Page 72 of Trusting Fate (Hope Falls: Brewed Awakenings 2)

Grace shrugged. “I guess he didn’t want me to know.”

“Come on!” Viv set her wine glass down. “I know that you two are only playing house for the show. Admit it.”

Grace was trying to figure out why her sister would be bringing this up now. Sure, her sister was a skeptic, but she’d never said anything to Grace about it so why would she now.

The timing seemed odd…wait a minute. “Viv, is this theory of yours because I won’t tell you which house is mine?”

A coy smile lifted on her sister’s face. “I mean, if you tell me which house is yours, I’ll totally drop the fake relationship thing.”

“Blackmail? Really?”

“It’s not blackmail. Just tell me.”

Grace knew it was driving Viv crazy that she knew all the town gossip and she didn’t know which house Grace and Easton were working on, but they had to keep it a secret for the integrity of the show. Grace knew her sister would never come right out and tell anyone which house was theirs, but she would tell everyone she saw to vote for the A-frame.

“I signed an NDA. I can’t.”

“You’re not even a lawyer anymore,” Viv shot back.

“Yes, I am. And even if I wasn’t, that wouldn’t negate an NDA.”

Before Viv could push her any further, the door flew open and Blake came rushing up to her holding her phone out. “You have to see this, Aunt Grace!”

She loved that even though the teen had only been in their lives for about six months and Ava wasn’t even technically married to her dad, she’d embraced all the sisters as aunts.

Blake played the clip of her and Easton dancing and Viv was right, he did have skills. It didn’t surprise Grace. She’d found that there was a direct correlation between men dancing well and being good in bed. That’s not to say that men who couldn’t dance were bad in bed, but it was to say that every man she’d been with that could dance, could also move between the sheets.

“That’s amazing!” Grace smiled up at Easton as he walked in with Ava.

“Will you do one with me?” Blake asked Viv.

“Hell yeah I will,” her sister answered enthusiastically.

As happy as she was that Blake had accepted her sisters as aunts, she was equally as happy that she knew Viv was the one she should ask to do TikToks with. As her sister and Blake went off to plan their video, exhaustion washed over Grace as she walked over to sit on the couch. Ava sent Easton down to the basement with beers for him and Asher and then came and joined Grace on the couch.

“Have you guys set a date for the wedding?” Grace asked. She knew her sister wanted to do so soon, but the last she’d heard they hadn’t finalized when.

“Yes, actually.” Her sister’s face lit up. “We decided this morning. We’re going to get married on Valentine’s Day.”

“Awe, that’s sweet.”

Ava nodded. “Yeah, Asher and I were trying to pick a date while we were watching the Macy’s Day Parade this morning. And Blake, who we thought wasn’t even paying attention because she was on her phone, asked, ‘why don’t you just get married on Valentine’s Day? Then you’ll never forget your anniversary.’ Asher and I looked at each other and said okay. I don’t think either of us agreed because we were worried about forgetting the date of our wedding, I think we both did because we just wanted to set the date and that one seemed as good as any other.” Ava smiled and Grace could see that her sister was happy. Really, truly, happy. And Grace couldn’t be happier for her.

“Well, the next few weeks are going to be crazy but after that just let me know if you need any help planning or anything for the wedding.”

“I will, thanks.” Ava grinned but then her expression turned a little more serious as she picked the throw pillow up that was between them and shifted toward Grace. “Easton mentioned that you guys went to a shelter this morning.”

“Yeah, we did.” Grace wasn’t sure why her sister’s tone had changed to what she called her ‘therapy voice.’ It was supposed to be soothing, but it had always sort of creeped Grace out.

“He said you seemed quiet, and he was a little worried about you.”

Grace could tell that Easton had been keeping an extra watchful eye on her all day. She’d thought it was just because up until an hour ago they’d been with his family and he didn’t’ want her to be uncomfortable, especially since before his parents showed up, they hadn’t even planned on spending the holiday together. But once his mom found out that Grace was his “girlfriend” she’d just assumed that they would be together all day so she’d insisted Grace go to volunteer and then when she was going to leave to go to Ava’s, his mom had insisted Easton go with her.

Grace sighed. “While we were there I met a mom who had four daughters all under the age of seven.”

Ava stared at her for a moment. “Wow, that must have brought back memories.”

Grace shifted in her seat. “It did. Hey, do you remember going to food banks?”

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