Page 188 of The Maxwell Brothers
“I’m sorry. There’s nothing I can do.”
I bit my lip, running a hand through my hair. "Okay. Thanks."
Tyler was looking at me intently when I hung up. I felt foolish. Could one thing go right today?
Travis came up to us. "What's wrong?"
"I'm just going to search real quick for some storage companies. The one I called before doesn't have space now."
Travis nodded, but then his eyes lit up. "Wait a second. Don't our parents have that huge empty shed? Mom keeps teasing Dadabout it. He had it built, saying it was going to be his man cave, and it's been empty for fifteen years. They use it for storage."
"I'll call them," Tyler said.
"What? No, no, no." I was beside myself. "You all did so much for me already. I'll handle this. I'll find a spot. It's not that hard. Besides, I also have to take some of the things to a laundromat as well as dry out the books."
"Babe, my parents have a couple washing machines and dryers. And I’m sure we can come up with a way to dry your books. They won’t mind."
"They truly wouldn't," Luke said, but there was something interesting in his eyes, like a twinkle of mischief. He had something in mind. "Why don't you give them a call, Travis, and tell themKendra”—he emphasized my name, for some reason—"needs their shed to store her boxes. And we'd all come over, of course."
"Got it," Travis said with a wink. It was like they were having a secret conversation between the lines.
Tyler pressed his lips in a thin line. Dimples appeared in his cheeks. He was holding back laughter.Wait a second.What’s going on?
I turned to Declan, who seemed thoroughly amused as well.
"Why don't you call Gran too while you're at it?" Declan said.
"Oh, I'm sure your mom will do it," Reese said. She was also grinning.
Wow. Okay. They were all in on the joke, and I had no idea what it was about. I searched my brain for a way to ask Tyler without being obvious, but if I pulled him to one side, they would know something was up. I was obviously in for more surprises today. I mean, it had already been bewildering, so I decided to just go ahead with it. I wasn't used to doing things spontaneously. I liked to plan things in detail, but where had that gotten me? I'd made contingency plans for moving andfor storing, and look what happened. If it wasn't for the group popping up here today, I would have had a lot more headaches.
CHAPTER 21
KENDRA
Everyone was herewith their car, and it took a while to put the boxes in the five trunks. It was double work because of the storage company. I was going to treat everyone to a delicious dinner tonight!
The restoration company still wasn’t done by the time everything was loaded up. I shuddered to think about how much it would cost. I told them to leave the key with my neighbor and email me the invoice.
After that, we all got in our cars. The second we were inside, it hit me that I was going to meet his parents. My palms were sweaty, and I needed a distraction.
"Okay. What was that with your brothers and Reese before Travis called your parents?" I asked.
"What?” he said, but the tone of his voice clued me in that he knew exactly what I was referring to.
"You were joking about something, but I didn't get it. The way Luke told Travis to call your mom, it seemed like he meant more than he was saying out loud.”
Tyler took my hand, kissing the back of it. "Mom is going to be beside herself that she's getting to meet you. I think that even if she didn’t have a spare space, she'd make one so we would allshow up there. And yes, Reese is right. She's instantly going to call Gran too."
"For what?"
"So Gran can meet you too. Everyone’s excited."
"No pressure," I murmured.
"There really is no pressure."
"Tyler," I said seriously, "No one's done anything remotely close to what you and your family did for me today, so it is a big deal to me."
