Chapter Eighteen #3
“Hi, Aunt Bree.” Gabby gave Bree a hug. “Where’s Tess? She could have come to Dad’s birthday dinner. Maybe she’d even have brought one of those dope chocolate cakes, so we’d have a choice besides the lemon one that Mom made him.”
Bree inhaled and centered herself. She’d expected that she wouldn’t get off without Tess coming up for discussion tonight, and she realized that it would have been fun to have her here.
Tess just kept growing on her. She was so comfortable with Tess, and she didn’t just find her attractive.
Bree was attracted to her—there was a difference. Very attracted.
“So, you’re still planning on whale watching together, right?” Gabby asked.
“Yup, thanks to your play, Tess has a prize to redeem, and she asked me to help her out,” Bree replied.
“We’d hate to have her win a coveted raffle prize and not redeem it,” Rachelle dryly remarked. “So you’re saying that you’re just helping her out so that it doesn’t go to waste?”
Hank threw Rachelle a gaze. “Never say my little sister isn’t a Good Samaritan.” They all laughed.
“No ganging up on me,” Bree said.
“I like Tess,” Gabby declared. “She’s sophisticated.
Classy. Sort of uptight until she relaxes, but she’s actually pretty nice.
” Bree couldn’t disagree with Gabby’s assessment.
Then Gabby continued. “I might not have guessed it, but when I see you with her, it works. For both of you. And you both need a love life.”
“Can’t argue with that,” Rachelle muttered.
“Tess really fit in at the barbecue. You looked really comfortable with her. I get why you dumped Aunt Cora, but Tess is completely different,” Gabby said.
“That’s enough, Gabby. Bree’s love life is hers to decide,” Hank said.
“It’s complicated.” Bree shook her head.
“Adults.” Gabby clucked her tongue before heading out of the kitchen.
Hank gave Bree a questioning look. “Tess is a bit reserved until she warms up to you, but once she does that, it becomes pretty obvious that there’s a whole lot that she’s trying to keep hidden. There’s a whole lot to her, in a very good way.”
Bree nodded. “I’m not disagreeing with you. But there’s way more involved with this than I can tell you right now.” And so much more than I can tell her too.
“Probably not my business, but that never stopped me from trying to make it my business before. Do you see a resolution?” Hank asked.
“Now I know where Gabby got the busybody gene,” Bree replied.
“Certainly not from me.” Rachelle smiled and pointed at herself.
“Can we just get on with the birthday celebration and leave my love life alone?”
“Well, if you’re willing to call it a love life, we can leave it at that,” Hank said.
Bree put her head in her hands and dramatically shook it back and forth in an exaggerated show of false pique. “And to think I moved from LA to be closer to family.”
She chuckled, but that chuckle masked all the anxiety she was feeling. She’d moved north to leave her failed love life behind. And now she was worried that she could end up with failure on her hands with Tess. Hurting Tess would hurt her too. Really hurt.
“You know I never expected this to happen in my personal life right now—Tess—and I’ve been afraid that I’m not in the right place in my life for it. But I also wonder what I’ll miss if I push her away because I decide that I’m not ready.”
“Hey, sis. I get it. And you don’t have to tell me, but I know there’s something more going on. I just want you to know we’re here for you whenever you need us.”
Rachelle lightly touched Bree’s shoulder and tilted her head in agreement with Hank, and Bree knew why she’d moved closer to family.
“When I blow out my candles, I’m going to make a wish,” Hank said. “I have everything I want in my life, so I’m going to snuff out those candles with the wish that you end up happy, whatever that looks like.”
“And I’ve heard that the chance of the wish coming true is proportional to the number of candles, so you stand a really good chance with the amount of fire on Hank’s cake.” Rachelle winked at Hank.
“Yup, everything I want,” he repeated.
“Thanks, Hank.” Bree was pleased for her brother. She’d like to be able to say that too. “I don’t think that you’re supposed to tell us what your wish is.”
Hank smiled. “Blame it on that Gabby gene. Can’t keep my mouth shut.”
That evoked an exchanged look of agreement between her and Rachelle.
“Well, I hate to admit it, but you’re the best older brother I could ask for. Did I mention older? So much older.”
TP wandered into the kitchen and meowed loudly as he sideswiped Bree’s lower legs while giving Rachelle the long lingering look of imminent demise due to lack of food.
“The Purrfessor says it’s dinner time,” Rachelle said. “And he’s right. So let me set his food down, you call Gabby to come back downstairs, and we’ll get this birthday dinner underway.”
It wasn’t everything she wanted, but Bree knew she’d made the right decision when she’d moved closer to family. Then her thoughts drifted back to Hank’s birthday wish. If only it would come true, that she’d end up happy, whatever that looked like. And that Tess would too.