Turbulent Intentions (Billionaire Aviators #1) - Melody Anne Page 0,68
the older he got, and we were afraid of him. Our mother was afraid. Suddenly we were free. And I think it’s because he left us that we turned out to be half-decent human beings,” Sherman said.
“Did you give up your inheritance?” she asked him. Never had she seen Sherman flashing his wealth, and he was always at that dilapidated café. It made sense.
Sherman laughed as he patted her knee. “I’m a very wealthy man, Stormy.”
She looked at him with confusion. “I don’t understand.”
“We knew we didn’t want to be like our father. But we screwed up. We screwed up big time. No, we were never as cruel as that man, but we spoiled our family, we partied hard, and played harder. We lived a lavish lifestyle for a lot of years. And then, Bill got cancer. It was one of those really nasty types that eats at a man slowly. He was dying, but he wanted to change things before it was too late,” Sherman said with a sigh.
“What things did you want to change?”
“We agreed right then and there that the money would be pulled from the boys until they figured out how to live their lives in the right way. Bill’s last words to his sons were of disappointment and Ace took it the hardest. He was the most spoiled. Bill and I spoke about it, seeing too much of his grandfather in him. We were hoping to stop that cycle. We tried explaining it, but they were too upset to listen.”
“Why would he be so angry about that? It doesn’t seem as if the others are.”
“Oh, they were all angry, but not about the money. The boys had already amassed quite the bank accounts by then. They were angry that their father thought of them as failures when he died,” Sherman told her.
“But the three I’ve met are anything but failures,” she defended.
“They’ve grown up, become fine men, and taken responsibility for their lives. But no matter how much they’ve grown, each still feels he is a disappointment to the man they all idolize. They have to work through that, and part of the process is having a woman by their side who sees them for who they truly are,” Sherman said as he looked Stormy in the eyes, making her nervous.
“Cooper and I are just friends . . . really,” she said somewhat hesitantly.
“If you think that, then you have some more growing up to do of your own,” Sherman told her, not unkindly.
She wanted to change the subject fast.
“What about Ace? Why is he angry at his brothers?” she questioned.
“He felt betrayed by his brothers when they did exactly as their father had wanted, getting jobs, changing into the men we always knew they could be,” Sherman said with a shake of his head. “He’s been on a mission to do the opposite of what his father insisted on since the reading of the will, but I know he’ll come around. He loves his family too much to stay too far away. I see him once in a while and it fills me with joy when I do. He can’t stay away from his brothers even if he tries to.”
“Why don’t they just make him talk to them?” She couldn’t imagine anyone refusing the Armstrong brothers when they were determined to do something.
“They most likely will do that eventually. They have to find themselves first, though, before they can save their brother.”
“I feel like I’ve invaded Cooper’s life by hearing this,” she admitted.
“Honey, I have a feeling you’re going to be the one saving Cooper.”
Stormy was silenced by his words. Long after Sherman left, she sat in the loveseat in the living room watching the fireplace flicker as the weight of his words rested on her shoulders.
She wasn’t even sure if she could save herself, let alone someone else . . .
CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE
Was there really a way to measure time? People make comments such as I’m running late, or There’s no time to do this or that, or Time is running out . . . But really, time keeps on turning no matter how you try to measure it. There are the same amount of hours in each day, and the same amount of days in each year. Time doesn’t stop. It’s steady. It’s reliable.
And time kept on passing as Stormy remained in Cooper’s house. The cottage had been long fixed, but he’d insisted there was a mold problem in it now from the