Chapter 26 #2
I crack a beer and walk out to the back steps. Hudson’s voice won’t leave my head. The picture he keeps in his mind of how Adrienne’s life should look. The kind of man he wants at her side. I keep seeing that picture, and I’m not in it. A thought hits me, mean and petty.
If I’d taken that job at Slade Brewing when he offered all those years ago, would this be easier? If I wore polos and sat in meetings and said synergy like the rest of the guys, would Hudson give me the nod?
I tip the bottle back again, set it down too hard beside me. The glass clinks against the wood. Anger is easier than pain. If he thinks I’m not enough, he can say it to my face. I’ll take that before I’ll take the quiet judgment that makes Adrienne doubt the ground under her feet.
My phone glows on the step. I thumb it awake. On a whim, I scroll to Aiden’s name. He’s the calm one. The one who thinks before he swings. I should leave it. It’s late. I tap call anyway.
He picks up on the second ring, voice low and even, like he was expecting me. “Hey, man.”
“Sorry if I woke you.”
“You didn’t. Night check on the herd. What’s up?”
I don’t ease into it. I don’t have it in me. “Hudson doesn’t approve.”
A beat. “Of you and Adrienne?”
“Yeah.”
I hear him blow out a breath. Not surprised. “You talk to Adrienne?”
“She told me. Said it wasn’t direct. But I know what it means.” My throat feels tight. I look out at the fence line to keep my voice steady. “Aiden, I love your sister.”
“I know,” he says gently.
“I want to marry her.” The words come out rough and simple. Saying them out loud settles something in me and lights something up at the same time. “Not someday in theory. I mean it. I want a life with her. The house, the kids, the whole mess. I want all of it with her.”
He’s quiet for a second. Then I hear the small smile in his voice. “Good.”
I’m thrown. “Good?”
“Scotty, I’ve been waiting for you two to get here since we were dumb teenagers pretending not to notice how you looked at each other. You’ve both been circling the same fire for years. I always figured you’d stop pretending one day.”
I scrub a hand over my jaw. “I keep thinking if I worked for Slade like half the damn town, your dad would see me differently.”
“Maybe,” Aiden says. “But that wouldn’t be you. And he respects men who are who they are.” A small huff. “He also respects men who show up and say the hard things to his face.”
I let that land. “So I should talk to him.”
“You should,” he says. “And you should talk to Axel too. He loves her like hell. He just… leads with his mouth.” A short laugh. “I know he gets loud and messy. I’m not defending his antics. They can be harmful, even when he thinks he’s ‘protecting’ her.”
“Yeah, I know he means well.”
“For what it’s worth,” Aiden adds, “the other night at the anniversary party, I was trying to pull you aside before Axel bulldozed in with the L.A. thing. I was going to tell you to stop wasting time and just go after her. I wanted you to hear me say I was for it. For you two.”
“You were?”
“I am.” He doesn’t hesitate. “I’ve always hoped you’d end up together.
You’re steady in the ways she needs. She’s a firecracker, we both know that.
She and Axel are cut from the same cloth, whether she wants to admit that or not, and that cloth is Hudson Slade.
I was blessed with my mom’s even temperament.
” We both laugh. “You’re good together, Scotty. ”
I breathe out, my shoulders relaxing. I knew Aiden would talk some sense into me. “I’m scared I’m going to cost her something she’ll miss later.”
“You won’t,” he says, firm. “Adrienne doesn’t make small choices. If she says she doesn’t want L.A., it’s because she doesn’t want L.A. Not because of you. And if someday she wants a case in New York for a month, you’ll figure it out together. That’s what this is.”
The simple truth of it clears a path in my head. It isn’t me standing in her way. It’s me standing with her.
“What if your dad still won’t stand for it? I can’t come between her and Hudson.”
“Then you look back and tell him exactly what you just told me.” His tone sharpens a hair.
“Tell him you love his daughter, you want to marry her, and you’ll spend the rest of your life proving you’re the man she chose.
If he can’t respect that on the first pass, he will on the second.
Or the third. I can promise you, for as stubborn as my dad is, he will never make her choose between the two of you; he just wants to make you sweat a little. ”
“You make it sound simple.”
“It’s not,” he says, amused. “I wish it was with this family but goddamn, someone will always find a way to complicate the shit out of it.”
We laugh, shoot the shit a little longer before I wrap up the call. “Thank you,” I say finally. It feels too small, but it’s all I’ve got.
“Anytime,” he says. “And Scotty?”
“Yeah?”
“Don’t let Axel bait you. He wants to help, he just doesn’t know how to keep that mouth shut.”
“Story of his life.”
Aiden laughs. “Text me after you talk to Dad. And… tell Adrienne you called me. She’ll like that.”
“I will.”
We hang up. I sit there for another minute with the cold bottle sweating against my palm and the phone heavy in my hand. The doubt doesn’t vanish, but it’s quieter. Like the noise has been turned down enough that I can hear my own voice again.
Tomorrow, I’m going to Hudson. I’m going to say the things I told Aiden and not flinch when I say them. I love Adrienne Slade. I want to marry her. I will spend my life being the man she chose.
I roll onto my side and finally let my eyes close. I’m not losing her.