Page 90 of Free to Live
“I want her to have brothers, sisters, cousins that she’s close to like your family is. Sometimes it was lonely growing up an only child.”
“What are you saying?” I whisper, exalted and terrified at the same time. I’m sure he sees both on my face because the intensity on his face gentles.
“Nothing more than I love where we’re going, Holly. If I have to get through a family dinner of a different sort to do it, so be it.” He opens his door. “Wait for me. One of the things you need to learn about me is that I help my girl out.”
My heart melts as I see him stride around the front of his Explorer.My girl.
There’s no way he didn’t understand the way those words affected me as I was in his arms kissing him the minute the door opened.
God, let this be right. Let this be what you meant for me to deserve.
Pulling away, Joe brushes his nose against mine before he grips my hand and tugs me toward the entrance of the school. “Come on. If we have time, I want to add you to the list of people authorized to pick up Grace.”
Right now, you couldn’t break the smile on my face even if I was confronted with the censure of the entire town over my relationship with this man.
48
Joseph
“You weren’t kidding when you said I’d be on the hot seat,” I whisper to Holly the next night.
She shakes her head slowly, not taking her narrowed eyes away from her brother.
Phil has been nothing but an unmitigated ass to me since Holly, Grace, and I came in thirty minutes ago. Unfortunately, he’s not alone. All of the Freeman spouses, fiancés, and Charlie—the man I met at the bar during the fund-raiser—are all engaged in a third degree that makes the exam I’m preparing for to make lieutenant a breeze.
There’s one thing I know for sure: Holly is loved and well protected.
Curled into my side, she goes to open her mouth, but I jostle her. Shaking my head, I murmur, “Let me handle it, sweetheart.”
“This is a bunch of macho bullshit crap,” she declares loud enough for everyone in the room to hear.
Phil takes her to task. “Hols, the children. Such language.”
She screams. Literally lets out a banshee cry and lurches from my arms to go after her brother. “You’re going to end tonight thinking the best thing that ever happened to you is Em spitting in your face,” she yells.
Phil laughs at her. “Please, like you didn’t expect this?”
“Some hazing to welcome him into the fold, yes. The complete and utter crap you’re throwing at him about why it took him so long to get his head out of his ass? No,” she declares.
Colby holds up his hands in mock surrender. “I’m out. If I keep on giving her man grief, Holly’s likely to withhold her banana pudding.”
“Smart man, Colby,” she returns. “You know I will.”
Keene and Caleb just laugh. Caleb says, “I’m particular about my kind of sweet.”
Keene gives him a look of disgust. “Seriously, that’s my sister you’re talking about.”
Phil tacks on, “And mine. For Christ’s sake.”
I turn to Holly. “I think you missed something in your rundown of the family before we came over. You forgot to mention Phil and Keene are biological brothers.”
There’s a deadly silence across the great room. Suddenly, the whole place erupts with screeching laughter. Cassidy and Ali are holding each other up even as they have their daughters wrapped around their legs begging to be lifted. Corinna flings the knife she was wielding across the counter and lays her head down into whatever she was chopping. Emily spews her drink right into Phil’s face—not that anyone but Phil seems to care. Caleb, Colby, and Jake are grinning while Keene shoots me a look filled with such filth I should need a shower to remove the dirt.
And Holly—my beautiful Holly—is doubled over with laughter.
It’s Charlie and Jason who explain.
“Actually, Keene is Cassidy’s biological brother,” Jason calmly explains. “Not Phil and Keene.”
