“Wait. You said the owners had nine kids.”
“The original owners did back in the thirties, but they’re long gone. The lady who owned this property after that had one son, who passed before she did. When I bought the business, the house came with it.”
I rubbed my temples in confusion. “Mathias, this house can’t be part of the Apple Orchard.”
“It’s not,” he agreed. “It’s part of the honey business I bought.”
“The honey business? You bought a business that sells honey? I want to be clear here.”
He held his hands out to the side and gave me a cheeky grin. “I did. I bought a business that sells honey, or rather, did sell honey.”
“Do you know anything about honey?”
He bopped my nose the way he used to when I was little. “Besides the fact that it’s sweet and tastes good on my toast, not a thing, honeybee.”
He’d been using my nickname again for a year, but I never had the courage to ask him why. Something told me if I didn’t ask him now, I never would. “Why did you start calling me honeybee again last year?”
He walked me out of the sitting room and onto the front porch. “The first day I brought you home, Far fell for you hard. He always wanted a little girl, but Mor couldn’t have more children after I was born. After you left, he said you were as sweet as a honeybee, and it just stuck.”
“I know how I got the nickname. I asked why you started using it again,” I said as we climbed down the two steps off the porch and stood in the grass, staring up at the house. “You’d stopped calling me that for a lot of years . . .” I left the rest open-ended to see what he would say.
“I’m trying to find my way back to me, Honey. I decided the only way to do that is to start with my childhood and remember who I was back then.” His chin dropped to his chest, and he let out a deep sigh. “I can’t explain it better than that, but I can stop using the nickname if that’s what you want.”
“It’s fine. I never minded it,” I said, patiently rubbing his shoulder. His admittance about trying to find himself seemed to ramp up his anxiety again, and it was rolling off him in waves. “You know that my parents cared so little about me that they couldn’t even come up with a decent name to give me. They named me after a packet of honey on her breakfast tray, for God’s sake.” I shook my head. “It was as if they wanted me to be a stripper.” I rolled my eyes to the sky and watched a bird fly by.
He took my arms and held them until I made eye contact with him. “Regardless of who your parents are or what your name is, you are a beautiful person. Please stop pounding on yourself relentlessly, even if only for today. I want to share the utter joy this house brings me. I bought it for you, and I want nothing else to encroach on the wonder of exploring it.”
“I don’t understand why you’ve done any of this, Mathias.”
He tipped my chin gently until I faced him again. “For three days I lived in hell, thinking I’d screwed up the only good thing I had going for me. Ask Gulliver. I’ve been a bear since Monday morning. I was petrified I’d lost the one person, the only person who managed to keep me centered.”
“You’d survive. You have Google Calendar,” I said with sarcasm when his hand fell from my chin.
I noticed the hurt in his eyes and felt bad for being flippant. I lowered myself to the stair just to put some distance between us.
“I’m not talking about my calendar, Honey. I’m talking about here”—he patted his chest—”and here.” His fingers tapped his temple and then fell to his side. “I don’t like who I’ve become, but I know without a shadow of a doubt the good parts of me are only there because of you.”
“Mathias, you’re a good man, and you have every right to your lifestyle.” I grasped his arm lightly to calm him. “I just can’t be part of it anymore. Never in a million years did I think I’d have to find a new job, but I can’t continue to torture my soul day after day. I can’t.” I bit my lip to keep the tears at bay.
He had come to kneel on the first step soon after I started speaking, and when I finished, he was silent for a long time. Longer than I was comfortable with. He was silent long enough that I wanted to take everything back that I’d said, go back to work for him, and try to forget the pain I saw in his eyes while he stared over my shoulder, unseeing.
When he finally spoke, I could barely hear his words. “We’re here because I can’t live that lifestyle anymore, Honey. I haven’t been living that lifestyle since last summer. I’m done living like the almighty dollar is more important than real, honest relationships.”
God, I needed to get out of here before I started crying. I was sitting on the stairs of my dream house, and I couldn’t seize the only opportunity I’d ever have to live in it. A tear slid down my cheek, and I wiped it away, hopefully before he saw it.
“But you just bought two more businesses,” I pointed out.
“I did, with some of the money I took in from liquidating others.”
My heart paused, and I leaned forward, resting my hands on his shoulders. “What did you liquidate? Where’s your computer? How did you get all of this by me? Why didn’t I know you were moving money around?”
“My computer is at the office, where it belongs. Don’t worry. I only liquidated businesses in other countries and states, and only those that weren’t benefiting my portfolio. I moved the money into an account not linked to my current business so that you wouldn’t see it. I didn’t want you to know about it until I had everything in place. I’ve been working on this since last summer when the pesticide money came in. I bought these businesses for you to run, Honey. I’ll show you the specifics tomorrow . . . if you’re interested.”
“What’s your strategy?” I asked, confused. “Your business is businesses.”
“My business used to be businesses. Now my business is helping the people I know and love benefit from my good fortune. My new strategy is to run my business instead of letting my business run me. I want to enjoy life again with friends and family and not be tied to a computer or cell phone twenty-four seven. I’m tired, honeybee, and I’m only thirty years old.”
I ran my hand down his cheek, his skin smooth as silk. His blond hair tippled in the breeze, and his blue eyes were ice with just a hint of the boy I used to know making them shimmer. “And this farm is part of it?”
