Page 57 of Unbreak My Heart

“And most of all?” Max’s face softened from the determined lines it had set into. “You’re mybrother.”

They’d all been through so damned much. Gabe, with his broken heart shutting him off from anything good and warm and meaningful—at least, until he’d met Emma. Max, with losing Luce, in one of the most awful ways possible, but then finding happiness with Millie.

Then Amy.

He breathed deeply. Amy would always mean the world to him; he wouldn’t apologise for it, couldn’t diminish what they’d had. His gaze lifted to see Eva standing a few metres away, a wistful smile on her face, happiness brightening her eyes.

But now he had a new, possible future. One that shone so brightly he’d worried he didn’t deserve it.

She was as different from Amy as the stars to the moon. And he adored every single thing about her. Just thinking about her put a silly, goofy smile on his face.

He sent her a beaming smile, which only made her own bigger, more open.

Gabe stepped into his peripheral vision and held up the fancy folder he’d been carrying, that happy, devious smirk even bigger on his mouth. Gabe held out the folder toward him.

“Here you go, big brother.”

Simon took it and opened the cover, read the letterhead.

Trey Cruikshanks, Solicitor.

He read as quickly as he could, then looked up at both his brothers.

Max nodded, confirming his suspicions. “It’s the documents.” He leaned over and pointed to the line at the bottom of the page. “Here, and the two other places are a few pages over. If you sign those, this is all legal. The Cow will be half yours.” He looked back at Simon. “Get a lawyer to look at it with you. Make sure it covers everything you want. If there’s something you don’t like in the clauses, I’m happy to come in with you and nut it out. We tried to think of everything that you might want and went from there.”

That brought Simon’s head back up. “We?”

Max grinned and Gabe nodded. “Gabe and Dad and me. We sat down with Trey and tried to make sure we got it right.”

Simon leaned his back against the wall near the door, unsure if his legs would continue to hold him up if he didn’t, and stared at the paperwork in his shaking hands. “You’re all in on this?”

He glanced up when they didn’t answer. Gabe’s grin faded. “You deserve it, Si,” was all he said.

He started nodding, then looked up at his brothers again. “Yes.”

One word.

One simple word that would change his life.

Max’s face broke wide in a massive grin. “Really? Yes?”

Simon’s own humour pushed through. “Yes, all right? I’ll do the lawyer thing, because I know you won’t accept it without that, and Darb’d have a heart attack. But, yes. I couldn’t think of anyone better to have as my partner than you.”

Max grabbed him in and squeezed the air from his lungs. Gabe hauled him from Max and did the same. Simon pushed back, laughing, trying to get some much-needed oxygen. “Quit it, you two! Anyone would think I was destitute or somethin’.”

Their smiles faded. “We know you’re not a charity case, Si,” Gabe said. “That’s not what this is about. But itisabout taking care of family, and that’s what we Jamesons do best.”

Simon closed the folder and nodded, too emotional to do much more. Max spun around and stepped onto the dance floor, put two fingers to his mouth and let a piercing whistle rip. Simon winced at the high-pitched sound, along with more than a few patrons.

“Hey, everyone! He said yes!”

Hoots and clapping erupted around the room and back to the bar.

How many people knew about this?

“Ya know, Max, I hate to be the one to tell ya this, but ya can’t marry ya brother. Especially since ya already have a wife.”

Simon barked a laugh and stared at Joe Junior and shook his head as chuckles peppered the crowd. Sometimes his friends’ senses of humour beggared belief.

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