Page 72 of Caught Up In You (The Monroes 2)

Braxton rolled his eyes. “I wouldn’t fall off the damn ladder.”

“If you two are done, some of us are actually working,” Liam growled.

Zach reached for the door. “You gonna stab me with your little knife?”

“Don’t tempt me.” Liam glanced to Braxton. “You leaving?”

With a laugh, Braxton nodded. “Yeah. I’m going. You seem happiest when you’re baking and I don’t want to be the reason these cupcakes don’t turn out. Sophie would kill all of us.”

Braxton followed Zach out the back door. Before Braxton could reach his SUV, Zach turned and held up a hand to stop him.

“I need to get this off my chest.”

Braxton blew out a breath and crossed his arms. “Cora.”

Nodding, Zach shifted his stance wider. “How serious are you?”

So serious he could still feel her when she wasn’t with him. “Pretty serious.”

Zach adjusted his hat and stared out toward the pond for a minute before looking back. “You were serious about Anna.”

The words could’ve been a jab, but the tone in Zach’s voice was too soft, too caring . . . a rare thing for Zach to be concerned, so Braxton didn’t reply with sarcasm.

“Anna was nothing compared to this.”

Zach’s eyes widened as he took a step back. “Okay, then. I didn’t expect you to be that deep with her.”

“Yeah. I didn’t expect it either.” Braxton rubbed the back of his neck. “She’s different and I have no clue what’s going to happen, but I won’t let it cause a problem with the resort.”

“I know you won’t,” Zach replied. “Just make sure you don’t get your heart handed back to you like last time. I don’t want to see you go through that again.”

Braxton smiled. “It’s like you really care.”

“Hell,” Zach muttered, throwing his hands up in the air. “I knew you couldn’t go two minutes without being snarky. Yes, I care, just because I’m not all hugs and smiles all the damn time. Now get out of here.”

Braxton gave his brother the one-arm man hug and slapped his back. “Love you, too.”

He was still smiling when he slid behind the wheel of his car, but the smile died when his phone rang and Anna’s number lit up the screen.

Placing the phone in the console, he ignored the ring, same as the other times. Anna was in his past and whatever she wanted now was no concern of his. He had a future he was looking forward to and a woman who filled him with such happiness and a sense of perfection, he never wanted to look back. So he wouldn’t.

He didn’t even think twice as he drove to the tree farm. It was time to see that smile of Cora’s once again.

* * *

Cora jumped when she heard heavy boots on the porch. Heidi let out a sharp bark, swishing her tail against Cora’s leg. She wasn’t expecting Braxton, but she didn’t know anyone else who’d show up on her doorstep.

When he knocked, Cora pushed away from the computer and padded barefoot to the door.

“It’s me,” he called. “I have a surprise.”

Laughing, she flicked the lock and pulled open the door, his last “surprise” banging against the window panel. The wreath was actually so sweet and she still smiled when she thought of him picking it out for her.

“Another surprise?” she asked.

“Can you hold the door open? And have Heidi stand back, I don’t want to step on her. I can’t see very well in front of me.”

Confused, Cora pulled the door open wider. “What on earth are you doing?”

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