Page 69 of When the Storm Breaks
Ridge and Brody didn’t budge until the girls were gone and only then did they return to their seats.
“If it wasn’t for Ridge’s accent, I would have sworn that was Brody talking,” Jesse said.
Lila nodded. “It sounded exactly like something Brody would have said in high school.”
“High school?” Jude snorted. “He’d say it now.”
“Stop talking about me like I’m not sitting right here.” Brody wrapped his arm around me, and I took another sip of wine I didn’t need, a small smile on my lips.
Maybe Brody didn’t notice it, but Ridge was a McCallister through and through, and his first loyalty was to his family. All the brothers were so different, had chosen their own paths in life, but you’d have to be blind not to see that every single one of them would drop everything to be there for each other. I was sure they had their share of disagreements in private, but they were fiercely loyal and quick to defend each other. I’d like to believe Landry would do the same for me, but history had proven otherwise, and it made me sad we’d grown so far apart.
“I’m not the one with the accent. That’s all of y’all,” Ridge said, mimicking a Texan accent that was so bad it made everyone laugh.
“Y’all owe me money for all the swear words,” Noah piped up. “Except for Daddy. He needs to save his money. It costs a lot of money to get married.” He tipped his face up to Patrick’s. “Right, Grandpa?”
Patrick cleared his throat. “You got that right. Who’s he marrying?”
Noah pointed his finger at me. “Shy Viv. They’re gonna have a baby.”
My eyes widened. Brody nearly choked on his beer.
Patrick crossed his arms over his chest and glared at Brody. “You knocked up another one?”
“Oh Jesus, here we go again,” Brody muttered under his breath.
All I could do was laugh.
Before we all got into our cars to drive home, Kate hugged everyone goodbye. I was about to climb into the passenger seat of Brody’s truck when she pulled me into a hug just like I was another one of her kids. “I’m so happy you and Brody found each other, honey.”
I didn’t have the heart to tell her we were only hooking up and this wasn’t a real relationship.
“When a McCallister boy falls in love, it’s for life.” My heart stuttered. Could Brody be in love with me? Had Kate seen it on his face?
“You good?” Brody asked when I climbed into his truck, none the wiser about what Kate had said. If he’d heard her, he probably would have run scared.
I smiled. “Yeah, it’s all good.”
* * *
And for thenext week and a half, everything was good. It was so good I had to pinch myself to make sure I wasn’t dreaming.
Every morning Brody and I rode together at sunrise and every night he came over to the guest house. We talked, we fucked, we laughed so hard my stomach hurt. Sometimes he stayed the night but other times he went home, not wanting to leave Ridge on his own all the time. Ridge was working on a construction crew for the summer. Noah was in summer day camp from Monday to Friday. The same summer camp Hayley was enrolled in. On the Saturday after Kate’s birthday dinner, Noah informed me that Hayley was away for the weekend and I felt equal parts relief and disappointment. I’d decided it was for the best, and I could leave here knowing that everything had worked out the way it was meant to. I’d gotten my music career and Hayley had ended up in a good family.
On Tuesday night, six days before I had to leave, Brody did something so unexpected and so sweet I added it to my list of things that made me want to cry.
“I can’t see anything,” I complained.
“That’s usually what happens when you’re blindfolded.”
“Why am I blindfolded again? If you wanted kinky sex you could have just said so.” A twig snapped under my foot and his arm around me tightened, steadying me.
“Stop talking, woman. We’re almost there.”
“It feels like we’ve been walking for miles.”
He snorted. “We can still see the guesthouse from here.”
“Maybe you can but I can’t see a thing.”
