Chapter 17
~2 weeks later~
"…Happy birth-day to youuu!"
The Sharmas and the Bridgertons all cheered as they finished singing the birthday song, and Kate leaned forward to blow out the candles on her cake. She grinned widely as everyone around her clapped, and she laughed as her mother and sister both suddenly hugged her from behind. The three women held each other tightly, and Kate's heart felt so full she thought it would burst.
Today was her 22nd birthday, and Kate could honestly say this was the happiest she had felt in a very long time. Not only was her relationship with her sister as strong as it had ever been, but she had a boyfriend now whom she was head over heels in love with. Kate sometimes wondered if it was all too good to be true.
Anthony currently sat beside Kate at the kitchen table, and he grinned at her as he clapped along with everyone else. Kate couldn't help but smile back at him, feeling light as a feather.
Kate knew without a shadow of a doubt that Anthony was the best thing that ever happened to her, and she felt so grateful she could call him hers. He was so thoughtful and kind, and he clearly adored everything about her. He was everything a boyfriend should be
Kate knew that Anthony was it for her. The two of them had actually gone out to dinner the other night, and Kate nearly dropped her fork when Anthony said something that completely threw her for a loop.
"…I'm sorry, what did you say?" Kate had asked, staring at him in stunned disbelief, her forkful of ravioli practically frozen halfway to her lips.
"Erm," Anthony looked a bit awkward as he realized his slip up, and he set his fork down beside his plate. "…I believe I said that you were lucky I was in love with you, otherwise I would venture to beat you more in horse racing."
Kate had slowly lowered her fork back down to her plate as well, realizing bemusedly that she had heard him correctly. "You're in love with me?"
She had hardly dared herself to believe it, and a part of her was wondering if he was about to take it back.
Anthony gave her a small smile, clearly uncomfortable with the fact that he had outed himself in such a way. "Yeah, I s'pose I do. I'm sorry – I had honestly planned on telling you in a more romantic way, but I guess it just sort of slipped out."
Kate still didn't say anything, as her heart seemed to be beating out of her ribcage and causing her to go temporarily mute. Her silence seemed to worry Anthony.
"Are you alright?" he asked after a moment, gazing at her with a concerned frown on his face. "Please say something, Kate. Have I scared you off?"
"No," Kate said quickly, finding her voice again, and she shook her head. "No, of course not. It's just that… I love you too."
Anthony looked stunned by her admission, and he seemed only able to stare at her dumbly for several seconds. "You do? Really?"
Kate couldn't fight the smile from spreading across her face. "Yes, of course I do. I've loved you for some time now. You really didn't know?"
Anthony suddenly beamed, his handsome face showing his pure joy at her saying that. "Do you really mean that? Because I've wanted to tell you how I felt for such a long time, but I was afraid of scaring you off. I think I've loved you since the moment you chased me down that morning at Aubrey Farm."
Kate couldn't help but laugh. "I don't think it's been quite as long for me. But I promise my feelings are just as strong."
With that, Anthony slid out of the booth across from her so he could sit beside her and pull her in for a sweeping kiss. Neither of them seemed to care that they were in a public restaurant as Kate happily kissed him back.
Since that day, Kate could feel her love for Anthony growing every single day. He was actually the one who suggested that both their families get together for her birthday today: Mary and Mrs. Bridgerton were both delighted by the idea, and they immediately set to work planning the party. Kate, who had just expected a quiet birthday at home with her family, was surprised and happy by her boyfriend's thoughtfulness.
She felt herself constantly being surprised by him, and she hoped that feeling would never go away.
"So what should we do first? Cake or presents?" Mary asked once she and Edwina finally extricated themselves from Kate.
"Let's do presents first!" Edwina insisted, clapping her hands together excitedly. "I got Kate a really good one this year."
"I appreciate that, Edwina. But I think we should have the cake first," Kate smiled at her sister. "We'll save the presents for the end."
"I agree," Anthony said. "This is my first ever birthday gift for Kate as her boyfriend – I want it to be special."
Kate couldn't help the blush from creeping onto her cheeks at him saying that. She knew that Edwina had been trying to get over her feelings for Anthony, but she probably wouldn't appreciate him saying something like that in front of her to Kate.
Edwina didn't seem to mind, however. "Oh alright. Cake first, presents later," she agreed reluctantly, crossing her arms.
Ever since Edwina had made the decision to move past her issues with Kate and Anthony, she and Anthony had reached a truce of sorts. Whenever the two of them were in the same room together, they both made a concerted effort to be nice to one another. The two of them could now act like friendly acquaintances with each other, which was far more than Kate could have ever hoped for.
While Edwina was no longer overtly mooning over Anthony anymore, Kate did actually suspect her sister had a crush… but this time, it was on someone new. There was a boy from school she had recently befriended, Matthew Bagwell, and he had come over to study with Edwina several times after school these past couple weeks. Edwina wasn't as moony-eyed over this boy as she had been with Anthony, but Kate noticed the way that she looked at him and constantly smiled when she spoke about him. Kate suspected Edwina was trying to reign herself in a bit so she wouldn't be so obvious with her feelings for Matthew, but it was still clear she liked him.
Kate was legitimately happy for her – she could tell Matthew definitely liked Edwina, too, even if Edwina didn't know it yet. Kate thought the two of them would make an adorable couple, and she rather optimistically thought that someday she, Anthony, Edwina and Matthew could all go on a double date.
"This cake is amazing, Mary," Kate said sincerely to her stepmother after she had been given the first slice and took a big bite of the delicious dessert. Her cake was a large, two-tiered double chocolate cake that Mary had baked herself the night before.
"Thank you, darling. I'm glad you like it," Mary smiled, accepting a plate of cake from Mrs. Bridgerton, who was passing the slices around for everyone.
"Mum, can you make this cake for my birthday? It's so good!" Edwina said eagerly after taking a bite of the cake. A chocolate frosting glob had stuck to her lip, and she quickly licked it off, causing the others to laugh.
"Of course, Edwina. I'll keep that in mind," Mary agreed.
"Mum, Hyacinth got a bigger slice than me!" Gregory pouted, looking over at his sister's place with the seemingly bigger slice of cake. Hyacinth simply sneered at him as she took a big bite of her cake.
"The slices are all the same size, darling," Mrs. Bridgerton said, sounding exasperated. "Don't complain."
Gregory still looked upset as he turned back to his cake, and the others all continued their respective conversations. Colin, Benedict, Francesca, and Daphne were all sitting around and chatting with each other, while Gregory and Hyacinth continued to bicker over the size of their cake slices. Mary, Mrs. Bridgerton, and Edwina all began talking to each other about the cake recipe, and Kate moved over to sit down beside Anthony on the couch.
"Hey," Kate smiled at him, and Anthony grinned brightly back.
"Hey," he said sweetly to her. "Enjoying your birthday party?"
"It's alright, I suppose," Kate said, giving him a shy grin. "Thank you for planning it for me."
"Anytime," Anthony said sincerely, and they both leaned toward each other so they could share a loving kiss.
"Gross, Anthony," Hyacinth exclaimed, causing the others to laugh. Anthony and Kate quickly broke apart, smirking.
"What? I'm just giving the birthday girl a kiss," Anthony said innocently, and Kate couldn't help but blush as she bit back a laugh. "It's tradition."
"Leave your brother alone, Hyacinth," Mrs. Bridgerton said firmly to her youngest daughter. "He can kiss his girlfriend if he wants to."
"Let's all do presents now, shall we?" Mary asked, clearly wanting to distract the younger kids. It worked, thankfully.
"Yeah, let's do presents!" Gregory and Hyacinth both cheered, as if they were the ones getting presents. The others chuckled.
Mary and Mrs. Bridgerton handed Kate all of her gifts, which consisted of several wrapped gifts and multiple envelopes. Kate started with the envelopes, which were from the younger Bridgerton siblings, and were predictably just birthday cards with gift cards or money inside. Daphne had given her an interesting book about horse training, Mary had given her some lovely spices to make her favorite chai tea, and Mrs. Bridgerton gave her a cute little succulent in a ceramic pot.
"Thanks everyone. This is all really nice of you," Kate said gratefully, smiling at all the gifts in front of her.
"Here, open mine now," Edwina said eagerly, holding out the small nicely-wrapped box in her hands. Kate accepted it, smiling amusedly at her little sister.
"Is it a new teapot?" she asked, and Edwina giggled. That had been a running joke between them since childhood, whenever one of them opened gifts on their birthday.
"Just open it," Edwina urged her, and Kate complied.
After ripping off the wrapping paper, Kate saw that it was a small jewelry box, and she opened the lid to see a beautiful silver necklace inside. On it was a diamond-encrusted horseshoe that sparkled in the light, and Kate gazed at it in wonder and disbelief.
"Edwina," Kate whispered after a moment, finally looking up at her sister, who was smiling in nervous anticipation. "This is beautiful. Thank you."
Edwina's grin widened, clearly pleased at her reaction. "You're welcome."
"This must've cost a fortune," Kate insisted as the others gathered around to look at the pretty necklace. "How much was this?"
"It wasn't terribly expensive," Edwina insisted. "But it doesn't matter. I wanted to buy it for you. I hope you like it."
"I love it, Bon," Kate said sincerely, and she stood up to pull her sister in for a tight hug. Edwina hugged her back, and Kate somehow knew that this gift was Edwina's apology to her over everything that had happened over the past few weeks. The thought made Kate tear up slightly.
"This necklace was very thoughtful of you, Edwina," Mary smiled at her youngest daughter once Kate and Edwina pulled away from each other. "Kate, can the rest of us take a look?"
Kate passed around the jewelry box so everyone at the party could see the beautiful necklace, and Edwina looked delighted that her gift for Kate had been so well-received.
"I still have my gift to give Kate, you know," Anthony said amusedly, taking the seat beside Kate on the couch. "Though I hate to follow that up."
The others laughed. "Why? Did you get me a necklace too?" Kate asked teasingly, and Anthony smirked back at her.
"No I didn't. But I hope you're not disappointed it's not jewelry," he said, and he handed her a thick parchment envelope.
Curious, Kate accepted the envelope from him. It felt too heavy and official-looking to be a birthday card, so she wondered what this could be. Feeling almost wary, she opened the seal and pulled out what was inside.
It was multiple sheafs of paper folded together, and Kate unfolded them to see that the top piece of paper was an official-looking document. After briefly scanning over it, she noticed both Anthony's and Mrs. Danbury's signature scrawled at the bottom and the Aubrey Farm logo stamped at the top.
Kate froze when she realized it was the deed to Aubrey Farm… signed over to her.
Kate felt her hands go numb as she stared at the paper, and her heart pounded loudly in her ears. There was no way she was reading this correctly.
Did Anthony actually give her Aubrey Farm?
Is this real?
"Kate? What is it?" Mary asked, noticing her daughter's stunned expression as she stared at the document in her hands.
Kate hardly knew what to say, and instead of answering her mother, she looked over at Anthony. He was gazing at her in nervous anticipation. "Is this real?" she finally eeked out.
"It is," he confirmed. "Mrs. Danbury and I talked it over, and we felt that this was the right move. She's going to be retiring in a couple years, so the responsibility of the farm won't be given to you right away, but we both think you would be the best person to fill her shoes once she's gone."
Kate still could only stare at Anthony, trying to process everything. It felt as if her mind was only working at half-speed. "But… but Mrs. Danbury doesn't own Aubrey Farm," she said after a moment. "You do. And you're still gifting it to me?"
"I am," Anthony confirmed, and he gave her a small smile. "There's nobody else I would rather gift it to. Happy birthday."
Kate hardly knew what to say to that – honestly, this was the last thing she had expected Anthony to give her. Feeling suddenly overwhelmed, Kate got to her feet, dropping the documents in her hand onto the coffee table in front of her.
"Excuse me… I need a moment," she muttered to the room at large. Without another word, she rushed out toward the hallway, desperate to find solitude.
A/N: So what did you all think of Anthony's surprise?
Thank you all so much for liking and commenting – I always appreciate your support!
