Chapter Seven
· Adriana ·
The constant late summer heat was slowly morphing into cool mornings, and some school districts had started the new semester already, so Bravetown was a little quieter every day.
I had theoretically been the future Mrs. Brooks Monroe for three weeks now.
Practically, it had taken awhile for legalities of his investment in the park to be formalized, and Brooks and Skye were just now about to move to Wild Fields.
This town didn’t exactly have a thriving housing market though.
Most people who lived here had been here for generations.
Until Brooks found something, they’d stay in the Night Hawk Suite.
I was about to head over there, and my nerves were already frayed. Not that I second-guessed my decision to help Brooks. If putting a ring on my finger would allow him to keep his daughter, I’d be happily flashing a diamond at everyone. However, telling said daughter about the engagement…
I turned in front of my bedroom mirror. Necklaces and silk scarves draped around it and Post-its and napkins with snippets of song lyrics were taped to the glass. There was just enough space left to check my reflection.
Maybe I should switch the loose white tunic dress for something a little longer? Flared jeans and a tank top? Would that be too boring? Ugh. I pulled my hair up, then let it fall again three times, trying to decide how to wear it.
My nerves weren’t equipped for this. This was worse than any gig I’d played.
Twelve-year-old girls were some of the most judgmental people on the planet, and I wanted to make a great first impression.
Brooks had kept me updated on how he kept mentioning me more and more to Skye, had shown her pictures and videos, and had slowly introduced her to the idea of moving.
She wasn’t the best with changes, and this was so much bigger than just switching breakfast cereals.
I grabbed a claw clip from my dresser and fastened the top section of my hair with it. There. Half up, half down.
I took the claw clip out again as soon as I got out of the car in the hotel parking lot. Then pinned it back into my hair during the elevator ride.
More than making a good first impression, I wanted Skye to genuinely like me. Not as her dad’s fiancée but as his friend. No matter how this farce panned out, Brooks had been right. I wanted to keep him in my life. I wanted to stay in touch this time.
“Hi.” He opened the hotel room door for me with the softest smile, and my chest flooded with warmth in response. He’d always had that effect on me. There was a side of Brooks made to dazzle—but another side, the one reserved for the people close to him, was genuine and kind and warm. Pure comfort.
“Hi,” I breathed.
“You look great.”
“Thank you.” I slipped past him into the suite.
This was only my second time in there, and its sheer size hit me in the face again.
There was a bathroom, a small kitchen corner, and what looked like two full bedrooms. I could fit my entire house into the living room. “Maybe I should move in with you guys.”
“Living together before the wedding? Scandalous.”
“Pretty old-fashioned for a man with a child out of wedlock,” I whispered, not wanting Skye to hear me joking about her parentage.
“To be fair, men having children outside marriage is pretty old-fashioned, too.”
“You’re such a traditional guy. What’s next? I stay at home while you rake in the cash?”
“Oh, no. I’m ready for my trophy husband era. You make music. I’m eye candy.”
We smiled at each other. Both of us visibly relaxed. Saying we were friends was one thing, but it was a relief to see how easily we were falling back into silly conversations.
“Skye?” I asked.
“One second.” He dashed to the far side of the living room and rapped his knuckles against the door there.
A moment later, a girl with long blond hair and big blue eyes appeared.
I’d seen Skye only once, through the glass door of her hospital room when she’d been fast asleep after her surgery.
Up close, she looked so much like Brooks, it was a little ridiculous he’d ever needed a paternity test, or that he thought she looked like her mother in pictures.
His pointy nose looked dainty on her, and his thick brows were giving her a young Jennifer Connelly vibe.
“Skye, this is Adriana. Adriana, this is my daughter, Skye.”
Skye’s lips twitched into the hint of a smile, and she lifted one hand in an awkward wave. Only the tips of her fingers poked out of her huge blanket hoodie.
“Hi! You can call me Addie if you want. Your dad does.”
“Okay,” she mumbled.
I’d mentally prepared myself for a major tween mean girl crash out, but Skye was adorable. Shy, sticking to her dad’s side, worrying her lip between her teeth.
“Oh. I brought some snacks.” I figured I’d get brownie points for either a cute outfit or some nice treats. I dropped my huge leather tote on the sofa and pulled out two Tupperware boxes. One filled with rocky road squares, the other with chocolate chip cookies.
“Did you make these?” Brooks asked and took a seat on the sofa.
“Yep. Picked up cooking and baking a little while ago. It’s very relaxing.” You just switched your brain off and followed the recipe in front of you. The perfect smooth brain activity.
“How long is this going to take?” Skye asked and reached for one of the cookies.
Instead of reprimanding her for a question that sounded a little rude to most people, Brooks weighed his head from side to side and said, “That depends how many questions you have, and how much you want to talk to Addie. Anywhere from fifteen minutes to an hour.”
“Okay.” Skye nodded and climbed into the armchair, legs drawn up and pulled into her hoodie. She really had just wanted a time frame.
I shoved my bag to the floor and took the seat next to Brooks, automatically leaning into the heat radiating off his body.
“Do you know why I wanted you to meet Adriana?” Brooks asked.
“Yeah, she’s your girlfriend. You’ve mentioned it multiple times.” This time, she did sound a little exasperated, only to turn to me. “He never had a girlfriend before.”
“Well, that’s not quite…” Brooks laughed. “I haven’t had a girlfriend since I found out I’m your father.”
“Which is weird, by the way.” Skye nibbled on her cookie. “My friend Emma says her dad is always dating someone.”
“Okay, well, it’s not weird. Everyone is different when it comes to dating, and it’s okay to change things up depending on what feels right for you.
Some people date a lot, and others only date when they really, really like someone.
And I really, really like Addie. We’ve known each other for a very long time. We’ve been friends for years.”
“Then why are you dating?”
“What do you mean?” I asked. I’d promised to let Brooks take the lead on this, but I didn’t want to sit here all quiet like a Stepford wife.
“I don’t want to date any of my friends.” She grimaced.
“That’s okay. That’s totally normal,” Brooks said, “but sometimes feelings change.”
“But how?”
Oh, the hard-hitting questions. I couldn’t even pretend to know an answer to that one.
I’d had one serious boyfriend in my life: a boy from one of our neighboring towns that shared our high school.
We were in AP English together, became official in junior year when he asked me to prom, then broke things off when I moved to Nashville at nineteen.
A cute teen relationship. Everyone since had been casual.
Brooks, however, leaned into me and placed a hand on my thigh, warm thumb circling my knee.
It was a small touch, but it eased the last nervous tension from my chest. “You know how you can have a friend and then they do something really weird or mean, so you get into a really big fight, and afterward you’re not really friends anymore? ”
“Yeah…” Skye shifted uncomfortably.
“Same thing can happen the other way around.” He smiled at me. That warm and fuzzy smile again. “Sometimes a friend does or says something positive, and you start to feel like they’re more than your friend, like you want to hug them and kiss them and see them every day.”
“Hmm…” Skye pondered that for a moment as she chewed her cookie. “So do you two kiss?”
“Uh…” This time, Brooks struggled to reply. Was that a blush tinting the tips of his ears pink?
“Yes, we do,” I said, “but we don’t have to kiss in front of you if you don’t want to see that.”
“No, it’s fine. I don’t care.” Skye shrugged. “Okay. Can I go now?”
“Well, actually”—Brooks cleared his throat—“there’s something else.”
Skye moaned and rolled her head on her shoulders. I had to hide my grin behind my hand. Clearly, this girl had somewhere more important to be.
“I asked Addie to marry me,” Brooks said. His thumb stopped circling, fingers tensing over my knee. I placed my hand atop his, quietly lending him support.
Skye’s gaze dropped to that touch, then to the Tupperware on the sofa table, then swung to the stack of suitcases in the corner. “I want to go to my room now.”
“Okay.” Brooks nodded.
“Can I please take another cookie with me?”
“Of course, kiddo.”
Skye grabbed another chocolate chip cookie and then dashed to her bedroom. As soon as the door quietly clicked shut behind her, Brooks let out a deep, long sigh. He sagged back into the sofa but his hand didn’t leave my leg.
“It could have been worse, right?” I asked, voice low.
“I think this was actually pretty good.”
“Really?”
“Yeah.” He gave my knee a short, reassuring squeeze before finally pulling away. “Skye needs quiet time to process change. She’ll probably burst out of her room in a few hours with more questions. And she liked your cookies. That’s a good sign. She doesn’t like trying new foods.”
Any last doubts I had about going along with this charade evaporated. He loved his daughter. He may not have been there for the majority of her life, but he loved her, and he knew her, and I couldn’t imagine anyone better suited to raising her.