Page 63 of The Forever Rule

I tilted my head in acknowledgement. “I’m glad she thought that.”

“Your second one’s coming up in a couple of weeks.”

“It is. Which feels like far away, and yet not far enough.”

“Because you’re forced into it? Or because it’s them.”

“The forced scheduling. I don’t like what my father did. I don’t even know how he did it. The logistics of it alone confuses me. But he hurt my brothers, and my half-siblings. The fact that I had them for nearly my entire life, and I never knew them? Pisses me off to no end.”

“I can’t even imagine.”

“I love my brothers. I love the fact that some of us like working in this business, while I have a chef, a bartender, and business owner as a brother. I have an artist, and now it seems that I have more.”

“Like a rockstar,” she said with a grin.

I shook my head. “I can’t believe that Kyler Dixon is my brother.”

“So you know his music?”

“Caged and Reckless—I always liked the name. Ironic now.” I cleared my throat. “I’m starting to listen to it more. And look at Emily’s designs.”

“She’s really wonderful with graphic and digital art.”

“So I can see on her social media.” I’d looked up each of my new siblings, wanting to know more, even though I wasn’t sure if it felt like a form of stalking or not.

“You haven’t asked her?”

“No, I’ve only met her the once.”

Blakely met my gaze, but I couldn’t read the question in them. I wanted to learn, though. “You’ll figure it out.”

“I hope so. Even though it doesn’t always feel like I will.”

“If we’re talking too much about your family, we can stop. I just really don’t know what I’m supposed to say.”

“It’s a big part of my life right now. So I get that.” I paused, trying to come up with what I wanted to say. When it came to business, I was the man of words. The man of action behind those words. But these days with family…and now Blakley, I couldn’t seem to find them. “What are you looking for, Blakely?”

She paused, and we moved to the side so other walkers could pass us. “What do you mean?”

“This. Us.”

She gave me a weird look and I didn’t blame her as I didn’t know why I was asking the question in the first place. “I just wanted coffee, Aston. I’m starting a new chapter of my life, and for some reason I couldn’t say no when you asked.”

“I’m glad you didn’t say no. I didn’t want you to.”

We stood there for a moment, as I told myself to stop looking at her. To walk away.

Because my family had rules. Rules set in stone by the father who had lied to us this whole time. But these rules protected my family. And I had to make sure that I wasn’t the one who stirred us up anymore. I had a feeling that Blakely would be the one rule I could break.

And that scared me more than anything.

“What is it that you want?” she asked, pulling me out of my thoughts.

“I don’t know. And that scares me because I’m not usually the person in the unknown.”

“So we finish our walk. And we stop putting so much pressure on ourselves.”

“I want to see you again,” I blurted.

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