Chapter 23
DEX
The entire family was already at the farm when we arrived.
I could see them through the windows as I parked. Trace and Booker in the kitchen, Delaney setting the table, Blake chasing Amelia through the living room while Xander laughed. Gage’s truck was parked next to Booker’s, which meant Reece and the girls were here too.
Everyone.
All the people who mattered most to me in the world.
All the people who were about to find out I’d fallen in love with their sister.
And was planning to let her go.
If they weren’t upset about me being with her in the first place, they were definitely going to be pissed that it was all going to end in heartbreak.
“We can still back out,” Leigh said quietly from the passenger seat. She’d been silent most of the drive over, her hands twisted in her lap, and I knew she was terrified.
So was I.
“We could,” I agreed. “But we’d still have to tell them eventually. Xander knows. If he says that everyone else will be happy for us, then I believe him. And I...” I reached over, taking her hand. “I don’t want to hide you anymore. Even if this ends, I don’t want to pretend you didn’t matter.”
“Okay.” She squeezed my hand. “Okay. Let’s do this.”
We got out of the truck, and I met her at the front, taking her hand again. Her fingers were ice cold despite the summer heat.
“Together?” I asked.
“Together.”
We walked up to the farmhouse hand in hand, and I felt like I was walking toward my own execution. But Leigh was beside me, and that had to count for something.
I opened the door without knocking. Even back when Delaney’s dad had owned this place, we’d all practically lived here.
It had been like a second home to all of us.
I smiled as the noise of a happy home washed over us.
Barrett shrieking baby giggles. Blake’s good-natured threats.
Trace calling something to Delaney in the kitchen.
Normal. Everything was so beautifully, devastatingly normal.
“Hey!” Delaney appeared in the doorway to the kitchen, wiping her hands on a towel. “You made it! Dinner’s almost…” She stopped, her eyes dropping to our joined hands. Her smile shifted, became knowing. “Oh.”
“Oh?” Trace came up behind her, looking between us. Then he saw our hands too. “Oh.”
“What’s oh?” Booker emerged from the kitchen, beer in hand, followed by Xander.
And then everyone was looking at us.
At our joined hands.
At the way we stood close together, united.
I felt Leigh tense and I pulled her closer, wrapping my arm around her shoulders as I held her against my side. It only took a fraction of a second for me to feel her relax against me.
“Is there something you want to tell us?” Trace asked, but he was smiling. Like he’d been expecting this.
Leigh’s hand tightened on mine. I could feel her trembling against me.
“Yeah,” I said, my voice rougher than I intended. “There is.”
“Living room,” Xander suggested. “This feels like a sitting-down conversation.”
We all moved to the living room. My brothers, their wives, even the kids. Amelia climbed onto Blake’s lap, and Cade settled between Trace and Delaney on the couch, as Gage held Barrett against his chest. Everyone else found spots on chairs or the floor, and suddenly it felt like an intervention.
Or a trial.
Leigh and I stayed standing, still holding hands, facing them all.
“So,” I started, then stopped. How did you tell your family you’d fallen in love with their sister? How did you explain that you’d kept it secret not because you were ashamed but because you were scared?
“We’ve been seeing each other,” Leigh said, her voice steadier than I expected. “Since that first night I arrived.”
“The bar,” Xander said. He already knew, had already worked it out, but everyone else looked surprised.
“Before the family meeting,” I clarified. “The night before. We didn’t know... she didn’t know I was connected to you. I didn’t know she was your sister.”
“And then we found out,” Leigh continued. “And we should have stopped. We should have walked away. But we didn’t.”
Trace leaned forward, elbows on his knees. “Why not?”
“Because I…” I stopped, looked at Leigh. “Because I couldn’t.”
“Because it felt right,” Leigh added softly. “Because from that first conversation, before we knew about any complications, it just... fit. And neither of us wanted to lose that.”
“So you kept it a secret while you got to know each other,” Delaney said. She winked at me and I resisted the smile I wanted to give her for trying to help us out.
“We were going to tell you,” I said quickly. “We’ve been planning to. We just wanted to figure out what this was first. Before we made it a family thing.”
“And what is it?” Booker asked. His face was unreadable, just like always, and I couldn’t tell if he was angry or just processing.
Leigh looked up at me, her eyes shimmering with unshed tears. I squeezed her hand, trying to give her strength.
“We’re in love,” she said simply.
The words hung in the air.
Cade broke the silence. “So you’re Uncle Dex’s girlfriend?”
Despite the tension, everyone laughed.
“Yeah, buddy,” I said, grateful for his innocent interruption. “I guess she is.”
Trace was still watching us, that analytical expression on his face that meant he was putting pieces together. “You said you were planning to tell us. Why now? What changed?”
This was it. The part where we had to tell them it was ending.
“Because we only have a few weeks left,” Leigh said quietly. “And we wanted you to know before... before it’s over.”
The room went completely silent.
“Over?” Reece spoke for the first time, her voice sharp. “What do you mean, over?”
“After the wedding,” I forced myself to say. “Leigh goes back to Blue Point Bay. I stay here. This ends.”
“Like hell it does,” Blake said immediately, standing up. “That’s the stupidest thing I’ve ever heard.”
“Blake…” Xander started, but she cut him off.
“No. Absolutely not. You two are clearly in love. You’re perfect for each other. And you’re just going to... what? Walk away? Pretend this never happened?”
“It’s not that simple,” Leigh said.
“Why not?” Gage asked. He looked genuinely confused. “If you love each other, figure it out.”
“I have a life in Blue Point Bay,” Leigh explained. “My studio, my clients, my whole career, the other side of my family. And Dex’s life is here. The garage, his house, you guys. Everything that matters to both of us is in different places.”
“So one of you moves,” Trace said, like it was obvious.
“It’s not that easy,” I said. “The garage was my grandfather’s. I’ve been running it since I was eighteen. It’s my whole life.”
“And my studio is my whole life,” Leigh added. “I’ve spent years building my business, my reputation. I can’t just abandon that.”
“So you’re abandoning each other instead?” Delaney’s voice was soft, but the words hit hard. They weren’t lined with judgment but they held so much sympathy that I felt a part of my heart crack open already.
“We’re being realistic,” I said, echoing what Leigh had said earlier.
“Realistic,” Xander repeated. He stood, walked over to face us directly. “Dex, man, I love you. You’re my brother. But this is bullshit.”
“Xander…”
“You’ve spent your entire adult life sacrificing what you want for everyone else. For your grandparents. For the garage. For us.” His voice was intense, urgent. “When are you going to do something for yourself? When are you going to choose what makes you happy?”
“It’s not that simple…”
“It is that simple!” He gestured between us. “You love her. She loves you. Everything else is just logistics. Logistics can be figured out. But love? Love like what you two have? That’s rare, man. That’s once in a lifetime. And you’re just going to let it go?”
“What am I supposed to do?” The frustration burst out of me. “Ask her to give up everything she’s worked for? Force her to leave her whole life behind?”
“You wouldn’t be forcing me,” Leigh said. “I make my own choices.”
“To leave,” I said bitterly. “To go back to Blue Point Bay and forget this ever happened.”
“I could never forget this.” Her voice broke. “I could never forget you.”
“Then stay.” The words came out before I could stop them. “Stay in Willowbrook. Build your business here. You could…”
“Dex, I can’t.” She was crying now. “I can’t just abandon everything. Wren is there. My mom…”
“Your mom is staying here,” a voice said from the doorway.
We all turned.
Caroline stood there, Jasper beside her, both of them looking emotional.
“Mom?” Leigh’s voice was small, confused.
“I was going to tell you this week,” Caroline said, stepping into the room. “Jasper and I... we’re trying again. Really trying. And I’m staying in Willowbrook.”
Leigh stared at her. “You’re... what?”
“I’m staying. I’m moving here permanently.” Caroline came over, took Leigh’s free hand. “Baby, I’ve spent twenty-seven years running from this place, from Jasper, from the what-ifs. I’m not running anymore. I’m choosing love. I’m choosing a second chance.”
“But what about Blue Point Bay? What about your job?”
“I can find a new job. I can start over.” She smiled through tears. “That’s what I’m trying to tell you. You can start over too. You can build a new life. The question is whether you want to.”
“I...” Leigh looked at me, then at the brothers, then back at her mom. “I don’t know.”
“Don’t decide tonight,” Trace said gently. “Just... think about it. Think about what you want. Not what’s practical or what makes sense. What do you actually want?”
“I want him,” Leigh whispered, looking at me. “I want this. All of this.”
“Then fight for it,” Blake said fiercely. “Both of you. Stop making excuses and fight for each other.”
“You still have time,” Delaney added. “Use it to figure this out. To really talk about what you both want. What you’re both willing to do. Don’t just accept that it has to end.”
I looked at Leigh, and she looked at me, and in her eyes I saw everything I felt. Love. Fear. Hope. Possibility.
Maybe they were right.
Maybe we hadn’t actually tried to find a solution because we were both too scared to ask for what we wanted.
Maybe there was a way.
“Okay,” I said softly. “Let’s really talk about this. All of it. What we want. What we’re willing to do. What a future could look like if we actually tried.”
“Okay,” she whispered.
Xander clapped me on the shoulder. “Now that’s what I’m talking about.”
“Group hug!” Billie announced, and suddenly we were surrounded by family. By people who loved us and wanted us to be happy and believed we could figure this out.
And for the first time since I’d met Leigh in that bar two months ago, I let myself believe it too.
Maybe we could have this.
Maybe love really was enough.
Maybe we’d find a way to make it work.
We just had to figure out our how.