Page 111 of Someone You Deserve

The desire to punch my little brother comes out way too strong. “Just because you got fucked over by a woman, doesn’t mean all women are the enemy. And for the record, Sasha was a bitch. There, I said it.”

He stares at me and then nods. “I agree. Thank you. I’m just saying…”

“We’ll be fine. I’ve got to go,” I say, heading for the door, not sure if I believe myself or not. But until Grady talks to Astrid, there’s only one thing I can do—distract myself by working on my rental, wishing I had something to tear apart instead of putting the finishing touches on little things.

But those little things matter, just as much as the big stuff. The past ten minutes have made that abundantly clear.

Chapter eighteen

Astrid

“Those aren’t cool enough yet for frosting,” I tell Tanya before she pipes the hazelnut frosting on top of the vanilla cupcakes.

“Sorry.”

“It’s okay. Move on to the strawberry cheesecake ones. They need the dusting of graham crackers on top.”

I watch her walk away from me and then I move back to the mixer, checking on the next batch of cream cheese frosting.

I haven’t left my bakery in two days, except to eat and sleep. My mom has been taking care of my kids, my brother took Lilly to her dance class last night, my employees are going to be earning insurmountable overtime after this week, which I’ll hopefully be able to afford, and I haven’t seen Penn since he came over Monday night.

But this is temporary, I keep reminding myself. I’m almost done. The stress could have been worse and I’m grateful that, for the most part, everything has been running smoothly.

“Hey, sis.” I twist around to find my brother standing beside me, his hands shoved into the pockets of his jeans.

“Well, hello. Do I know you? Are you from the outside world where the other people are?”

He laughs. “I think you’re starting to go a little stir crazy.”

“What gave you that idea?” I fire back, trying to deflect with humor so I don’t cry or pass out. Adrenaline is keeping me running right now. That and caffeine.

“It smells amazing in here.” He peers into the giant mixing bowl that’s spinning around. “Cream cheese frosting?”

“Yup.”

“You know that’s my favorite.”

I eye him suspiciously, wondering why he looks so nervous. My brother doesn’t hide his confidence or masculinity. Blame it on years of walking onto a baseball field in front of thousands of fans, feigning confidence even if he didn’t feel it, but right now? He looks borderline afraid. “What’s going on?”

“What do you mean?”

“I mean you look like Bentley right now about to tell me that he broke something or lost something.” I arch a brow at him. “What did you do?”

“Why do you automatically assume that I did something?” He pretends to be offended, but I’m a mom. I know bullshit when I see it.

“Grady…”

“Maybe we could talk in your office?”

I shut the mixer off, instruct Vanessa on what to do next, and then lead my brother back to my office so I can berate him in private. Once I shut the door behind us, he starts to pace the small room.

“What is going on, Grady? Why are you so workedup?”

“Well, first, I know about you two.” Transforming before my eyes, he stands up straight and crosses his arms over his chest. “Why didn’t you tell me?”

“We were going to tell you. We’re going to tell everyone after this weekend, but…”

He reaches out to me and grabs my hand. “You deserve to be fucking happy, Astrid.”

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