Page 68 of Endlessly Yours
At least for now.
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
BROOKS
Sweat slicked down my back as I dug out the final post and set my shovel down so I could wipe away the dirt from my face.
I had spent all morning at the Austin site and now needed to fix this damn post for my fence because the heavy winds had knocked it out. It didn’t matter that I had settled the whole thing with cement and had even used metal poles as the stationary posts between the wooden slats. When heavy winds that were near tornado strength hit you in South Texas, a fence or even parts of roofs couldn’t last.
I needed to finish this up pretty quickly, so I could shower and get ready for the next phase of my plan.
A smile played on my lips, but I tried not to look too satisfied because I wasn’t the only one setting up this particular plan.
No, this time, I had help.
It was odd to think that I was sitting here, finishing up a few pieces of yard work on a home that I owned so I could kidnap the woman I was seriously falling for.
I paused, hand over my heart for an instant as I let those words sink in.
Amara had been the only woman I’d ever loved. And until the moment I had been forced to say goodbye, I thought she would be the only woman that I would ever love for the rest of my life. That hadn’t been the case in the end. And despite the promise I had made to her saying I would try again, I wouldn’t have thought I would have. And yet here I was, falling for Rory Thompson. She was secretive with her feelings, outgoing when she needed to be, and yet so scared about making mistakes where she could hurt those she loved that I couldn’t help but want to be the person that she leaned into through the worst of it.
I was head over heels for her and had been for longer than I cared to admit.
Maybe there had been a reason she had been the first one I had let myself be with. And the person who had haunted my dreams even though I thought I would never see her again.
Now there was no escaping her. Not that I wanted to escape her.
“Brooks! Are you ready?”
I turned to see Alice running towards me, a smile bright on her face, and I looked behind her, hoping that nobody else had heard. She dashed through the open gate between the two homes, and I smiled. “I’m getting there. I have to shower first, though. Are you guys all set?”
“Yep.” She looked over her shoulder and then tried to whisper, though it came out more of a shout.
“Ava and Faith are going to be over soon to watch us. And that means you can kidnap Aunt Rory.”
My lips twitched. “That sounds like our plan. Is Cameron distracting her?” I asked, enjoying the fact that the girls were helping me with this.
I had been right before in which I had told Rory that we hadn’t actually been out often. For two people who spent most nights together and were slowly figuring out the way that our lives could work, no matter what happened in the future, we didn’t spend much time alone outside of our homes.
So tonight, I was going to try to make that happen.
Even if it felt as though I didn’t know what I was doing completely.
“Okay, you go make sure that Cameron is distracting your aunt, and then I will finish this up before I shower so I can take your aunt out. What do you think?”
“I think that’s okay.” She pouted her lips and tapped them with her pointer finger as if she were thinking hard. I did my best not to smile because the kid was too damn cute.
“Why are you fixing your fence now?” she asked softly.
Always inquisitive, I went back to work as I answered. “Because we’re getting another windstorm over the next week, as well as possible dry lightning. So I want to make sure that there’s nothing out here that could potentially hurt somebody in case the wind does pick up. I’m almost done, and then I will get ready. Tomorrow, I’ll finish prepping the rest of the yard and land around us, just in case.”
“What’s dry lightning, and just in case of what?”
“Dry lightning is when there’s a lightning storm without rain around here. Because we live near a lot of brush that could catch fire, we have to be careful. A lot of this area isn’t developed, which is good for us, but we also want to make sure that the wildlife is safe, and if something does catch fire, it can’t hurt us.”
“I don’t like that. It’s scary.”
“It’s why I am spending a lot of time making sure that we prepare and keep the area safe. It’s okay, Alice. We’ve got this.” I reached out and wiped a spare fleck of dirt off her face, only leaving more clay behind.
