Page 56 of Brooke's Bliss
This was so not what she’d expected, but she had to go withit.All she could think about was how Gemma had found herself when she let go,when she lost the world she thought she wanted and found a place to call home.
“How did your brothers make it work?”Shane asked.“I canimagine it would be hard to survive.They were kids and you were practically ababy.”
He wasn’t exactly wrong.She’d been so young, and she’dclung to them.Instead of resenting her, they’d changed their lives so theycould keep her with them.“Rye took a job as a deputy, and Max did odd jobswhile trying to keep the business running.He’d worked as a trainer for yearsby that time, but our dad had never taught him how to keep the books.”
“Who did?”Bay shook his head.“I bet it was Stella.”
“Marie,” Brooke replied.When she thought about it, raisingher had been a town project.“Stella came out a couple of times a week withfood, and she would clean and teach us how to run a house.She would make sureI had everything I needed.Since my dad wasn’t dead, CPS assumed he was takingcare of me.The whole town got together and pitched in.The man who was ourmayor for a long time was basically my grandfather, though we didn’t share anounce of blood.He taught me how to fish and took me and some of the other kidscamping.He came to all my school events and cheered at my volleyball games.For the first couple of years, Mel posed as my father.That was fun.Then oneof my teachers turned out to be from a planetary system we’re at war with.Thatwas when CPS got called in but…” She grimaced.“Stef took care of it.Damn it.I want to stay mad at him.”
But it was hard when her body felt so good, when her soulfelt oddly at peace.
Something about a naked picnic did it for her.
Or it was about the men she was with.
Either way, she didn’t want to wreck it by being angry.
Shane’s expression went soft.“You don’t have to be mad atanyone.I want you to know that we’re on your side and we’ll stand by you.Youwant us to fuck with someone, we can do it.”
Bay kept up his stroking, seeming to enjoy lying around on ablanket in the middle of a stage with her.“I’m going to explain to him thatthe show is off.I’m not working with someone who doesn’t respect my… Whodoesn’t respect you.”
She looked up at him.She knew it should be weird becausehis dick was right there, but it felt oddly normal to be like this with them.“I’m their kid sister.They put a lot into me.And I’m not merely talking aboutMax and Rye.Stef and Callie, too.Stella and Mel and Hiram and Teeny andMarie.Logan was practically my brother growing up.You know he calls me atleast once a week to see if I’ll have lunch with him or come to dinner with hisfamily, and I always turn him down.”
“Why?”Shane asked.“You live in the same city.”
She huffed out a laugh.“No, I lived in an apartment thatbarely qualifies as a two bedroom, and Logan lives in a penthouse on the UpperEast Side.We were in two different worlds.Logan is going to have a thrivingpractice when he graduates.I don’t have a job or an apartment anymore.”
“I don’t understand why that means you shouldn’t spend timewith a guy you grew up with,” Shane replied quietly.“Look, Brooke, I grew upwith a woman who constantly told me what a failure I was.”
Again, not the same.“You were a kid.I’m a whole, grown-assadult who had everything she could want handed to her.”
“I don’t know about that.I think you probably would haveliked to have a dad who loved you, a mom who lived,” Bay pointed out.
“I had my brothers,” she said with a sigh.
“That doesn’t give them a pass to spy on you and make youfeel small,” Shane replied with quiet surety.“Even if they gave youeverything.”He frowned for a moment.“Baby, are you worried they’re going tobe disappointed in you?”
She sniffled and found herself being dragged into Shane’sarms.He tugged her until she was sitting on his lap, his arms wrapped aroundher.“How can they not be?My degree wasn’t cheap, and they didn’t have to payfor it.”
“Of course they did.You’re their sister.”Bay shifted so hecould lean against her back.
She loved how warm she felt when she was caught betweenthem.Safe.She felt safe with them and that wasn’t what she was supposed to belooking for.Especially not when she would have to leave them.But she wasn’tthinking about that now.“They could have easily turned me over to Teeny andMarie.I know they offered to take me in.Marie went so far as to look for abigger cabin.Stella said I could live with her.My brothers wouldn’t hear ofit.There was a whole town hall and everything.I remember Logan and I sittingtogether playing Uno and drinking root beer.There was popcorn, too.And Ryestood up and said if anyone tried to take his sister away, he would leave thetown and never look back.Max said he would go, too.He would leave everythinghe knew behind so we could stay together as a family, and I yelled at him thismorning.”
Shane held her tighter.“Baby, families fight.At least Ithink they do.I think part of what makes a good family is being able todisagree and still love each other.No one’s perfect.I think that phrase wasinvented for Max.”
She could feel Bay shrug behind her.“Max is obnoxious, buthe’s actually reasonable.Rye seems reasonable, but he’s a hard-ass.She’s waymore worried about what Rye thinks.Max is fine as long as the people he lovesare happy and someone gives him bacon his wife doesn’t know about.Rye istrickier.He’ll hide what he feels.I’ve always known we can handle Max.It’sRye who might take real offense to us dating his sister.”
“Rye is a sweetheart,” she countered.
“Rye wants you to think that.Believe me.I know how siblingrelationships work.Especially when you have to bond the way me and Shane did.I know for your brothers it’s in their DNA, but Shane and I had to do somethingsimilar in order to survive our childhood.”
“You would have been fine without me,” Shane insisted.
“No, I wouldn’t, and you know it.You think I don’t know allthe things you’ve done for me over the years, but you’re wrong.I don’t thinkthe way other people think.My brain is always running, but not on the everydaythings,” Bay admitted.
“Because you’re an artist.”Brooke turned so she could gether hands on Bay, too.
“Or maybe I’m an artist because I can’t be anything else.Maybe my brain is why I have to do these things,” Bay replied.
