Page 64 of Endlessly Yours
She sighed. “I mean, yes. We need to figure out what the team colors are and everything. I want to know more.”
“We can make that happen,” I said, my heart beating quickly in my chest. Because Cameron was interested in something other than glaring at me. The day was a miracle of all miracles. My family was safe, and Cameron was looking at something for the future. And Brooks was underneath my roof.
My heart raced a little bit more at that.
“Okay, so who is our team?”
“Well, I’m in Austin more often than not, and tickets are a little easier to get.”
I glared at him. “I don’t know if tickets are in our budget,” I whispered.
“Not season tickets,” he said with a shake of his head. “But you know, a couple of tickets for me and my brothers.”
Cameron gave him a look, and he grinned. “And maybe as rewards for good behavior, doing your chores, getting grades that make you proud, or I don’t know because it’s a day that ends in Y.”
I wanted to glare at him, but I couldn’t. I just looked at the way that he made Cameron smile, and I couldn’t help but smile the same. The damn Wilder men were dangerous.
I looked at my phone, and my eyes widened. “Okay, I didn’t realize how late it was.”
“It took us a little while to get home from the Wilder Retreat,” he said softly.
Yes, because everybody had needed to make sure that Alice was okay, and then, of course, an actual wedding had to take place. The bride and groom hadn’t been aware that a little girl had been lost for twenty minutes and that my world had nearly ended once again.
“Well, I like the team colors. Because I like purple.”
“Purple’s nice. And I like the team colors too,” Cameron said shyly.
“Good. I guess we’ll have to do our research. I only know football, a little bit of hockey, and women’s rugby,” he said with a grin.
“Should I ask about the women’s rugby?” I asked dryly.
“You know exactly why we know about women’s rugby,” he added just as dry.
I snorted before I pulled myself off the couch, and we went to tuck the girls in. Brooks read another story as I held Cameron close, and she didn’t pull away this time. And it started to feel like a routine.
That scared me a bit, though, because Brooks and I definitely hadn’t discussed anything like a routine. Because if he needed to back away because it was too hard or something he didn’t want, he wasn’t just going to break my heart. He was going to hurt these two little girls that I loved more than anything.
So maybe we needed to have that big talk. But not right now.
Not at this moment.
As we found ourselves in my bedroom soon after with the door closed, I sank on the edge of the bed and rolled my shoulders back. I looked down at my hands and sighed. No matter how many times I had washed them today, there was still dirt under my fingernails, and I probably needed that same shower that Alice had taken. Because I had run down that embankment just like Brooks had, clinging to my family.
“I can’t believe I lost her,” I said after a moment.
Brooks had sat down in the reading chair in the corner, taking off his boots. “We all had an eye on her, and she knew better than to run out into the field like that.”
“She’s just a little kid. And she got scared and hurt because of something that those other kids said. I sometimes forget how cruel kids can be.”
“You live with Cameron and the way she speaks with you. I don’t think you can truly forget.”
I winced. “I don’t know how to fix that. I don’t know if it’s because she sees her mother in me or that she’s so angry she needs to lash out. I’m just sick over it.”
“I think it’s a bit of both,” Brooks said as he came forward. He cupped my cheek and ran his thumb over my lips.
“Let’s go downstairs, watch a movie, have some Wilder Wine, and just relax, okay?”
I bit my lip and nodded, knowing we just needed a moment. While I wanted to get into bed and let myself forget while being in his arms, we didn’t actually get to spend too much time alone. Funny, for a man that I couldn’t get enough of, sometimes we didn’t have time to just sit and talk without the girls or his family around.
