Page 248 of How to Kiss a Hawthorne Brother
“Enjoy the night off then. It sounds like you could use one.” Perry yells a final goodbye to our youngest brother as he disappears out the door.
“All right, I’m out too,” Flint says. “I’ll be waiting for those updates, Len!”
Kate disappears back into the house after Flint hangs up, leaving me alone with Brody. He stays silent while I put my shirt back on, then pull my sweatshirt over my head.
“Hey, should we be worried about Flint?” I say as my head pops through the neck of the hoodie, mussing my hair. I smooth it down again. “You think he’s serious about moving home?”
Brody shrugs. “Nah. He’s too restless to live in Silver Creek.”
I grab my keys. “Maybe, but you used to say the same thing about me.”
“That’s true.” He follows me out the front door and onto his porch. The air around us is heavy with the silence that only a snowfall can bring, the ground quickly disappearing under ablanket of white. Brody shoves his hands into the pocket of his hoodie and hunches his shoulders against the cold. “So, this thing with Tatum,” he says, studying me closely. “Do you feel like things are different with her?”
“Different how?”
He shrugs. “I don’t know. I just—” He pauses and clears his throat. “I’m just saying. Tatum doesn’t seem like some random woman you picked up at a bar.” He scratches his neck like he’s nervous. Or maybe just trying really hard to be tactful. “She seems . . . different.”
“So I better not be messing around?” I ask, saying what he clearlywantsto say but won’t because he’s too nice of a guy.
He nods like he’s relieved I owned up to the possibility. “If things went south and it impacted her job, you’d be answering to Olivia, so I’d be careful if I were you.”
I don’t feel like I’m messing around with Tatum, but Brody’s words send a jolt of uneasiness through my chest anyway. Brody’s concern is valid because my track record is . . . not great.
I’ve never been very good at explaining my feelings about relationships to my brothers—especially not Brody, who has been in love with the same woman since he was old enough to realize what love was. Brody was built to be in love—to be committed—so he’s never understood my serial dating habits—though those dried up about the time I opened Hawthorne.
But even when Iwasserial dating, I was always up front with women about what Iwasn’tlooking for. Nothing serious. No commitments. No expectations.
But now that I’m home, living in Silver Creek, it’s harder to live that life. And not just because the dating scene is so dismal. I’m constantly surrounded by my siblings and all their devotedmarriedness,which is making my reasons for keeping my relationships so shallow look a little flimsy.
I don’t really want to stay casually single forever, do I?
“It’s only dinner,” I say to Brody. I look him right in the eye, somehow wanting to reassure my brother that he shouldn’t worry about me, even if I’m worried about myself. “But I get it.”
The front door opens, and Kate pops her head out, her gaze zeroing in on her husband before they dart to me. “Oh. You’re still here,” she says, like she’s disappointed.
“On my way out though,” I say slowly, like I’m stating the obvious.
Because Iamstating the obvious. I look at Brody. “You got somewhere you need to be?”
“More like something we need todo,” Kate says.
“Whoa. Right now?” Brody says. “Like,nownow?”
“Nownow,” Kate repeats. She disappears inside, and Brody moves to the door to follow his wife. He lifts his shoulders in a sheepish shrug, a small smile lighting his face. “We’re trying for a baby,” he says simply.
“Whoa. Really?”
He nods. “I know it’s kind of fast, but it doesn’t reallyfeelfast.”
“You’ve known each other your whole lives,” I say. I run a hand across my face. “I’m happy for you, man.”
“Thanks. But don’t say anything, all right? We don’t want people to get excited when we have no idea how long it’s going to take.”
I nod. “Of course.”
Brody opens the door. “Be careful heading home, all right? If you wind up needing to drive anywhere later, come borrow the truck.”
“Will do. Thanks man.”
