Page 115 of Not Catching Love

“Enough …” Rush cocks his head. “As in, more than one?”

“As in several.”

My eyebrows shoot up, and a confused sort of silence falls around the room.

“You have all been a pain in my side since I met you,” she says. “Christian with the tittie-grab and Seven with his music. I’ve had to teach Molly to cook from scratch, basically adopt Rush, have seen more of Madden than my poor heart can take, babied dear Gabe, and Xander, my love, I have never met someone with such an attitude in my entire life.”

“You can talk.”

She laughs. “And I love and adore every single one of you.” She holds out a piece of paper. “I wanted to show you this.”

When no one moves, I take charge and cross over to grab it. At first, I don’t know what I’m looking at.

“It’s … is thisyour will?”

“Yes.”

I scan over it. “We’re on here.”

“You are.” She shrugs. “I never had children of my own, my siblings are all dead now, and when it comes to family, well, you lot might only have me, but … I also only have you. I’m officially in my eighties, and I see my friends at the nursing home and how lonely they are. How little some of them are visited. You have all made what could have been incredibly sad years full of life, and I oweallof youso much.”

A tear slides over my cheek that I angrily scrub away. “Stoptalking like you’re going to die tomorrow. We still have plenty of years left to annoy you.”

“Oh, I’m planning on it. But whether I die tomorrow or twenty years from now, I wanted to make sure I had a chance to say thank you. I’ve had a very long life, and the years with you, well, they might be my absolute favorites.”

The will is long forgotten as I tackle Aggy in a hug. My brothers are quick to join us, and between the sniffles and the wet patch on my shoulder, I know I’m not the only one struggling with emotion. I have no clue how many houses or what Aggy is worth; all I know is what she’s worthto me.That value goes beyond money and property. It doesn’t have a number. Just the huge expanse of my heart that will always be hers.

“Okay, okay,” she says, brushing us away. “Shoo, and enjoy your party.”

We shoo. And we enjoy. I spend the day surrounded by love, knowing that this is the start of the rest of my life. A life with Derek. A life with Seven and Molly. One day with their kids.

“Where have you been?” Derek asks, catching me as I go to walk past.

“Enjoying myself.”

“I love that.”

I snake my arms around his waist. “Apparently, Aggy’s left me a whole buttload of money in her will,” I say.

“Ah …” Derek blinks. “Sorry,wherehave you been?”

I bury my face in his chest. “Is it weird that I don’t care aboutwhatshe left me, it’s the fact that I’m in it? That I’m insomeone’swill. It’s, like, not something I ever considered because of the whole, you know, no-family thing. She could have left me a stinky, old sock, and I’d still be amazed. Every time I remember it, I start crying again.”

Derek’s warm, reassuring kiss finds my forehead. My eyes drift closed, and I lean into the feeling, grounded in this onesingle moment where everything almost feels too much, but he’s got me.

He’s here.

He always will be.

“I think it’s finally sinking in how loved you are.”

“Yeah …” It’s a confusing feeling. “Maybe.”

Derek tilts my face up toward his. “And your hair looks so fucking good brown.”

I huff a laugh, awkward as I always am when he mentions it. It’s still a trial, so we’ll see, but I think I’m liking it too.

I’m liking a lot about myself these days.

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