Page 143 of Mr. Broody

He sips his coffee. “Now go join your family.”

Conor comes over and takes my seat when I stand. “I’m next.”

“For?” Reed asks, eyebrows drawing down.

“Life advice.”

Reed gets comfortable in his seat and rests his ankle on his knee. “All right, let’s hear it.”

I walk away shaking my head at how lucky I got when he was assigned to be my Big Brother. It literally changed the trajectory of my life, and I still have no idea how to truly thank him.

Scratch that. Yes, I do.

By being the man, I need to be to his stepdaughter.

Sixty-Two

Jade

A large hand runs down my back, and I open my eyes to find Henry standing next to me. He’s in his button-down dress shirt and slacks from his suit, looking mouth-wateringly gorgeous. In the middle of a freaking hospital.

“Hi.” My voice is raspy with sleep.

“Hey.” He bends down and kisses me, then kisses Bodhi’s forehead. “Hard day, huh?”

Tears well in my eyes. “I’m sorry, Henry.”

He shakes his head. “Stop apologizing. It was an accident, it happens.”

“But—”

“No. There’s no buts here, Jade.” He tucks my hair behind my ear and bends down again to kiss me, but when he’s millimeters from my lips, he stops. “Thank you for taking care of him.” He presses his lips to mine again.

“I think there’s some room for you to join us.” I pat the other side of Bodhi.

He walks around and gently gets on the bed. I slide over as much as I can, and he’s careful of Bodhi’s broken arm in the sling. He stares at it and blows out a breath. “It must have been scary.”

“For you too.”

His eyes meet mine. “For both of us.”

I nod because it was. But I feel so much better now that he’s here.

He takes my hand. “Jade, I’ve been going about this the entirely wrong way. I’ve only been opening the door a little bit for you instead of giving you full access.”

“It’s okay. This is hard.”

“Yeah, it is, but we can make it easier, I think.” He glances down at Bodhi, and so do I. “I want to do this with you, but I don’t want to overwhelm you. But I want you to move in with me, and I want you to raise Bodhi with me. One day I hope you’ll marry me, and I’d love to make another Bodhi with you. Actually, more than one. Does that scare you?”

My chest fills with so much happiness and gratitude for having this man back in my life that it feels near bursting.

I laugh and shake my head. “No. I feel like I’m just finding my footing though, trying to push away the nerves and fear that I’m doing it wrong. But I don’t want to find out who I am in this role with anyone but you.”

He blows out a breath. “Thank God. That makes me really happy.”

“So, what exactly are we agreeing to?”

“I think you just agreed to marry me,” he says, cockiness in his tone.

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