26. Brooks
CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
Brooks
These last two weeks have been torture.
We’ve barely been able to see Hadley. We stopped by a couple of times to see her and to check on her mom, but it wasn’t nearly enough.
I miss her. I miss her a lot.
Maggie is finally doing better, though, and Hadley is going to spend the entire weekend with us. Grayson is staying with his mom in case she needs him to give Hadley a break.
He’s still being a growly bear about all of us seeing Hadley, but I think we’re wearing him down. He’ll see eventually that we’re perfect for each other, and that all of us would do anything for her.
Spinning around, I pace back down the length of the warehouse. How many more times do I have to do this until it’s time to pick her up?
I need to do something.
I poke my head into Austin’s office, where he’s typing away on his computer. “I’m going to get Evelyn from school,” I tell him.
He looks surprised. “Okay, sounds good.”
“Then, Evelyn and I will go get Hadley.”
A smile ghosts over the corner of his mouth, but he just nods. I turn, walking across the warehouse floor, but he shouts after me, “Take care of our girls.”
Our girls. Both of them. Hadley and Evelyn.
I had no part in creating Evelyn, but I love that girl. She is my girl in every way that really matters. My heart doesn’t know the difference.
I double-check that the booster seat is secure in the backseat, then drive toward the school. A huge smile crosses her face when she sees my red truck.
“Brooks!” she screams, climbing in.
“Evie Girl,” I yell back, making a few of the teachers give us sideways glances.
Who cares? Not me. And apparently not Evelyn, either, with the goofy grin she’s giving me in the rearview mirror after getting her seatbelt buckled.
“Do you want to come with me to pick up Hadley?” I ask her as we turn out of the parking lot.
Her eyes pop wide. “Yes! Is she coming to our house tonight?”
“Yup. She’s actually going to stay the whole weekend at our house.”
“Like a slumber party?”
I chuckle. “Yeah, like a slumber party.”
Hopefully, a sexy slumber party. But honestly, I’d be fine with just cuddling with her on the couch and holding her while we both fall asleep.
“This is going to be the best weekend ever!” she shouts, making me cringe a little in the small space.
“You like Hadley, don’t you?” I ask her, driving down Hickory Avenue.
She’s quiet, thinking about it for a moment. “Of course I do. She’s really cool. Don’t you like her?”
I’m pretty sure I more than like her, but that’s an issue for another day.
“Yeah, I do.”
I put the truck in park and pull out my phone to tell Hadley we’re here.
“Hey,” she says after a few rings.
“Evelyn and I are here to get you.”
“Let me grab my bag. I’ll be right there.”
The front door of the house swings open. I expect it to be Hadley, but it’s not. It’s Grayson. Great.
I roll down the passenger window as he approaches. He opens his mouth to say something, but Evelyn beats him to it.
“Hi, Uncle Grayson.”
His face softens as he turns to look at her. “Hi, Evelyn.”
Hadley walks up behind her brother with her duffle bag slung over her shoulder. I wish she wouldn’t bring any clothes, so she’d have to wear ours all weekend. Ooooh… but maybe she brought lingerie. What color is it?
Focus.
“Can you let me in?” she asks him.
He sighs, his gaze roaming between Evelyn and Hadley. I don’t know exactly what it is, but he seems to make a decision.
He opens the door for his sister, tossing her bag into the backseat with Evelyn.
“Have a fun weekend,” he tells the girls. He looks directly at me, but his eyes no longer look like he wants to murder me in a dark alley. “Take care of them… both of them,” he adds, his eyes filled with more desperation than anger.
“With my life,” I tell him. He gives me a curt nod and steps back.
I get why he and Austin are best friends. They both have that jerky nod thing down to a tee.
“I want it to be boys versus girls,” Evelyn says, tossing her pink and black soccer ball from one hand to the other and back again.
“But there are three of us and only two of you,” Conrad says, popping open the second collapsible soccer goal we have in the garage for when Evelyn wants to play.
“Nova can be on our team, too.” She points to the dog, who is lying on the deck watching all of us. Hearing her name, she lifts one ear, but makes no other move.
Uh-huh, sure she is.
Evelyn must come to the same realization. “Well, we don’t need her anyway. Girls are awesome.”
“Girls are awesome,” I tell her. “If that’s what you want to do, then we’ll do it.”
She smiles at me and turns to Hadley. “Come on. We need to have a game plan.”
I’m pretty sure their game plan was to have Evelyn run circles around all of us until we were dizzy, and for Hadley to look so stunning that we can’t take our eyes off her.
Hadley runs behind me, her hand running over the small of my back where my shirt has ridden up. She tries to dart away, but I grab her hand.
Glancing up, I see that Con and Austin have Evelyn fully distracted. Con’s trying to get the ball from her, while her dad’s tickling her.
I pull Hadley into my chest, so my frame is blocking Evelyn’s view of Hadley if she does look this way. She squirms for a second, trying to get free, but quickly calms down, her hands settling on my chest.
Fuck, I want to kiss her right now.
A quick glance over my shoulder shows the other three still occupied, so I frame my hands on either side of Hadley’s face and kiss her.
I don’t have time to kiss her the way I want to, but it makes up for all the moments since she stepped outside of her mom’s house earlier that I’ve wanted to press my lips to her very kissable ones.
Hadley nips at my bottom lip, then ducks under my arms and runs toward Evelyn. They work together to get the ball away from the guys. Hadley passes it to Evelyn, who scores.
Giggling and dancing ensues, just like it has after all their goals.
“They’re cute together,” Con says as he and Austin walk toward me.
A smile crosses Austin’s face. “Yeah, they are.”
The girls score one more goal before Evelyn flops down on the grass, dramatically clutching her stomach and acting like a starved lion.
Luckily, Austin picked up sandwiches from the deli in town earlier, so we don’t have to cook.
We all grab our sandwiches and sit down in the living room to watch a princess movie Evelyn has been going on and on about for days.
“Hadley needs to be here more often. We never get to eat in the living room unless she’s here.”
I agree with you there, kid, just maybe not for the same reasons.
One movie and five sandwiches later, Evelyn is half asleep with her head on Hadley’s shoulder, where she kept her all to herself on the corner of the sectional for the whole damn movie.
You can’t be mad at a five-year-old. You can’t be mad at a five-year-old.
Evelyn insists on Hadley putting her to bed tonight, so that leaves the three of us to clean up the living room together.
“Evelyn was being a real Hadley hog all night,” I growl, stuffing all the sandwich wrappers in the trash.
“I know,” Austin groans. “She wouldn’t let her go. I know that should make me happy, but damn.”
“Let’s hope Evelyn goes to sleep quickly tonight,” Con says, folding blankets and setting them in the basket in the corner of the living room.
We all stop what we’re doing, a knowing look passing between us. We need some time with our girl. Some alone time.