibly do."

Hope lit her eyes and she looped her arms around my neck, grinning radiantly. She pushed herself up on her tiptoes. "I guess it's a good thing I've always found you adorable when you're doing silly things."

I groaned but then she pressed her lips to mine and I decided to just leave it be. As we kissed again, the people around who had been watching the scene go down burst into cheers and applause, and I grinned against her mouth.

There wasn't a single doubt in my mind that I was doing the right thing. Allisburg was my past and my future. New York had simply been a stop along the way.