16. Brooks
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
Brooks
The doorbell ringing has Evelyn darting off the stool where she’s standing beside me at the island in the kitchen.
“I got it,” she shouts, sprinting to the door before any of us can attempt to get there first.
From my spot in the kitchen, I can see Hadley the moment Evelyn swings open the door.
She’s now wearing a white T-shirt and jeans with expertly placed holes that make me want to see all of her that’s hidden beneath the denim. Her hair is pulled up into a messy bun with loose pieces hanging around her face.
The two girls talk excitedly until they reach the kitchen. “Hey,” Hadley says, locking eyes with me across the large island.
“Hey,” I say, grabbing a bell pepper to chop up next for our salad. “Are you going to help me, or do I need to find a new sous chef?” I ask Evelyn.
“Oh, right.” She runs over, stepping up onto her stool. She uses one of her kid knives to keep chopping up a cucumber.
“Sorry, it took me a few minutes. I had to run home and check on my mom, and I figured I should get out of my clothes that were covered in cat hair,” Hadley says, setting her purse down on the counter.
I hold up my hand. “Hadley, you’re fine. We’re just happy to have you here.”
“Yeah, so happy,” Evelyn says, dropping her cucumber pieces into the big bowl.
“Can I help with anything?” Hadley offers.
I point to the cabinet where the plates are and the drawer with the silverware. “You can set the table if you want.”
“We need five plates. Four grown-ups and one me, so four plus one that’s five,” Evelyn says, holding up her fingers.
Hadley and I glance at each other, trying not to laugh. “You got it. Five it is,” she tells her.
She moves about setting the table while I get the pasta in the boiling water and stir the sauce. Her smaller frame steps in beside me at the stove.
I switch the spoon from my right hand to my left, so I can wrap my arm around her shoulders.
“Anything else I can do?” she asks, looking up at me with her gorgeous brown eyes.
There are a million things I want to tell her—some of them appropriate with Evelyn right behind us, others not so much.
“You and Evelyn can get the salad on the table. There’s a bunch of dressings in the fridge.”
The back door slides open as she steps away. I hear Conrad and Austin walk in, followed by Nova. She sniffs around the kitchen, pausing when she gets to Hadley.
Hadley crouches down in front of the old chocolate lab.
“Your name’s Nova, right?” She gently pets Nova’s head as she continues to smell her. “I know I probably smell like a bunch of other animals. I’m sorry, girl.”
Nova nuzzles her face into Hadley’s hand, so Hadley gives her more scratches down her back.
“You better be careful with that,” Austin says. “She’s never going to let you stop.”
“That’s okay. I like her,” Hadley says, standing up, staring right at Austin. Their eyes stay locked on one another, but neither says anything else.
Con helps me get the rest of the food on the table. Evelyn insists Hadley sit next to her, and Nova curls up on the floor between the two girls.
Evelyn dominates most of the conversation through dinner, talking about the jazz routine she’s learning for dance class and what they’re doing in school.
When the rest of us finish our food, Evelyn still has a mostly full plate.
“Evelyn, let someone else talk for a minute. You focus on finishing your dinner,” Austin tells her gently.
She huffs but goes about chowing down on the rest of her food.
“Did you like living in New York?” Austin asks Hadley.
“You lived in New York?” Evelyn manages through a mouthful of spaghetti.
“I did,” Hadley tells her. Her eyes move over to Austin. “Yes and no, I guess. I don’t think I realized how little I was living until everything exploded and I ran away.”
“What do you mean?” Con asks, from my side.
“You know I got laid off and broke up with the cheater all in the same day, but even before that, I wasn’t happy. I was just going through the motions.”
“What about now?” I ask.
She takes a moment, her eyes softening as she glances around the table. “I think I’m starting to find things that make me happy again,” she says with a smile.
“Done,” Evelyn says, holding up her empty plate. “Can we go outside now?”
“It’s all ready, so after we get dinner cleaned up, we can head out,” Con says.
Together, we quickly get it all cleaned up, and it feels so normal to have Hadley here for something as mundane.
I wish she was here for every meal.
I retrieve one of my hoodies from the back of the couch before grabbing her hand and pulling her toward the backyard.
“Come on, Trouble. We have a surprise for you.”
“Surprise?” she asks, stepping out onto the back deck. “Wow, it’s gorgeous out here.”
We chose this house a little way outside of town because it has a huge sloping backyard with a killer view of the mountains.
We lead her down the stairs toward the fire pit. The guys set up everything out here while I was making dinner with Evelyn.
“Are we going to have a campfire?” she asks excitedly. “Oooh… and s’mores?” she adds, eying the spread they set out on a folding table.
“That's the plan.”
“I haven’t had a s’more in forever.”
“I’m sure you haven’t, city girl.”
“I’m not a city girl,” she retorts, pulling her hand from mine.
“Maybe not anymore.”
She takes a deep breath. “I never was. I was just somewhere I thought would give me a big life, but I’m realizing you don’t need a big city to do that.”
I hold out the hoodie toward her. “Even with the fire, it’s going to get chilly out here.”
She gets a smirk on her face that I don’t quite understand before sliding it over her head. It’s way too big for her, but damn if she doesn’t look good in it.
If only she was wearing only that right now.
With the kindling in hand, I start the fire and glance over at Hadley. She’s settled into one of the chairs, and she has the collar of my hoodie pulled up to her nose like she’s smelling it.
I crouch down beside her. “I’m not getting that hoodie back, am I?”
She hesitates but shakes her head.
I chuckle. “And Austin isn’t getting his shirt back either, is he?”
“Nope. I’ve already slept in it, so…”
My eyes pop wide. “Are you going to sleep in that tonight?” I gesture toward my hoodie she’s wearing.
“Maybe,” she says with a wink. A fucking wink.
Evelyn takes that moment to make her presence known as she sprints to her swing set on the other side of the yard. Knowing her, she wants to get her last minutes of playing in before the sun goes down, and she has to hang with us by the fire.
Con and Austin join us, taking the seats on either side of Hadley. Nova lies down at her feet.
“She likes you,” Austin says.
“Well, I like her.” She leans down, rubbing her head until Nova rests against Hadley’s feet.
“She doesn’t usually like women very much,” Con says.
“I guess I’m special, then.”
She’s more than special. All three of us stare at her as she continues to pet Nova. We are all gone for her.
“So how did all of you meet?” she asks.
“In college,” Austin answers her, unable to look anywhere else.
“And your business?”
“I knew I wanted to move back here after graduating. These two decided they didn’t want to be in the city anymore, either. We all wanted to do the same thing, so opening a business together just made sense.”
“You made your dreams come true,” she says, giving all of us a wistful smile.
The three of us guys share a look. “Part of them, yeah,” Con says.
“What about your dreams?” I ask her.
She leans back in her chair, puffing out air. “Uhh… I don’t know how to answer that. I have a bachelor’s and a master’s degree in something I don’t really care about anymore. I know what I don’t want to do, but I haven’t figured out what I actually do want to do.”
Austin reaches over, giving her hand a squeeze. “You’ll figure it out.”
She smiles at him and nods but doesn’t say anything.
“You guys ready for s’mores?” I ask.
“I am,” Evelyn yells, slamming into my back. Where the hell did she come from? I guess I was so lost in Hadley-land, nothing else registered.
“You scared me, kid,” I say, clutching my heart.
“Good. Point for me,” she says, holding up one finger. She’s learning too much from me. Maybe I should stop teaching her things.
Nah. It’s too fun.
We all grab our sticks and start roasting our marshmallows. Con plays some music on his phone in the background.
Evelyn sets her first marshmallow on fire and, in her freakout, sends it flying across the yard. Austin made sure it wasn’t going to start a forest fire, but came back laughing.
“Don’t tell Grayson about that. He’d give you a lecture.”
“Yeah, he would,” Hadley says, laughing.
“It will be our little secret,” Evelyn says, wiggling her fingers with Hadley, who’s doing the same.
Hadley pulls her perfectly toasted marshmallow out to inspect it. When she moves to get up out of her chair, Conrad grabs a graham cracker he had set out on the edge of the fire that has the chocolate halfway melted.
“Here.” He holds it out to her.
“What? That’s yours.”
“No, it isn’t. I made it for you. Mine’s right there,” he says, pointing to his.
“Oh.” It’s getting dark, but I swear I see a blush creep up her cheeks.
She holds the marshmallow in place as he presses the two graham crackers together and hands it to her.
The moan she makes after taking her first bite has me getting half hard from that single sound alone. The way she’s licking at the chocolate that’s dripping down the sides has me sporting a full-on boner in my jeans.
As discreetly as possible, I adjust myself in my pants.
I can’t help but laugh, though, when I look at Austin and Conrad and they’re both staring at her like they’re sixteen and she’s the first porno they’ve ever seen.
Finishing her last bite, she licks the last remnants of sticky goodness off her fingers, and I swear I almost come on the spot because all I can think about are those luscious lips wrapped around something else right now.
Austin shakes his head, looking over at his daughter, who’s in her own world, building something with the unused chocolate bars.
“Evelyn, it’s past your bedtime. We need to get you to bed.”
She groans, but I can see how tired she is as she moves around the circle, giving all of us hugs. When she gets to Con, she stops.
“Can you finish reading that book you started last night?”
“Of course, honey.”
She runs over, giving her dad a big hug before walking into the house with Con. Austin makes sure the fire is completely out while Hadley and I haul everything back inside.
“That was so much fun,” she says, stepping into the pantry to put the extra candy away. I step in behind her.
“Not as fun as this,” I say, spinning her around and pressing her against the shelves.
She sucks in a breath a second before my lips land on hers. She laughs into the kiss as a box of cereal falls over onto us, but we don’t stop.
Luckily, I don’t think it spilled anywhere—but even if it did, I still wouldn't stop.
I nip at her bottom lip, then pull back. She smiles up at me, still giggling. Bending down, she grabs the box of cereal and returns it to the shelf behind her.
“Thanks for always making me smile, Brooks.”
I’ll make you smile every day for the rest of your life if you’ll let me.
All three of us stand waiting for Hadley as she grabs her purse from the kitchen. I don’t want her to go.
“I can give you a ride home,” Austin says.
“I need to get my mom’s car back to her house in case she needs it. Plus, it isn’t that late. I’ll be fine.”
“You could always just stay here,” I state, raising my shoulders and letting them fall.
She lets out a nervous laugh. Her eyes roam over all of us, but no one else says anything. Great, thanks, guys.
“I think it’s best if I go,” she finally says, slinging her hand over her shoulder. She looks at us again before turning toward the door.
Her hand rests on the handle, but she pauses. Her shoulders rise as she sucks in a sharp breath and exhales heavily.
When she turns around to face us, her expression is pure determination.
“Okay, I’m just going to say this. Yup, just say it,” she says, like she’s talking to herself. Her eyes snap up to all of us. “I’m only going to say this once.”
We all nod, keeping our mouths shut.
“I like all of you. Yes, all three of you. I don’t want to choose between you, so please don’t make me.
I don’t think I could even if you wanted me to.
I want to be with all of you, but I know that’s a pretty selfish thing to ask of you guys.
So, I’m going to leave now and let you think about what you want.
Let me know when you guys figure out what that is. ”
She turns back to the door, but Austin grabs her arm. He spins her until they’re chest to chest. He shocks me by pressing a kiss to her lips.
Well, fuck me. Maybe he’s going to be more on board with this than I thought. Or maybe he’s just 100% on board the Hadley train, no matter what that involves.
He steps back, and she stands there, frozen. Con and I step toward her at the same time. We both give her a quick hug and kiss.
“Drive safe,” I tell her.
“Text us when you get home,” Con adds.
Her eyebrows scrunch in confusion. “I don’t have any of your numbers in my phone.”
“Yeah, you do,” Con says. “I put all of them in there earlier tonight.”
“Oh, okay.” She nods a few times. Turning, she opens the door, glancing back at us over her shoulder.
“Think about it, okay? Just because I want this doesn’t mean any or all of you want the same thing.” Her eyes linger on Austin.
He nods. “We will.”
The door closes behind her, and we all stand there in silence until we hear her tires moving down the driveway.
“I guess we’d better have a talk,” my brother says, running his hand over his face.