Page 80 of Endlessly Yours
“Never do that again,” Alice yelled, and I wanted to laugh, but instead, I tightened my hold as my in-laws watched on, and Wyatt had his arms around Ava and Faith, gesturing to the fire department for where to come and put out any additional flames.
Soot made me cough, and my arm hurt like a bitch, but I kept my attention on the three women who had taken over my life and tried not to pass out.
Later, with my arm bandaged and my feet up on the coffee table, I watched from afar as Erin and Bo worked with Ava and the rest of my family, who had all come en force to my house, work on dinner.
Alice slept at the corner of the couch, one of my blankets over her, as Cameron played with her hair while the little girl slept.
And I sat with Rory leaning into me, my life sitting on this couch.
“I was scared, but I knew you’d come. Probably silly, but maybe not.”
“I was always going to find you. That much I can promise you. I love you, Rory. I was just trying to figure out how to tell you. Next time, let’s not let a fire do that.”
“Deal. Because I love you too.”
“Does this mean you’re my Uncle Brooks now?” Cameron asked, her eyes puffy, but that smirk on her face told me she was trying to be brave.
“If that’s what you like. But that does mean you have to listen to me when I tell you to do things.”
“Fine,” she said with a smile and a roll of her eyes, and she went back to braiding Alice’s hair.
And I sat there with Rory in my arms, grateful that she had come to the Retreat that day and I had seen her, knowing my life would be changed forever.
I just had never realized how much it would change.
Because I had been given a second chance, a chance to grow with this family of our own making.
And I knew some of the hardest days might be in front of us, but I wasn’t going to take this for granted, not again.
I smiled over at my in-laws, who smiled back softly, each of them working on a different part of our dinner prep, and I figured that I was a very grateful man.
Then I looked up to the ceiling and closed my eyes, saying thank you to the woman who had made me promise something I never thought I would actually achieve.
Because grief really changed in every instant of breath and movement and time passing.
And your heart could grow over time. There wasn’t space for merely one person. Instead it grew as you did, changed as you did. Because I loved Rory. And I would always love her. And in a way, the first woman I had ever loved had found a way to gift me the woman I loved now.
And maybe others wouldn’t understand, but I didn’t care.
Because I wasn’t going to take this for granted. Not again. Not ever.
“So does this mean you’re actually going to take a day off and heal?” Rory asked.
“Maybe,” I said.
“Yes, he will,” my eldest brother said, and I just nodded, knowing that the Wilders didn’t back down easily.
I may have been the first Wilder to settle down, but now I was the final one to start over.
And that meant I was the final one to figure out exactly where it had all gone wrong and where it should have gone right.
And that meant I was never letting Rory go.
No matter how hard we had tried to ignore what had been there all along.
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
BROOKS
