Page 220 of Holding On To Good

Biting back his impatience, Urban glanced at his brother over his shoulder.

“You didn’t fail Mom and Dad,” Miles said quietly. Firmly. “You never, not once, failed any of us. You couldn’t have.”

Emotion swamped him and all he could do was nod his thanks.

His family would never need him the way they used to. But they, like Verity, would always be his.

And if he played his cards right, by the end of tonight, so would Willow.

Chapter Forty-One

As far as Verity was concerned, the entire summer so far had been nothing but a never-ending roller coaster ride of emotions complete with super steep climbs into euphoria and stomach-churning twists and turns that left you reeling.

But it was those sudden, death-defying drops into gloom that she was really getting tired of.

And she’d really, really like very much to just get off the darn thing now.

Too bad that didn’t seem to be happening anytime soon. Or at least, not today.

Which was fine. She was an almost-adult. Well on her way to a life filled with all the freedoms and responsibility, thrills and worries that being an adult entailed. Soon enough she’d be doing adult-ish things like comparing auto insurance rates, ranting about the sad state of the world today and how much better it’d been when she was younger, and yelling at random kids to get off her lawn.

This whole growing up thing wasn’t working out the way she thought it would.

And didn’t seem to be nearly as great as it was cracked up to be.

The life lessons just did not stop, did they?

Anyway, her point was that yes, she was on a roller coaster of emotion but that was okay because she could do hard things.

Even spend an entire evening in the same room as Reed Walsh.

Yep. After not seeing him in person, not even in passing—a true feat in a town the size of Mount Laurel—since that night at the lake, he was here.

All of which begged two important questions:

What were the chances that out of all the wedding receptions taking place today in Mount Laurel, anti-social Reed Walsh would be at this one?

And why did God hate her?

Okay, so there probably weren’t more than two or three other weddings happening in town today. Verity sure as heck wasn’t going to get married in the middle of summer. It was too hot. Too humid and sticky, especially for an outdoor reception, even one with a breeze from the lake.

She wanted to glow on her wedding day. Not glisten like a glazed donut.

But even though her wedding was going to take place in the fall—a small, intimate ceremony with close family and friends in the backyard at home followed by dinner and dancing at Binge—she’d fully intended to have a great time at this wedding.

Only to walk onto the huge deck at The Oaks, the fancy restaurant-slash-reception venue overlooking the lake and see Reed sitting at a table near the bar.

He had no right to be here. Well, other than the fact that he worked for Patton, Lily’s extremely hot new husband, and had obviously been invited.

But still.

And did he have to look so good? He’d shaved off that scraggly scruff he probably considered a beard which only showed off his stupidly angular jaw. His hair was down like it’d been that rainy night when she’d knocked on his door, the ends brushing his shoulders, and he wore slim dark gray dress pants and a blue button-down, the sleeves rolled a few times to show his muscular, tatted forearms.

She sent a narrow-eyed glance up at the heavens. Seriously? This seems so beneath you. Why don’t you go smite someone your own size?

But whether she was beneath the big guy or not, this was the smiting she had to deal with.

Well, that and two of her brothers being overbearing, over-protective, nimrods.

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