Page 22 of Ever After All

“Who’s married?” Our sister’s voice came through the door ahead of her.

I narrowed my eyes at Griffin.

“Wyatt. He’s married to his job,” Griffin said quickly. “He worked like a dog when he was a firefighter. As far as I can tell, he’s working too many hours now that he took over handling all the brewing stuff.” Griffin’s gaze swung back toward me. “You should take this up with HR.”

I burst out laughing, and McKenna narrowed her eyes. “No one is making Wyatt work too much.”

“I love my job,” I assured McKenna. “I’m not the only one who works a lot. The worst culprit is Rhys when it comes to working long hours.”

McKenna let out a little sigh. “I know. He’s been better since they had Jake, but still,” she said, referring to our nephew.

“Want me to take him to task about that?” Griffin teased.

“I already do.”

“She does,” Rhys said, joining the conversation as he walked through the door.

“What is this? Family afternoon in the brewing area?” I joked.

Rhys rested his hips against the stainless-steel table where I had been jotting down notes on a notepad for some tweaks I made with the brewing recipes. He flashed me a grin. “Sure. Should we have a family afternoon in the brewing area every week? I’m all in.” His gaze sobered before he pushed away from the table and pulled me into a backslapping hug. “I’m just glad you’re here. I thought I’d come over here and do a loop around.”

Blake walked into the room while Rhys was talking and waggled his brows when he caught my eyes. “Told you.”

“Told me what?” I prompted.

“It’d be good for you to be here. We need you.”

Just when I was about to reply, Adam strolled in with Kenan.

“It’s legit a family meeting,” Kenan quipped.

Ever since I moved home, I’d wondered if I should’ve come home sooner. I could easily dismiss my reasons for being away from Fireweed Harbor, the place that was home to me in my heart and soul, the only place where I felt like I really belonged. Yet, as I glanced around at my siblings, I knew that I needed to be away. That time had given me the perspective necessary to find peace.

Rhys and Blake joked about something while McKenna was talking about a public relations plan she had to help with, of all things, the finance department. “To make finance fun,” she said.

When my eyes landed on Rhys again, and he smiled over at me, a tightness I’d been carrying in my chest eased a little more. Jake had chronologically been our oldest brother, and for as long as I could remember, my first memories of him were of him being mean. McKenna was the youngest, the last one behind Griffin and me, and she had been his main target. Even when I was younger, I’d felt like I was supposed to look up to Jake, but I never had. Rhys had been and still was the older brother who I looked to for everything.

He'd come through once again. When McKenna was finally honest with the family about how Jake had targeted her verbally and sometimes physically, just brutal at times, he’d never questioned her and supported her completely. When I was a little boy, so much smaller than Jake, I felt as if I had failed her. Both of us had found some solace in sharing the truth and how the family responded.

There’d been a few hiccups, but then recognizing someone you loved, who had been through something horrible, could also do hurtful things was a painful kernel of knowledge to accept. Jake drinking himself to death in college made perfect sense when I considered all he wanted to forget.

Rhys’s reaction to the abuse in our family had been the opposite of Jake’s. He eschewed any aggression and was careful to manage his emotions. I suppose it had been the opposite for all of us. We were all protective of those we loved. Rhys hadn’t hesitated when he heard what McKenna had experienced at Jake’s hands. He instantly believed her, which had been healing for her and me. Griffin had also known, but I think it felt more like a secondary secret for him. He kept it quiet because I’d asked him to. I would’ve done the same for him.

He was still keeping my last secret. I still felt that weight on me, but I didn’t know if it was worth putting out there.

“You okay?” I hadn’t even noticed Griffin had come to stand beside me.

I met his gaze as I nodded. “I am.” It didn’t take much for us to communicate. I wasn’t sure if it counted as mind reading, but he knew that I had just been thinking about that last secret.

I didn’t want to dwell on it, so I shifted focus. “Good catch back there with McKenna.”

Griffin chuckled. “You do work too much, but I wouldn’t describe you as married to your job.”

Many hours later, I eyed my phone. Before I began to dwell for too long, I spun it around, lifting it and tapping out a text.

Me: Can I see you tonight?

My heart kicked faster, beating a reverberating drumroll in my chest as I waited to see if and when Rosie might reply.

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