Page 415 of How to Kiss a Hawthorne Brother
“Expecting someone else?” Lennox says dryly.
“Nah, I knew it was you. Nate texted and asked if I wanted to let you in.”
“Wait, you could have said no?” Brody asks. “Rude.”
“Brilliant,” Perry says. “I’d love to be able to screen people before they make it to my porch.”
“But then you’d just say no toeveryone,” Lennox says.
Perry smiles. “Exactly.”
“What are you guys doing here?” I step back from the door, making room for them to file inside.
“We thought you might be hungry,” Brody says. “Lennox has food from the restaurant.”
Lennox holds up a bag as he heads toward the kitchen.
“We also have beverages,” Perry says, holding up a case of beer as he follows Lennox.
Brody claps me on the back. “And also Mom is worried about you.”
There it is.The real reason they’re here. But whatever. I’ll take it. I need all the distractions I can get right now.
We eat around the kitchen island, then take the beer outside. The night air is cool, the cicadas’ song rolling through the trees like the rise and fall of a wave.
“Okay,” Perry says, cracking open a beer and handing it to me. “What’s the update? Where do things stand with Audrey?”
I run a hand across my face, scratching at the week’s worth of beard growth I still need to shave. “I’m definitely in love with her, I’m completely miserable without her, and I’m pretty much consumed with the need to find her, tell her, then tell everyone else how amazing she is.”
“So…like a regular Saturday,” Lennox says, and my brothers chuckle.
“Is this seriously what it’s like to be in love?”
“Yes,” they say in unison.
“At least at first,” Perry says. “The intensity eases up after a while. But the feelings don’t.”
I rub my chest. “It feels…like I can’t breathe right if she isn’t in the room, but then she comes into the room, and it only gets worse.”
Brody nods. “Like she could ask you to do anything in this world,anything,and you’d do it without flinching.”
I nod. “Exactly.”
“I once drove three states over to pick up Tatum’s favorite ice cream,” Lennox says.
Perry takes a swig of his beer. “I spent half my savings restoring a Steinway piano because Lila has always wanted one.”
“You need to tell her, man,” Brody says. “It’s time.”
“I just don’t want to overwhelm her before—”
Brody’s eyes widen and he motions behind me. “Nah, man. I mean you need to tell hernow.”
I stand up and spin around.
Audrey is standing in the doorway leading into the house.
I take in the sight of her. A week without seeing her has only made her seem more beautiful. She’s dressed casually. Jeans. A simple T-shirt. She rocked a red-carpet look, but I think I prefer this dressed-down version of Audrey.
