by Emilia Finn
“I don’t have the energy to rumble, Aunt T.” Bry steps into her side and closes his eyes when she wraps an arm around his hips. When he kisses my daughter, he looks like a man. Dangerous, strong, and grown the fuck up. But when his aunt hugs him, he looks like a boy again. “Morning. Is there anything left to eat? I’m starving.”
Lyss slides her bowl closer. “You can share my fruit if you want. Did you eat peanuts lately?”
“Nope.” He pinches a slice of apple from her bowl and tosses it into his mouth with a grin. “Peanuts are banned now, because you’re too cute to risk. Thanks for the apple, beautiful.”
He leaves Tink’s side and slides into his mother’s arms. “Morning, Mommy.”
“Morning, babe.” She pulls back and narrows her glare. “What happened to your face?”
“What? I’m sexy!”
She rolls her eyes. “You went out last night, and your face was fine. You come to breakfast now, and someone clearly hit you. Whose mother do I need to beat up?”
He bursts out laughing and swings out of her arms so he can open the fridge. Snatching a bottle of juice, then a glass from the cabinet, he turns back to Lyss and points a finger. “That’s how it’s done around here. If anyone gives you trouble, you tell Brookey, and she’ll take care of business.”
Lyss nods, completely oblivious to the meaning behind Bry’s words. He implies that Brooke could be her mom. That Brooke would beat someone up for her.
“Why is no one freaking out about this?” I burst out. Eyes come back to me. Curious gazes. Lifted brows.
“About what?” Kit asks. “What’s to freak out about?”
“Brooke! Brooke is dating.”
Kit nods. “Brooke had her first boyfriend when she was sixteen. We didn’t freak out then. So why would we freak out now? She handled that boy the way he needed to be handled, she shook him off when it was time. Our girl might seem like a dreamer, but she’s smart, so if she says she wants to date a guy, I’m not gonna be the mom that steps in and demands she stay home. She likes you, which means you’re a good guy.”
“I have a daughter.”
Kit smiles for Lyss. Then looks back to me. “You’re a nice guy that made choices when he was too young to be making those choices. It would seem you started dating at the same age my daughter started dating. The difference is, she was smarter about it.”
“Burn,” Bry scoffs into his glass of juice. “Tell him, Mom. Do it like how it sounds like you’re being kind, but you’re actually setting him on fire.”
“Shh.” She smacks her son’s arm. “You’re a good man, Miles. You’ve raised a beautiful little girl, you’ve been through some of the hardest times you’ll ever know, and yet here you are. Your daughter adores you, and now it would seem, so does mine. I fail to see why you want me to panic.”
“Brooke was fourteen when Lyss was conceived.”
Bry’s eyes darken. “Don’t do the math, man. Don’t do that, or you’ll end up in the yard.”
“You’re overthinking this,” Kit inserts. “My daughter is happy. I think she makes you happy too, otherwise you wouldn’t be fighting this hard.”
The front door opens, followed by the loud cacophony of male voices.
Kit’s eyes come to me. “Do not, under any circumstances, do the math in front of them.”
“Oh.” Bobby leads his pack of brothers, stops at the doorway to the kitchen, and studies our little huddle. “Iowa’s here. And Lyss too.”
He ignores me, and does what his son did. Crosses the room, stops behind Lyss and drops a kiss on the top of her head. And when she offers her bowl, he takes a slice of apple and drops a second kiss, but on her cheek. “Thank you, beautiful. It’s so kind of you to share.”
“Guess what? I got to eat pie last night!”
“No way!”
If I have a moment to wonder where the fuck Brooke disappeared to, I don’t dare mention it. I merely take a seat at the counter, accept a fresh plate of pancakes with little blueberry eyes, and I start eating with my girl right beside me.
And nobody says a damn thing about the fact Brooke didn’t come home last night.
Not even when Lyss mentions the “sleeping bra”.
Twenty minutes after she left, Brooke reemerges in a completely new outfit. Jeans that frame her ass in the most delicious way, a top with thick shoulder straps and cute little shiny bits that reflect off the morning light as she moves. She makes a beeline for her dad when she spots him, slides into his arms and absorbs a kiss on the top of her head, then they part… and say nothing about the fact she’s freshly showered.
This is what we’re doing, I suppose. And it’s better than getting flogged in the yard in front of my daughter.
Once Evie and her gang show up ten minutes after that – not a coincidence, I suspect – everyone huddles down at the counter and consumes a brand new serving of food while we pretend I didn’t make Brooke cry my name just a few hours ago.
“Camp’s coming up.” Evie tosses a boiled egg into her mouth, chews, and smiles like she doesn’t care that she left her manners somewhere else. “Everything’s booked and ready to go.”
“Have fun slaving away for two days straight.” The thought of them all going, while it used to bring me down, now makes me smile. Two days without having to check in at the gym. Two days of Brooke without worrying about her dad, brother, or uncles.
Suddenly, that anxiety at missing out turns into excitement for what Brooke and I could do for two straight days.
“You should come.” Ben sits beside Evie, eating his own stack of pancakes. “You don’t even have to make arrangements. Just get in the damn car and come with us. You just need a Gi and a hat.”
“Already told you.” I wink for Lyss when she watches us interact. “I’m out this year. But who knows, maybe next year.”
“Lyss could stay with me,” Brooke announces. Her words are quiet, as though the thought is still forming in her mind. She sips her coffee, frowns, and looks to me. “I could take care of her. Me and Twain.”
“Brooke…” My heart, my brain, my very soul rejects the idea. “No.”
“You don’t trust her?” Bry – because he’s a prick – inserts. “Wow… not a good start.”
“Dude! No. Shut up.”
“Daddy! Don’t say shut up.”
“Sorry, baby, but…” I shake my head. “No.”
“I would take care of her,” Brooke says. “I’m home all day, so I could do school drop-off and pick-up. I’d work while she’s at school, then we could do fun things. It’s literally one afternoon, one night, and then you’ll be home the next afternoon.”
“Brooke! She can’t… I can’t…” I’m stuttering again. “It’s too much.”
“Sinus medicine in the afternoons,” she presses, then looks to Lyss. “You can even do that by yourself, can’t you?”
“Uh huh! You can watch me do it.”
“See?” Brooke’s eyes grow more determined. “No peanuts. No wheat. No bad foods. We could stay at your house or this one. Either. Twain would be with us. My mom would be here too.”
“It’s too dangerous, Brooke. It’s not about trusting you, it’s about–”
“Relinquishing control?” she prods. “It’s about the fact you’ve always been her number one, and giving that up is hard.”
“You don’t get to make me feel guilty for that! I’ve been her only one for so long.”
“I’m not trying to make you feel guilty. I’m trying to tell you that I’ve got your back. That you can trust me with her. She’ll be safe, I promise.” She looks to Lyss. “Blue to the sky, orange to the thigh. Right?”
“You didn’t forget that?” Brooke and I sit mere inches apart, and everyone else in this room, which is full, they disappear when I stare into her eyes. “We said it one time, and you remember?”
“Of course.” Where she didn’t blush one single time last night, now a rose tint colors her cheeks. “It’s kind of important, and I really don
’t want to mess it up.”
She leans closer. Lowers her voice. “I’ve been in love with your daughter since the day I met her, Miles. I’m not going to mess this up.”
I lean the rest of the way until our lips touch, and her sigh slides straight into my lungs.
“Nope!” Bry bounds from his chair. “Now we have beef. Let’s go outside.”
Brooke pulls back from me and laughs, but her eyes are watery. The happy kind of watery. “I swear, I won’t let you down.”
“Whaddya say, Iowa?” Evie tosses a blueberry across the counter. “One night, two days, thirty-six epic training hours before we gear up for Stacked Deck. You’ll be walking into your division as the best trained middleweight to ever enter that octagon.”
Mac rolls his eyes and tosses a blueberry at her. “I’m right here, ya know?”
“You’re training him, dummy! He’s got your expertise. Mine. Biggie’s. Bean’s. He’s going to dominate.” Her eyes come to mine. “Come with us. For the first time since you were seventeen, you can do something for you, and you’ll know Lyss is safe right here. Behind a gate, shielded by fierce women. It’s safer than hiring the secret service.”
“Miles?” Brooke brings her hand up to my face and pulls me around. “I’ve got this, I promise.”
“Okay.” My breath races from my chest and leaves me empty. “But I’m gonna need hourly updates. Every hour, don’t forget. I need to see what you’re feeding her, and then an after picture, so I can check she’s not swelling. When you go to sleep, I want you to sleep in her bed with her. With your hand on her belly all night to make sure she’s breathing.”
Bry heads back to the fridge with a snicker, and takes out a half-eaten baked chicken. He tears a leg off and takes a bite like he’s starving. “Two days with the boyfriend and free reign to whale on him.” He looks to me and grins. “It’s legal, because it’s sport.”
I shoot my gaze back to Brooke, but she only shrugs. “He’s got a point. Pretty sure the cops even confirmed it. That’s how the twins stay out of prison. And…” She smiles. “I’ll keep you updated on everything with Lyss. You won’t even have time to worry, because we’ll call. We’ll text. We’ll send pictures, and maybe we’ll write a book just for you.” She looks to Alyssa. “You wanna have a sleepover with me, baby?”
“Can we buy sleep bras?”
I spin. “No bras for you! And no boys.”
I’m not sure I ever wondered what it would be like to have a woman in my home on a semi-regular basis. There was always just me and Lyss. The memory of Karla was so easily tossed aside, so shadowed by her disappearance, that it was easy to forget, and absorb myself in my new reality with a baby.
Now, there’s still just me and Lyss, but Brooke lives two doors down, which means she’s walking through my front door before the sun each day, and leaving long after Lyss has fallen asleep – and that’s if she leaves at all.
Our week passes where absolutely nothing changes – I’m still training early, then we do breakfast, school drop-off, gym, school pick-up, and then more training after that – but at the same time, everything seems to have changed. Because Brooke is beating me to the kitchen to prepare breakfast, or she’s ready and waiting with Lyss’ hairbrush and conditioning spray that helps detangle my baby’s hair.
She’s leaving her special sleeping bras in my room, and because they’re fairly standard and nothing from those magazines I read over the years, when Lyss sees them in my room or in the laundry, she barely blinks.
Those lunches I slave over for Lyss, the kind that have to be completely safe for her and not boring, Brooke whips up like she’s been doing it her whole life. Homemade snacks, muffins, and pie; she’s taking over my kitchen and my life, and I’m not sure I have the willpower to ask her to stop.
I haven’t eaten a single dinner in a week that didn’t have her sitting right across from me. I haven’t spent a single day where I don’t get to be with her at least once, and she’s not shy about what she likes when we have five minutes without Lyss nearby.
I’m the guy whose life ended and restarted at seventeen. Gone was the fun partying and days of no responsibility, and in their place were years of barely holding on. Years, days, nights, even minutes when the clock read something horrendous in the a.m. when I wasn’t sure we’d make it until the sun came up again.
Now I have everything I’ve ever wanted – my daughter, my career, and a girl that I’m so fucking certain I’ve fallen in love with that I make myself sick. It’s the good kind of love, the healthy kind, the kind that shouldn’t terrify me, but the last time I thought I’d found this, I ended up on a road to hell with a woman that wasn’t willing to endure the ride with us.
“Let’s go, Iowa!” Heavy fists slam against my front door. Evie’s fists, to be specific.
Ten days have passed since Brooke’s and my first ever official date. Ten days since she slid into my life and decided she was here whether we liked it or not. Ten days of watching her walk to the forest surrounding the estate, Twain on her heels, and a little bag on her shoulder while she stared into the distance and worked her plots through her brain.
Hours later, she’d come back lighter. She’d be smiling, bouncing, happy, as though each writing session is like unloading something tangible. She disappears with the world on her shoulders, and comes back with a pep to her step and a determination to be here with me and Lyss. Not just me, and not just Lyss. But us both, at the same time. She’s creating a family, and no one saw it happening until she’d already done it. Now I’m not sure I wanna give it back.
“Iowa! Move your ass!”
“I hate your cousin.” I sit on my kitchen stool, elbows on the counter, my head in my hands while Brooke stands on the opposite side of the counter, and leans so she can peek at me from under my hands. Lyss sits beside me, cautiously happy. She gets two days of girl time with Brooke, but she’s nervous. She’s feeding off of my nerves, absorbing them, when I should be reassuring her. “I hate her with the fire of a billion dragons.”
“Daddy,” Lyss whispers. “That’s a lot.”
“I know it’s a lot, baby. That’s how much I hate her.”
“Miss Parker said hate is a bad word.”
“It is,” I growl. “It’s really, really bad. It’s the meanest of the mean and should never be said.”
“So why’d you say it?”
“Because I hate her!” I lift my head, and smile to let her know I’m not really mad. “Miss Evie is mean to me, baby. She’s making me go away.”
“I wish you didn’t have to go, Daddy. I’m gonna miss you.”
“You want me to stay?” I spin on my stool, and bundle her close. “Just say the words, baby, and I’m staying. No questions asked.”
“No!” Brooke pushes off the counter with a laugh, and comes around to our side so she can break my hold. “She’ll miss you. We both will, but you have to get out of this house right now.”
“Brooklyn…”
“Miles…” She lifts a brow. “Leave. You’re fishing for her to tell you to stay. You’ll be home tomorrow night, and you’ll be so happy you went. Especially when we send you a billion pictures and ruin your phone storage.”
“I don’t wanna go.” I take her hand, and tug her closer until she flips onto my lap.
Lyss giggles at the show, and then some more when I press a kiss to Brooke’s lips.
Normalize kissing, I say. Show my baby that it’s okay – ya know, when she’s thirty or older.
“If I stay, I could take off from the gym, maybe you could give your brain a break for two days. That’s two school days when it’d be just us…” I stare into her eyes. “Just… us…”
“While that sounds amazing, I’m saying no dice.” She leans up and drops a noisy kiss on my lips. “Go to camp, miss us, come home, and take us out for dessert.”
“Brooke…”
“Iowa! I’m coming in there in twenty seconds if you don’t come out.”
“I hat
e her.”
Brooke’s chest bounces with muted laughter. “I kind of love her. She’s basically my big sister.”
“And I get to spend two days with her, and your actual brother, and your dad too, since this is bust-Iowa’s-ass week.”
“Daddy, no swearing.”
“Come on.” Brooke pushes off my lap. “You need to go. Lyss needs to finish her breakfast, and then she needs to go to school. Then I’m going to spend time with Malachai.”
“Who the fudge is Malachai?”
She shrugs. “Bet you’d like to know.”
“He’s fictional, isn’t he?”
She snorts. “Yes, he is. And he wants to hurt Tully real bad. If you stay home, I won’t have time to write, and I’ve been waiting for that scene for a long time. So, get.”
She tugs me from my chair, tosses Lyss into my arms like she had complete faith I’d catch, then drags us toward the front door while Lyss wraps her arms around my neck and her legs around my hips.
“We adore you, Miles. But we need girl time.” She swings the door wide, and reveals Evie with her fist lifted, ready to hit my door again. “Hey, Smalls. He’s ready.”
“Awesome. Now get in the damn car. Hey, Lyss. You ready for fun with Miss Brooke?”
“Uh huh! We’re gonna buy bras.”
“Yeah you are. Tell them to put them on Aunt Evie’s account. I’ll buy you as many bras as you want, baby.”
“You are not taking my daughter underwear shopping!”
Brooke only leans against the doorframe with folded arms and silent laughter. “You seriously need to relax. You’re gonna give yourself a heart attack.”
“No heart jokes,” Evie scolds. “They’re not kosher around here anymore.” She steps forward and gently tugs Lyss’ hair until my girl looks around. “You have fun with Brookey, okay? We’ll have fun with Daddy. Then tomorrow night, we’ll have family dinner.”
“Okay. Can I sit with you?”
“Sure!”
“I’m going away, and you won’t wanna sit with me when I get back?” I think I’m legitimately hurt. “Alyssa May. What is wrong with you?”
“I have two sides, Daddy! Miss Evie can sit on one side, and you can sit on the other.” She looks to Brooke and frowns. “You can sit across so you’re still near, then I get to look at your face.”