Page 43 of The Spring in My Heart

“Felix, stop talking about that.” Chase’s voice doesn’t even faze him.

Felix gets an impish smile on his face and moves his head closer to mine. “Chase says they’re going to make a baby.”

“I didn’t say that to you,” my brother says, not even moving from his spot under the clippers.

Felix’s smile widens like Chase’s when he’s about to do something he shouldn’t.

“Let’s play a game,” I say.

Felix’s eyes light up. “I love games.”

“This one is the quiet and close your eyes game. You count in your head as far as you can with your eyes closed. The person who does it the longest, gets the big prize.”

His face tells me he’s not buying it. “What’s the big prize?”

I didn’t think that far ahead. Dang.

“I’ll let you wear my big watch,” Chase says.

Felix’s eyes widen. “The big-big one?”

Chase chuckles. “That one.”

And now I’m happy because this plays into my gift.

Five minutes later, the room is in silence. Justin is playing his handheld game, and Cam goes to get dressed. Chase is all done with the barber, and I go up to him, handing him my gift.

“What’s this?”

“Open it.”

He frowns. “But what is it?”

“When people give you something wrapped in festive paper, it’s called a present. Normal people get those on their birthday or Christmas or, in this case, their wedding day.”

His face doesn’t change. “Why would you give me a present? You should’ve given it to Lauren.”

I don’t let it bother me. “I gave her a present. This one is yours. And I want you to open it. Now.”

I snap at the end, and it does the trick. He begins to tear through it until he gets to the leather, engraved box. I had the jeweler engrave: Pass on the best of you. He stares at it, not making any moves.

“The gift is inside,” I whisper.

He nods and opens it. Then his gaze ping-pongs to mine.

“Because our family is so fucked up, we don’t have good traditions. So, I wanted to create something we can pass on. I gave one to Cam on his wedding day. Now I give this one to you. You can pass it on to the boys on their wedding day.”

His hand shoots out, and he bear hugs me, knocking the air out of my lungs. He lingers a few seconds and then clears his throat. “Thank you. Now go back to make sure Lauren is okay.”

I fight back a smile and head back out. I’m happy my brothers are happy. Both chose the right people, the right women. They’d known them since high school, and that love was always there for both of them.

I’m the one who chose wrong and keeps perpetuating the same mistake.

9

Oliver

Coño, this is not happening to me.

---