Page 128 of Ever With Me

Even though she and Brooks hadn’t talked about Christmas yet—it was too far off—hopefully, she’d have the chance to show him the magic of Brandywood around the holidays.

But don’t get too far ahead of yourself.

He’d only booked the lake house until the end of September, after all. And if he had plans to stay for any longer than that, he hadn’t said so.

Climbing the stairs in the back, she went into her apartment, where Brooks and Audrey sat on the floor. The room smelled like nail polish, and Audrey was dutifully painting Brooks’s fingernails black.

Maddie laughed. “What are you guys doing?”

“She found it in your bathroom,” Brooks said, his mouth twisting wryly.

“Uncle Books said black was asseptable.” Audrey’s brow furrowed in deep concentration, her mouth opening and closing with each stroke of paint—which was all over Brooks’s fingers.

She plopped down beside them and kissed Brooks’s temple. “Well, you’ll be the prettiest fisherman out there.”

“If Brian says something, remind me to show him pictures of a long line of musicians who paint their fingernails black.”

“You know, you could beat him to the punch and just wear thick kohl eyeliner. Brian would be so distracted by that, he wouldn’t even notice the nail polish.” Maddie leaned toward Audrey. “You ready to go fishing?”

Audrey shoved the nail polish brush into the bottle and hopped up. “Yes! I get Mr. Fluffy!” She raced toward the bedroom, clearly having made herself at home.

“You’re just going to leave me like this? Half finished?” Brooks displayed the one hand Audrey had painted. His pinky finger remained untouched.

“I think it looks good,” she said as seriously as she could muster.

Reaching a hand over, he smeared a line of wet nail polish across her forearm with his pointer finger.

“Hey!” She jerked her arm back with a giggle. “Audrey is going to be very offended that you ruined a lovely manicure like that.”

“Oh shit, can you throw more paint on it for me?”

“Polish, Brooks. Nailpolish.Geez, what sort of C-lister rock star are you?” She retrieved the bottle of nail polish and leaned down, fixing the area he’d ruined. “Although, in reality, I’m going to go out on a limb and guess that you’ve probably had way more professional makeup jobs than I’ve ever had.”

His lips twitched. “How many have you had?”

“Um . . . two. One for Naomi’s wedding and one for Jen’s wedding. Oh no, three. I also got one when Pops and Bunny got married.”

He held her gaze, his eyes amused. “Yeah. Same. Three for me, too.”

“What, three thousand?” She capped the bottle as Audrey’s footsteps approached. “Audrey, you did a beautiful job painting Uncle Brooks’s nails. Think you can paint mine when we get back?”

Audrey beamed proudly and nodded, the ringlets in her pigtails bouncing.

She is such a little doll.Maddie had initially felt inept at entertaining Audrey, but she was such a great kid. She loved her UncleBooks,and it seemed Audrey loved Maddie as an extension of that.

Brooks stood. “What do we need to bring with us?”

“Nothing. Knowing Pops, he’ll overpack food. He’ll have towels, too, even though we won’t need them. Lake’s too cold this time of year.”

Brooks took Audrey by the hand and they headed out the door. This time, when they got to the bottom of the stairwell, they went toward the back, rather than through the Depot, to where Brooks’s car waited in the parking lot. They’d switched the car seat he’d bought from Maddie’s car to his after he’d gotten it back from Travis a few days earlier.

Brooks scowled as they stepped outside, confronted by a handful of paparazzi. Flashes blinded them, and the photographers did not bother to step out of the way.

Brooks lifted Audrey into his arms and grabbed Maddie’s hand. “Get the hell out of here,” he snapped at one of them as he took Audrey’s picture repeatedly.

Maddie had a feeling he’d restrained himself because of Audrey.

They pushed their way toward the car, then Brooks loaded Audrey in as Maddie climbed into the passenger side.

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