Chapter 16
TAYA
“You seem nervous, Mom. Is everything okay?”
“Your brothers are going to meet Chevy today, and I’m worried that they won’t behave themselves.”
Brinn laughed before she said, “You make it sound like they’re three. They’re grown men, Mom!”
“Sometimes, all of you act like you’re three. It makes me think I should have spanked you more when you were children.”
“You never spanked me!”
“Exactly.”
“Brandt and Blaine will be . . . What am I saying? They’re gonna test their boundaries and be assholes, but once they get to know Chewie, they’ll see he’s great.”
“He is, isn’t he?”
“You really like him, don’t you?”
“I do,” I said as I took the bowl of potatoes Brinn had just finished peeling and moved the bowl of sweet potatoes closer to her in the hopes she’d get motivated and start moving a little quicker.
I loved it when Brinn helped me in the kitchen, but she had a tendency to get sidetracked and throw off my schedule.
I didn’t really mind, though, because the kitchen was where we had some of our best conversations since she was a child. When I realized that she was staring at me, I knew this was probably going to be one of them.
“I think you really like him. I’ve never seen you act this way about any other man.”
“You’ve never seen me with any man other than your father.”
“We know you’ve dated over the years, Mom. We’re not stupid.”
I started cutting the celery for the stuffing as I explained, “I never said you were. I just never found a man I cared enough about to bring him around any of you.”
“But Chewie’s different, isn’t he?”
“As crazy as it seems, since we haven’t known each other that long, yes. He’s different.”
“You’re going to keep him around, aren’t you?”
I took a deep breath before I admitted, “I’d like to.”
“Shouldn’t all of them be here by now?” Brinn asked before she wiped her hands on a nearby towel and picked up her phone. “I’ll send the girls a text.”
“I talked to Chevy earlier, and he said they were loading something up and would be here soon.”
She set her phone aside and looked up in excitement before she asked, “He’s bringing it? Already?”
“Bringing what?”
“Nothing.” I tried the stare that had always made my daughter spill her secrets when she was younger and was surprised when it didn’t work.
I felt a little better when she bit her lip as if she was about to crack but found I was a bit proud when she was able to resist and keep it to herself.
I couldn’t help but try again, so I asked, “What is Chevy bringing?”
“I’m not going to tell you what it is, but I will say that I know you’re going to love it.”
“I’m not going to get anything else out of you, am I?”
“No, so you can stop looking at me like that,” Brinn sassed.
When I threw a piece of celery at her, she ducked.
Rose, who had learned early on that hanging around the kitchen got her extra treats, scrambled to get it and then promptly spit it out.
Brinn laughed as she grabbed a piece of cheese off the charcuterie tray she’d helped me create and tossed it at Rose who caught it and gulped it down. “I love your dog, Mom.”
“I do, too, but I don’t love the fact that she came with six others.”
“What are you going to do with them?” Brinn asked as she got back to work with the peeler. “I think you should keep all of them.”
“And I think you’re nuts.”
“Seriously, though, what are you going to do?”
“Chewie and I discussed it, and he called a friend of his who trains service animals. She’s going to come visit the dogs when they’re a little older to see if they are good candidates for her program.
If they are, we’ll give them to her for training.
If they aren’t, we’ll have them spayed or neutered and then give them away. ”
“Did the vet know their breed?”
“Well, she said that Rose is most likely a Great Pyrenees, which is why she’s so big and hairy. Even though the puppies are a healthy size, she won’t be able to tell what they’re mixed with until they’re older, if there’s even any way to tell at all.”
“Do you ever think that even though something bad might have happened, it was for a greater good you couldn’t imagine at the time?”
I thought of how miserable I’d been while Boyd and I were married and then all the years I wondered if I would be alone for the rest of my life before I met a gorgeous biker who brought me back to life with his sweet words and flustered me with his kisses before he disappeared.
While my marriage taught me a hard lesson about wasted time, I would never regret it, as it gave me my children.
When I met Chevy, it wasn’t the right time for us.
I had just started a new endeavor in my writing career, and he was adjusting to his role in his daughter’s life.
But when the time was right, Juni saw his picture and brought us together - something I’d be forever grateful for.
“Yeah, I fully believe that happens. Fate, kismet, whatever you want to call it . . . I believe it’s real.”
“Maybe Rose went through hell so that we could find her and give her the life she deserves. Maybe her puppies can go on to change someone’s world by giving them the freedom to live their best life with a trained guardian and companion.”
Brinn’s idea brought tears to my eyes, and I fell even more in love with her as I got a glimpse of the woman she’d be someday. “I think that’s a good way to look at it, but I still wish Rose wasn’t so skittish and afraid.”
“It’s only been a week since we brought her home. That may not ever go away completely, but I think she already knows this is somewhere she can be safe and happy.”
“I love you, Brinnie.”
Brinnie looked up and saw that my eyes were misty. She smiled before she said, “I love you, too, big softie.”
“Do you love me enough to tell me what Chevy’s bringing?”
“Nope! Good try, though. Solid effort. Five stars.”
◆◆◆
CHEWIE
“‘I’ve got everything we’ll need,” Samara said as she put two bags of supplies on the floorboard and then climbed into the truck.
She waved as Donner drove past in her car, and then Jaimee followed with Jodie in her Jeep.
I pulled out of the driveway to follow them down the street toward Taya’s house, ready for the surprise I was going to give her, but not sure I was ready to sit down at a table with her two sons who still weren’t on board with our relationship.
Taya insisted that she was a grown woman and her son’s opinions on her dating life didn’t matter, but I knew that was an exaggeration. Her children were the most important people in her life, as they should be, and their opinions held weight whether she wanted to admit it or not.
I didn’t want our relationship to affect her bond with her sons, although I felt a little better knowing that Brinn was fully behind our dating.
She and Samara had stars in their eyes, already telling people that they were sisters.
When I heard that, I was stunned at the thought.
Taya and I had been together for three weeks as of today.
I didn’t consider what we had to be dating; I already thought of our relationship as permanent. We hadn’t spent a night apart since we met. Hell, we’d even made our first big purchase together a few days ago.
I didn’t think it was necessarily a common thing that new couples purchased, especially since we’d each bought our own item for our separate houses. It came about during our first, and blissfully drama-free, disagreement.
On the nights I stayed at her house, I barely got any sleep, so I mentioned that I’d rather have her just stay at my place. She assumed I didn’t like her home or was uncomfortable there and got a little offended before she told me she didn’t really like my house either.
Since the house didn’t belong to me, that really didn’t bother me, but then it hit me that she thought I didn’t like her home, which she had a very deep connection to.
I finally admitted that I didn’t want to stay at her house because I felt like her mattress turned into lava every night and tried to suffocate me.
When she realized she’d jumped to the wrong conclusion, mostly because I didn’t explain myself very well, Taya confessed that trying to sleep in my bed made her think she might be more comfortable on the rocky ground outside.
So, disagreement squashed, we decided to remedy the problem.
Six hours later, with our knees and backs hurting from laying down and getting up from what seemed like thousands of mattresses at three different stores, we finally found a compromise - a mattress that was soft enough for her but not too soft for me.
With that decision made, we each bought one and had them delivered to our homes so that we’d be comfortable in either place.
Of course, that led to a need for new sheets and bedding, which led us to a store that had a comforter set that she’d had her eyes on.
Then we had to go to a different store for the perfect pillows.
I finally drew the line when she mentioned changing the color palette of her bathroom to match the new bedding.
I’ll admit that I was irritated when she admitted she was just doing it to see how far she could push me, but she made it all better with a few kisses and the promise of breaking in the new mattress at her house - as soon as the bedding was washed and dried.
We reached another compromise by taking a long shower together, and she gave me the best head of my life before I sat her on the edge of the vanity and licked her until she was speaking in tongues.
Maybe this relationship thing really was as good as some people made it seem.
Samara drew me back into the present when she asked, “Are you nervous about meeting Brinn’s brothers?”
“I wouldn’t say nervous as much as cautious. I know which side of the line Taya will land on, or at least I think I do, if they hate me, so I want to make a good impression.”