Page 19 of Noah

I bit my bottom lip. A bit more personal than what I'd been fishing for, but okay. "For how long?" I wasn't sure what to ask him.

"Since I was nineteen. My mom and I are good friends."

"That's important. My mom and I aren't."

Brody looked up at me. "Why not?"

"We have a difference of opinion when it comes to my career."

"My mom approves of mine."

I wanted to ask him what it was he did for a living. But decided to let him volunteer that information if it was something he wanted to let me know.

"Are you friends with your dad?" Seemed innocuous enough.

Brody shook his head.

"I have a brother and he has a wife and two boys."

"I have a brother and a sister. My brother is older than me and my sister is younger by a few years. I get along with her the best out of the entire family."

"Do they have children?"

"My brother has a daughter." I winked at Brody. "Let me put in your order." He was fussing with his phone when I came back with his drink.

"Anything wrong?" I asked.

"No, just waiting for an email." Brody squeezed both lime slices into his drink and then dropped them in it. "I only want kids with the right person. What about you?"

My eyebrows rose. Kind of a serious question for someone I barely knew. But someone I was becoming more and more interested in. I wasn't sure how to answer. I didn't have an answer.

"I haven't really thought about it." Not entirely true.

Brody nodded and lifted the drink to his lips. After setting it down, he studied my face for a few moments, searching for something. "My mom lives here in Victoria."

I must have passed his scrutiny.

"Do you see her often?"

"Every couple of weeks I go to her house for dinner."

"We have a mandatory bi-monthly dinner at my parents' house."

Brody's furrowed his brow. "Mandatory?"

"As in miss it and you're out of the will." I smiled and chuckled, trying to make light of what honestly felt like the truth. Every month I had to endure an inquisition. Reports on how my business was doing, the obligatory you should go back to law school and join the family firm, and then when are you going to settle down with a husband and start a family? I could write a script.

"That sounds miserable."

"It is."

"I'm sorry you have to go through that."

"Not your fault." I slid a side plate, a napkin, and a wet wipe onto the bar top in front of Brody as his wings arrived. "Make sure you catch me before you go. I want another one of those dazzling smiles you shot at me earlier to hang on to for the rest of the night."

Cheesy, I know. But Brody made me feel gooey inside. And that smile … that smile had nearly melted me even further. I wanted to see more of those.

Brody smirked. "Will do."

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