Page 38 of Double Booked

I shook my head. My parents and I didn’t speak that often. It was for the best. Nothing I ever did or achieved was enough for them. I had spent most of my life– well all of my life if I was honest– trying to prove my value to them but it never worked. After I left my marketing job to start writing full time, they let me know loud and clear what a mistake they thought I was making and how I shouldn’t come crawling to them for support. Not that they had ever supported anything in my life. But it was the straw that broke the camel’s back so to say and our conversations dwindled to a few phone calls a year.

“Christmas is still six months away.” I said, referencing the time of year I usually called my parents or suffered through a trip to Michigan where they lived.

Ryan scowled like he usually did when my parents were mentioned. “Go,” he said. “Go and build a life with them and if that’s far away from here, all the better.”

“We’ve only known each other a few months,” I murmured. “Isn’t it too soon to be moving in with them?” It was a question that had danced in my mind since Colton brought it up yesterday. The guys had seemed so confident and I was like eighty percent there but the other twenty percent of myself had doubts.

“I don’t think so. It’s not like you’re eighteen. You’re thirty-three and you’re all adults who know what you want and let me tell you something, they want you.”

The conviction in his voice had my eyes watering unexpectedly. “You think?” I hated how my voice sounded when I said that, thready and weak.

He grabbed one of my hands and squeezed. “I know. They look at you like you hung the moon. You’ve been running a thousand miles a minute since I met you, always trying to prove something to someone. The question isn’t do you think this will work, it’s are you willing to stop and let them catch you?”

Fuck, he made a good point. I had been on my own for so long, constantly chasing success to prove to my family that I was enough, that I could make it on my own. Colton and Justin were showing me what it was like to be with someone who just wanted me for me. I just had to be brave enough to let them catch me.

I sighed. “I want to try.”

Ryan nodded. “Good. Then let’s get packing.”

CHAPTER 19

RILEY

Ipulled my car next to the curb outside Justin’s house and put it in park. I had to admit, it was nice having my own vehicle with me. Instead of flying back, we ended up driving my car the fifteen hours from Minneapolis to Oakville so I would have access to my own vehicle.

Both Colton and Justin had offered to let me drive their trucks or even to buy me a car down here but that was a bit much when I had a perfectly functioning min-suv. The drive ended up taking three days because we turned it into the ultimate road trip but it had been amazing. We talked and sang along to songs on the radio and stopped at weird roadside attractions. It had been the perfect way to find a balance among the three of us and have some of those early conversations we needed to do if this was going to work. We agreed to individual and group dates and tonight was my individual date with Justin. He was cooking my dinner at his place and it would be the first time we had hung out one on one. I was equal parts excited and nervous.

From the moment I met him, I had thought Justin was attractive. But now it was like having permission to acknowledge that and knowing he liked me back… it was like a middle school girl with a crush for the first time. You can do this, I gave myself a mental pep talk. Be cool.

I opened my car door just as the door next to Justin’s opened. An older woman who looked like every grandmother you saw in the movies moved shakily outside, a bright purple watering can clenched tightly in one hand.

“Hello dear, are you lost?” She frowned quizzically at me. “I haven’t seen you around before.”

“Uh, no ma’am, I’m actually here for Justin. I’m a– friend.” We weren’t trying to hide our relationship but we agreed we wouldn’t try to make it public for at least a few weeks to give us that time for ourselves.

A wide smile bloomed on her face like the sunflowers she had growing along the front of her side of the house. “Oh, that’s wonderful, dear. Justin’s such a fine young man. Takes good care of me like he was one of my own.”

Justin’s door opened and the man himself stepped out. “Beverly,” he greeted with a fond smile. “I see you’ve met Riley.”

“Oh yes,” Beverly waggled her eyebrows at him. “I’ve met your friend.”

I blushed, my cheeks feeling like they were on fire as Justin smirked at me. “Is it okay if I steal her inside? You can tell her my embarrassing stories later but dinner is almost done.”

“I suppose if you must,” the older woman sniffed but her eyes twinkled. She seemed like the warm grandmotherly type and the wrinkles around her eyes pointed towards years of laughter.

“Thank you,” Justin kissed her cheek. “I’ll help you with the garden this weekend, okay?”

“You’re such a good boy.” Beverly patted his cheek and it was Justin’s turn to have red cheeks. “He’s like a grandson to me,” she told me. I didn’t miss the shadows that danced in Justin’s eyes at her words.

I walked up the steps and accepted the hand he held out for me. “It was so nice meeting you,” I said politely. “I can’t wait to hear those stories.” I gave her a conspiratorial wink and she laughed.

“Oh I like you. You stop by anytime and we’ll have tea and I’ll tell you all about him.”

“I’ll take you up on that.”

“Now you two get to your dinner, and remember, I take my hearing aids out at eight.”

I choked on my breath and Justin groaned while Beverly just cackled and turned to water her flowers.

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