Total pages in book: 75
Estimated words: 77857 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 389(@200wpm)___ 311(@250wpm)___ 260(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 77857 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 389(@200wpm)___ 311(@250wpm)___ 260(@300wpm)
“So she’s pretty glad I’m here,” I say.
“Son, I’d say pretty glad is an understatement.” Frank takes a puff on his cigar and smiles. “But like I said, we know this is new for both of you. Frankly, I’m surprised Rory invited you over tonight. Maureen asked her to, but she hedged at first.”
“Did she?”
“Rory doesn’t rush into things. She’s usually with someone for a couple of months before she invites him or her over to meet us.”
“I suppose it’s different. You already know me.”
“Brock, this is a small town. We already know all of them.”
I can’t help it. I chuckle. “When you’re right, you’re right, sir.”
“Frank.”
“Frank, then.”
He eyes my cigar still sitting in the ashtray. “You don’t really like cigars, do you?”
“Well…”
“You just need to be honest with me. It’s okay if you don’t like cigars like your cousin here.”
“I don’t want to waste it.”
“Don’t be silly. There’s no need to smoke if you don’t want to.” He smiles and rises. “Now, if you gentlemen will excuse me, I need to see a man about a horse.”
Once Frank is in the house, Donny turns to me. “They’re good people, Brock. And they do love Rory.”
“I never thought they didn’t.”
“Just don’t judge Maureen too harshly. She accepts Rory.”
“But does she?” I take a sip of brandy. “I don’t like what I heard.”
“I knew you wouldn’t. Callie and I didn’t like it much either, but Callie insists their mother loves them all equally, as Frank says. Even Rory knows it.”
“Well, they don’t love Rory more than I do.”
“They do, just in a way different way.” Donny smiles. Then he drops his jaw. “Wait… You love Rory?”
Really? Did I really just say that out loud?
But I can’t lie to my cousin.
“I do. Surprised the hell out of me.”
“That’s great, dude. That’s amazing.”
“You think?”
“Yeah, especially if she loves you back. Does she?”
“She says she does.”
“Brock Steel. Brock Steel and the most beautiful woman in Snow Creek.” He smiles. “Actually, second-most beautiful.”
Donny gets a dreamy look on his face. Man, is that guy in love. The thing is? Callie is beautiful. She’s almost as beautiful as Rory.
“So what do you plan to do about it?” Donny says.
“Well, I’m not you.”
“Meaning…”
“I’m not thirty-two. I’m twenty-four.”
“True enough.”
“This is new. New for both of us. And frankly, with all the other shit going on—”
“Hey,” Donny says, “don’t let our family bullshit stand in the way of your happiness. I’m not. Sure, Callie and I could wait. We could wait until all the Steel family crap comes to a head, but who knows when that will be? How long is it going to take us to uncover everything? I don’t know, and I don’t want to wait that long to be happy.”
“It’s not that,” I say.
“It’s not?”
“Well, it’s kind of that. But it’s also just… This isn’t me, Don.”
Donny chuckles. “Boy, do I know what you mean.”
“But it’s different,” I say again. “You’re so much older than I am.”
“Love comes when it comes, and if you want my advice, cuz, you need to embrace it.”
He’s not wrong.
“I have. How else would I have even accepted it?”
“She is amazing. Almost as amazing as her sister.” Donny grins.
Again, he’s not wrong. Except for the almost as amazing as her sister part. I love Callie, but Rory?
Rory is everything.
CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN
RORY
Callie and I are helping in the kitchen.
While the men are outside smoking and drinking brandy.
Does Brock even smoke?
So much I still don’t know about him.
But my mom is ever the traditional housewife.
Women in the kitchen, cleaning up, and men outside, doing nothing.
I roll my eyes at my sister.
She glares at me. Finally, when Mom excuses herself for a moment—
“I know. I hate it as much as you do, Ror. When we have our own household, you can bet Donny will be in here helping me.”
“Are you kidding? You and Donny will have a housekeeper or cook in here doing this.”
“Yeah, probably.” She laughs then. “I can’t even fathom that.”
I absently touch my abdomen.
But Callie notices. “You’ll know soon.”
I look over my shoulder to make sure Mom isn’t anywhere nearby. “I know, Cal, but if I am pregnant, Brock and I… He wants to be involved.”
“Great! That’s what you want, right?”
“I don’t know how to tell you this, Callie, but I want…”
“What?”
I look around the kitchen, wave my arms around. “I want this. I want a family. A family where men and women share all duties, of course, but a family.”
“That’s not any different from what you’ve always wanted.”
“No, it’s not. It’s just that… I think I found the one I want a family with. It’s crazy, isn’t it? Brock Steel?”
“Well, you’ve made Mom happy.” Callie scoffs.
“God, I know. I honestly never knew whether my forever would be a man or a woman, but I always knew what Mom wanted.”
“You know she loves you no matter what.”