Page 70 of Heart Set on You

“Of course. This is Lainey and my brother’s name is Noah. I’m the oldest so I know the most. My brain…” she says, tapping her skull with her tiny pointer finger, “is full of things.”

The kid is fucking adorable.

“Okay you three, I’m going to need you to take the dog outside,” a woman who must be Rylee’s sister-in-law says.

“I’m Cara and this is my husband Cole, Rylee’s oldest brother. We’ve heard so much about you. It’s a pleasure to finally meet you,” she says, holding out her hand.

“It’s good to meet you,” Cole says next, giving me the older brother once-over. “Let’s get a beer and chat on the porch?”

“Sure. Let’s do it,” I answer.

“You be nice to him, Cole,” Gran hollers from somewhere in the kitchen. “Leave him alone.”

“Should I be worried?” I whisper in Rylee’s ear.

“He shouldn’t give it to ya too bad.” She winks.

I follow Cole into the kitchen, where he grabs two cans of beer from the fridge. He hands one to me and we head out to the porch. I take the chair next to Cole’s and we sit in silence for a moment, both taking a swig from our beers. Wiping his mouth with the back of his hand, he eyes me as he sets the can on the arm of his chair.

“It’s good to finally meet you, man. You have a beautiful family,” I say, popping the tab on my beer.

“Thanks. Some days it feels like I’m living in a frat house, but I wouldn’t trade it for the world. They’re good kids.”

“I don’t have any experience, but my brother is having a baby in the fall.”

“So, you’re going to be an uncle.”

I smile. “Yeah, I’m going to be the best damn uncle. I can’t wait.”

He laughs, then takes another sip from his beer. We make small talk, chatting about my family, his auto repair shop. We have more in common than one might think – both from small towns, both very close with our families, both big into baseball.

Then the tougher questions come. “You met my sister on set?”

“I did. I, um… saw her from across the room and I know this is going to sound crazy, but I just felt like I needed to know who she was. To know her name. There was something about her.”

She’s been making my heart crazy ever since.

“You really like her, huh?”

“I do.”

“I can tell you make her happy,” Cole says. “She hasn’t stopped smiling since I’ve been here. And there’s nothing I want more than for my sister to be happy. But I’ll be honest with you… I have my concerns. She’s moving back home. I have mixed feelings about that, which Rylee knows, but she’s stubborn. So what will happen then? Have you two talked about that?”

“We have. It won’t be easy, but we don’t want to stop seeing each other. I don’t think I could if I tried,” I say, looking him dead in the eye. “So I’ll visit when I can. We’ll take it one day at a time.”

“You think you can do the long-distance thing? That sounds tough.”

I frown. “I’m willing to try. I don’t know what else to do. She wants to be here. It’s important to her.”

“Yeah, it is. She always puts herself second to others. It’s just the way that she’s wired.”

This could be going a lot worse. Cole is level-headed and understanding and it seems like he genuinely wants to get to know me. I completely understand his concern for his sister, I feel the same way about Jules.

“I’ll miss her,” I say, trying to ignore the sadness squeezing at my chest at the thought of not seeing Rylee every day.

He’s quiet for a second and it makes me wonder what he’s thinking.

“I’m always on her side, and I’ll always be here to support her. I hope you two can find a way to work it out. Just be careful with her heart. She’s been through enough.”

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