Page 59 of When the Storm Breaks
“He’s found something he’s excited about and you shot him down.” She gathered up our plates and stomped into the kitchen. The dishes clattered in the sink and she turned to face me, her arms folded over her chest. “You said you wanted to find a way to get through to him. Well, maybe this is it. Music. And he’s looking forward to being on the football team this year too.”
I rubbed the back of my neck. “He told you that?”
She nodded. “Yeah, he did. He told me a lot of things.”
“Like what?”
She shook her head. “He told me things in confidence. I’m not going to betray his trust in me.”
“How did you do it? You’ve known him for a hot minute and suddenly he’s opening up and telling you shit he never tells me.” And I knew why he was hanging out with her. He had a massive crush on her. No doubt she hadn’t even noticed but I had.
Shiloh gave me a little smile and came up behind me, wrapping her arms around me and resting her chin on my shoulder. “Because you’re guys and guys are stupid sometimes. It’s easier for him to talk to me. I’m not the one he looks up to. I’m not the one he doesn’t want to disappoint.”
I slid my wallet out of my back pocket and took out all the cash I’d gotten out to pay Chris tomorrow. I set three hundred bucks on the table. “Put that toward it. I don’t want you to chip in. You’re doing more than enough for him without giving him money too.”
Shiloh smiled and kissed the side of my neck. “Okay.”
I took her hand and pulled her into my lap. “Promise me you won’t chip in.”
“I promise.”
Satisfied she was telling the truth, I nodded. She stood up and put her hands on my shoulders then straddled me on the kitchen chair, grabbed the back of my head and kissed me hard. “You’re a good man, Brody.”
“Not so sure about that. I’m fucking everything up with Ridge.”
“No, you’re not. If you were fucking it up, he’d be gone by now.”
“He has nowhere else to go.”
“That wouldn’t stop him from leaving.”
And I knew she was right. If Ridge hated it here and hated living with me, he would have been long gone, consequences be damned. At his age, I never would have stayed in a place I didn’t want to be.
“He loves you and down deep he knows you only want the best for him.”
I hoped that was true, but I didn’t know if it was wishful thinking on her part or if he’d confided that in her. Pretty sure she was trying to make me feel better. “I think we’ve talked about Ridge enough for one night.”
“What did you want to talk about?”
“How about let’s not talk at all?”
“I feel like I should be offended.”
“If you were offended you wouldn’t be this wet for me.”
* * *
On Sunday afternoonNoah and I were walking back to my house from Shiloh’s when he dropped a bomb on me. The three of us had gone riding and thanks to our morning rides, Shiloh was improving. After the horse ride, Shiloh had invited Noah over for the fancy cupcakes she’d bought on her day out with Ridge. He’d come home looking like the cat who had swallowed the canary. I’d felt the need to remind him he was only seventeen but stopped short of telling him he didn’t have a chance in hell with Shiloh. Pretty sure it was implied.
“Are you going to marry Shy Viv?” Noah asked out of the blue.
The fuck? “Nobody’s getting married.”
“But you kissed her, so you must love her. Daddy Jude kisses Mommy all the time and he’s always saying how much he loves her. Like every single day.”
No surprise there. Jude had always been demonstrative, and he’d always told Lila how much he loved her. “Yeah, well, you don’t have to love someone to kiss them.”
“Yes, you do. When you kiss someone, you have to get married.”
