Page 14 of Endlessly Yours
“And I can do some home repairs, but not a lot. And that’s why being a homeowner scares me.”
“And your landlord should be doing more then.”
My phone buzzed again, and I looked down at the readout, not recognizing the number but it didn’t say spam, so maybe it was something important. I constantly had phone calls from publishers and other places that I worked with, including printers.
“Go ahead and take that. I’ve got this.”
His gaze caught mine again, and so I wrenched my attention away and answered.
“Hello.”
“Is this Rory Thompson?” a deep voice asked, and I frowned.
“This is. How can I help you?”
“Ms. Thompson, this is the Franklin Police Department, and I regret to?—”
I knew he was saying more words. Knew there was something important to be explained.
But my knees went out from beneath me, and then Brooks was there, holding me up as my world ended, and I told myself I couldn’t break. Not again.
CHAPTER THREE
BROOKS
I had moved to be closer to my family, and I had done it knowing full well I would be spending more time with people than without. Right after Amara had died, I had buried myself in work and tried to ensure to the world—including my parents and brothers—that I could handle being alone. That while grieving, I wasn’t going to go off the deep end. I’d only had one bad night of drinking, and of course, look how that had ended.
So when I had been summoned to a family meeting, I wasn’t surprised that while you could beg off if you wanted to, there had been enough urgency in the tone that I was now sitting here in my cousin Eli’s larger-than-life home that I had helped him build, wondering how I had made this my problem.
“There’s so much paperwork for her to deal with, and she’s not letting me help at all. And I know that Rory can do this on her own. I know she says that, at least, but we all know that there’s going to be a thousand little things that need to be done,” Ava rambled as she paced in front of us.
Most of the Wilders had come through here to try to figure out how to help Rory out of an impossible situation.
When Rory had nearly collapsed in my arms at that phone call, she had tried to push me away, but I had ignored her. Instead, I had held her up by her elbow as she steeled herself and listened to what had turned out to be the authorities on the other end of the line.
“So her brother-in-law was flying the plane, and it just went down?” Aurora asked as she slid her hand into my brother Ridge’s grip.
“That’s what the guy said,” I grumbled, trying not to picture exactly what had washed over Rory’s face when she had heard the news that her sister and brother-in-law had died in a small plane crash, leaving behind two little girls, a mountain of debt thanks to different state laws, and a group of people who did not want to relinquish rights to anything Beth and Nolan might have left that had value.
I didn’t know Rory’s family, and I didn’t want to know them. All I knew from hearsay at this point was that Rory and her sister hadn’t gotten along recently, and she hadn’t seen her nieces in years.
Hell, from what it looked like, the rest of my family knew more about Rory than I had. But that was understandable. I had done my best to ignore everything about her for long enough. So the only thing that I knew was what she tasted like, and the fact that she drew pictures for a living.
I tried my best not to know anything else.
I was seriously an asshole.
“Yes, apparently her brother-in-law Nolan was flying and had a pilot’s license. The two of them were going to some other retreat as part of their group.” Ava shivered. “Honestly, from the way that Rory explained the group, it sounds more like a cult than a community, but her sister and brother-in-law were higher up in the community’s power structure and were able to borrow the company plane. It was engine failure, and the authorities don’t think it was tampered with. It was just bad luck.”
“I hate the idea that that would be bad luck,” Wyatt grumbled.
Of my brothers, Ridge and Wyatt had been able to come, Gabriel and Briar were out on tour again with his band.
My cousins Eli, Evan, and Elijah were here. Everett and his wife were out in L.A. at their house there, while East and Elliott and their spouses were keeping the retreat running while we could have this meeting. I still didn’t know why exactly I had been invited, but since I had been the one to call Ava when Rory hadn’t, I guess I was part of this.
Even though I wanted nothing to do with it.
“And she doesn’t have any other family?” Aurora asked, wiping away tears. “That’s so terrible.”
