Page 24 of Endlessly Yours
I was now the single Wilder, not married, and I was fine with that.
I forced myself not to look over at Rory.
“Brooks?”
I turned towards Ridge and nodded. “I’m in. Flag football, right? No tackling?”
“We’re way too fucking old to tackle,” my eldest cousin said as Eli came over, Alexis at his side. That meant Rory and Ava were now talking, but this time with a stranger I didn’t recognize.
I glared over at the tall man with longish hair, a big beard, and broad shoulders.
He was tall enough that when he spoke to Rory, he had to hover a bit, angling his shoulders downward so he could hear her. The action made him look as if he were in a possessive hold with her, and I didn’t like it.
I held back a frown, wondering why the hell jealousy even had a foothold in me, but I didn’t care right then.
Because fuck this. Who was that man, and why the hell was he talking to Rory?
“Oh, that’s Callum,” Ridge said, studying my face. “You know, Gabriel’s brother-in-law?”
“Oh,” I remembered now. I’d seen the man here before, and come to think of it, he had been flirting with Rory then, too. Well, fuck this guy.
“Gabriel isn’t here, why is he?”
“Remember? He and I are going to go to a few of those local breweries and distilleries to do some cross-promotion and work on some ideas? He owns that small microbrewery up in Colorado.” Wyatt studied my face, a frown etching his. “You okay?”
I shook off whatever the hell I was feeling, “Oh, I thought he would be here to visit Maisie.”
“Gabriel and Maisie will be here by the end of the week, so it all works out,” Ridge said pointedly. “Are you okay, bro?”
“I’m fine. Just wondering why he was here if his sister wasn’t. Not my business. I guess we’re going to go play ball now?”
“I guess we are,” Wyatt said, drawing out the words.
I flipped him off, grateful the kids weren’t here. In fact, all of them, including Cameron and Alice, were with some of the other Wilders, having a kids’ play day.
More power to all of them for dealing with Cameron. While I knew the girl was breaking inside, and most likely a former ghost of herself, I could hear her screaming at Rory constantly. It took all within me not to rush over to the house next door and try to fix whatever the hell was going on.
Nobody deserved to be yelled at the way Rory was. Cameron had so much spite in her, but I knew it was all because of hurt.
But Rory was hurting right along with her. As was Alice. But that little tyke was freaking adorable. She had walked right up to me and asked if I was a Wilder because I apparently had the look of them, in her words. And I had indeed needed to explain the concept of stranger danger before I had carried her back over to Rory.
Even though the kid was seven years old, she had been small enough to practically fit solidly on my hip, as if she had always been there.
I had always wanted kids. It had been in the plans for me and Amara. But then she hadn’t been able to get pregnant right away, and when we’d finally figured out why, it had been too late.
Now that path was never going to be mine, and I understood it.
I wasn’t going to be a father like the rest of my family was on the verge of becoming. Then again, Rory hadn’t been a mother up until a month ago. And now she was an aunt, trying to figure out how to deal with one screaming child and one who looked on the verge of breaking down because she was trying to be so calm and collected.
Or maybe I was just looking too far into it.
I shook off the odd feeling as a few of my crew members, both from the current job sites and the expansion, joined in. Not all of the Wilder men were playing because indeed we were getting older. And even though it was flag football, we were probably going to end up tackling each other. It’s what we did.
Kendall, my cousin-in-law, came over and grinned, “Am I allowed to play?” she asked.
“Hell no,” Evan, her husband, said as he smacked her ass before kissing her hard on the mouth. “You can tackle me later.”
Kendall rolled her eyes. “I brought food because apparently that’s all I’m good for.”
