Total pages in book: 45
Estimated words: 41725 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 209(@200wpm)___ 167(@250wpm)___ 139(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 41725 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 209(@200wpm)___ 167(@250wpm)___ 139(@300wpm)
My sister, bless her, grabbed Brody into a big hug. “Hey, sweetie. Mia was asking for you every two minutes, and Grant’s been keeping one eye on the parking lot. Now the family’s all here.”
Brody’s blush traveled from his ears down his neck. “Thanks,” he said softly.
I cleared the emotion from my throat. I sometimes envied how easily and perfectly Gwen was able to express her feelings. “Brody, this is Blue and Tristan. Their daughter is on the robotics team with Cleo.”
They welcomed Brody with warm smiles and friendly chatter, congratulating him on our marriage and asking him questions about himself until Brody managed to get them talking about themselves and their kids. It turned out the two of them owned and managed a vineyard, which automatically made them Gwen’s new best friends. Their easy, open conversation made them even more attractive than they already were, which made me stupidly wonder if Brody somehow wished he’d landed one of those guys instead of me.
I wasn’t sure I’d ever understood jealousy until Brody came into my life. Now, apparently, I felt it whenever he talked about the cute guy at his gym or even had a friendly conversation with a happily married couple at a school event. It was utterly illogical but also debilitating, and I knew the insecurity wouldn’t go away until Brody and I had settled things between us. Until I knew he wanted me, permanently, as much as I wanted him.
I blinked at him as he stood in the sunlight, utterly charming everyone around him without even trying, and a revelation hit me like a lightning bolt.
Did Brody know how much I wanted him?
It seemed impossible to me that he wouldn’t. I knew my eyes tracked him whenever he was near, that I hung on his every word when he spoke, and I’d made it clear how badly I craved him in my bed… But I remembered his uncertainty Saturday at soccer, his hesitation as he approached me earlier, and the way he’d automatically removed himself from our family activities yesterday like he was an afterthought. Was it possible he felt as unsure as I did?
Gwen would probably smack me for missing something so obvious for so long, but now that I had, I couldn’t wait to get Brody alone.
Just as I was about to make my move to extract Brody and myself from the conversation so we could speak privately, Liza joined us from where she’d been chatting with some of the other Mountbatten moms.
“There you are, Grant! Looks like you’re over here making friends without me.” She smiled at Blue and Tristan, completely ignoring Brody. “You must be the Marians. I’ve heard quite a bit about you from a couple of the Mountbatten moms—Meera and Candy.”
“You mean Candace,” Brody corrected quietly. “She was president of the PTA at the girls’ old school, and one of her kids is friends with Mia.”
Liza visibly bristled and flicked a glance in Brody’s direction. “Close enough.” She shrugged.
“Actually.” Brody gave her a rueful little smile. “I got her name wrong once, four years ago, and she put me in charge of the school’s pet parade that spring. I promise, if you’d had to wrangle seven purebred corgis, three rottweilers, two ferrets, seventeen cats, and a parakeet on a march around the school grounds, you wouldn’t make that mistake twice.”
Blue, Tristan, and Gwen laughed out loud, and Liza’s expression thawed several degrees.
“Candace, then,” she repeated. “I’ll learn.”
“Brody can help you,” Gwen said pointedly.
I reached for Brody and wove our fingers together, then lifted his hand to press a kiss over his wedding band.
I felt the surprise jolt through him at this public display of affection, and that only made me more confident that Brody needed reassurance… and that I really needed to get him alone so I could offer him his freedom and hope like hell he refused it.
Brody’s gaze drifted over my shoulder toward the field, and he immediately wrenched his hand from my grip.
“Cleo!” he shouted, bolting out onto the field.
What?
Despite being trained and experienced in medical trauma and known for being cool under pressure, it took me several more seconds to process what was happening. It wasn’t until Brody had reached Cleo, dispersing the children who’d clustered around her, that I noticed Cleo’s hand was caught in part of her robot, and blood dripped down her arm onto the grass.
“Liza, call for an ambulance. Gwen, grab my bag from the car,” I shouted, remembering to toss her the keys from my pocket. I took off after Brody, who was already kneeling in the grass beside my daughter.
“It’s okay, baby,” he murmured calmly to her as he raised his arm to support her in case she fainted. He braced the forearm of her trapped hand and glanced frantically around. “Grant? Grant!”