Her words brought back the ache of guilt. “I shouldn’t have let Jeremy get hurt.”
“I wish he hadn’t been hurt, too. But the truth is that you can’t protect everyone all the time. No matter how much you wish you could. Trust me, I should know, with the five of you.”
Susan was right. The Mavericks had certainly given Susan and Bob a crazy ride those first few years. But Jeremy was different.
“I wish I could do more than provide a new job for him and work on the car. Harper works so hard to look out for her brother. But every time I offer to help, she insists on doing it all on her own.”
“Maybe that’s because she thinks she still is on her own.”
Frustration rose up in Will. “How can I get her to understand that I’m not going anywhere? And that I mean it when I say I won’t hurt her or her brother? What else can I do to get through to her?”
“You know how.”
No. The reaction was instinctive. Even before Susan continued with exactly what he knew she was going to say.
“Have you told her about your past yet?”
“I rewrote that story already,” he said in far too sharp a tone, considering that Susan was only trying to help him. Plus, as soon as the words came out of his mouth, he wasn’t actually sure they were true. Sure, he’d rewritten the part where he was poor, but what about the rest? Because he sure as hell had never been able to forget that he came from a worthless thief and bully who hadn’t deserved to be called a father. Still, he had to ask Susan, “What’s so important about my past that she needs to know?”
“Will.” There was a slight note of exasperation in Susan’s voice. “She needs to know because you love her. And love means being completely open, even if you’re scared.”
Will had given Susan and Bob a merry ride, pushed their limits, tested their boundaries. After his dad, he hadn’t trusted anyone without proof that they were worth it. Susan and Bob had passed with flying colors in the end, and he’d do anything for them.
But Susan saw right to Will’s core—so deep that there was no point in even trying to deny what he was feeling. Not any of it.
“I think I’ve been in love with her from the first moment I saw her standing outside my hangar with her brother, so protective, so beautiful, so strong.” And then so free and passionate during their first fast ride. His heart brimmed over with all that he felt for Harper. “I admire everything about her. But if she knew about me—”
“You were a child, Will. Your father made you do those things for him.” Susan, God love her, made excuses for everyone, even him.
“I kept doing them even when I got older. After he went to prison.”
“It was all you knew. All you had to go on. But then you learned what was wrong, you learned what was right, and you never mixed up the two again.”
“I learned those things from you,” he said softly, remembering her never-ending patience. And loving her for it.
“Does it matter where or how or from whom you learned it? You made yourself into the man you are. That’s why I’ve always said you don’t need to wear that tattoo as some sort of reminder about your father and the life he forced you to be a part of. You’re your own man, not the least bit tainted by him in any way. And I’m so proud of you, honey.”
He could hear the tears in her voice. Susan rarely cried when she was upset. She cried when she was happy. “If you reveal who you are, I know she’ll love you as much as I do. How could she not?”
But unlike Susan and Bob and the rest of the Mavericks, Harper hadn’t lived not knowing where her next meal would come from and had no idea of the depths to which people could sink. She hadn’t known men like Will’s father. She’d never stolen or lied simply because someone ordered her to.
What if she didn’t understand that sometimes you became exactly like the very person you hated because that reflection in the mirror was the only thing you knew how to see?
“I can’t tell her, Susan.”
“Listen to me—I’m proud of you because I know what you went through. Because you rose above it. I’ve never known better men than any of my boys. And that most definitely includes you.”
Her words humbled him.
“Tell me something, Will. Do you think Harper is worthy of love? And happiness?”
“Of course she is. The biggest love. The most happiness.”
“Is she worthy of your trust?”
“Without a doubt. She’d never lie or cheat or steal.” Not like me.
“Neither would you. Not now. Not ever.”