Page 43 of Broken Dreams
Here we go. “What about me?”
“Are you and Grady moving along well?”
“We’re taking this moderately slow.”
She grins. “Smart. Be careful, though. Those Whitlock men tend to snatch your heart without you even knowing it.”
“That’s right, sweetheart!” Asher, with some kind of super hearing power, responds.
“They also should be focusing on the food.”
He ignores that one and then Grady arrives, handing me a glass of lemonade and sitting beside us.
“You’re not going to help with the food?” I ask.
“Hell no. I sit with Phoebs and watch the shitshow of my brothers. Less chance of injury by either party.”
Rowan turns and flips him off.
This, right here, reminds me of home. Before everyone went off and began living their lives all over the country, we were just like this. Isaac and his friends would have barbeques just like this. I would be inside, cooking the side dishes with Brielle, and the guys were attempting to grill something.
I’d always have a backup in the fridge because they lit the entire grill on fire once. After that I was prepared.
The way Grady interacts with his brothers is just like it was between the guys. They were brothers in every way, other than blood. The four of them were a unit growing up, and I loved that they welcomed me into the fold.
Well, Isaac probably demanded it.
Still, I miss them. It’s why I go back to Oregon several times a year. All three moved back to Rose Canyon, finding love and starting their lives after Isaac died. Where I lost mine and left because it was too hard to stay.
Now, my heart aches because once this arrangement is over, I’ll go back to not having these kinds of nights.
This, right here, is what I wanted when I started back on my dating search. A man who loves his family, has random dinners with them, banters and bickers with the people around him. All of it is right here. And all of it will end—again.
Grady grabs my hand. “Hey, you okay?”
I smile. “Yeah, sorry. I was thinking of some stuff I need to do at work. A few supplies I didn’t order.”
Not about how I wish I had found someone exactly like him and this was all real.
nine
ADDISON
We’re walking back toward the barn as the other Whitlock siblings are engaged in a cornhole tournament. Grady was voted out for Phoebe after he made Brynn lose two games in a row. So, the two kids run in front of us, stopping to see and talk to each animal.
“Elodie, don’t put your fingers in the pen!” I remind her as I see her hand going that way.
“She loves the animals,” Grady notes.
“She does, she loves everything for about five minutes.”
“Jett too, I swear, his attention moves faster than a plane. I can’t keep up with him. One day it’s airplanes, then trucks, then it’s coloring, then coloring is not fun.”
I feel him on that. “The minds of three-year-olds.”
“They’re something, all right.”
“I wouldn’t trade this time for anything, though. I sometimes can’t believe how old she is. It feels like she was just a baby and her father and I were bringing her home.”
