library, a beautiful orchard, and it even had a name, The Manor. No one complained when we got together there, mainly because the huge circular driveway had enough room for everyone to park.
“Five thousand’s a slight exaggeration, don’t you think?”
“Only a slight one, Addy. When I first met everyone, I almost asked if y’all would wear name tags.”
I felt myself smile at that. He wasn’t wrong. There were a lot of us.
“So, Mom’s not mad Quinn and Brice are getting married there. She’s mad about why and the timing of the wedding. Have you heard the story about Delaney and Carter’s wedding?”
“Just that Delaney surprised Carter.”
“Yeah, she surprised him all right.” I laughed as the memories of that day hit. “But more, Hudson surprised us.”
“Hudson? Ethan’s son?”
“Oh, yeah.” I couldn’t contain my laughter when visions of my cousin Ethan’s face came to my mind. “Get this…”
I spent the rest of the drive home telling Trey the story of how Delaney had arranged a surprise wedding for Carter on Ethan’s birthday. Then right after they exchanged their vows and Carter kissed his wife, Honor had screamed and doubled over in pain. Not wanting to miss the wedding, she hadn’t told anyone she’d gone into labor hours before. And being that her labor had started hours before when her water broke right there in the backyard, Hudson was impatient to make his appearance, and Honor had given birth in my aunt and uncle’s house, on the kitchen floor with Ethan delivering his son.
Trey gave a wave to Lenny as he drove through the gates then turned his horror-filled eyes toward me.
“Jesus.”
“Yeah,” I agreed. “At the time it wasn’t funny. Now it’s hilarious. Quinn being the troublemaker of the family has set her wedding date close to Delaney’s due date hoping for a repeat performance. Mom’s not impressed. Delaney thinks it’s amusing. I don’t know how Carter feels about this, but considering his wedding day ended with him sitting behind his sister-in-law helping her push while he watched his brother out-of-his-mind with worry, I don’t think he’ll be all that fired up for what Quinn is calling Lenox V2.”
That made Trey smile.
“Never seen Carter Lenox off his game. Never seen him break a sweat. If there’s a possibility of either of those happening, I’m not missing your sister’s wedding.”
Quinn’s wedding wasn’t for seven months. Seven. That was a lot of months for Trey to be planning ahead. Of course, I hoped I got to attend my sister’s wedding on Trey’s arm, but I decided to keep that part to myself, and instead, I told him, “After Mom got done with Quinn, she turned her attention to Hadley, and get this…” I didn’t wait for him to respond, I was so excited I barely contained my urge to clap. “Hadley and Brady are getting married in two weeks.”
“Two weeks?” Trey choked out, laughing. “Not wasting any time. Good for him.”
No, Brady wasn’t wasting any more time; he’d already waited four years for my sister.
“Well, she wants seven kids and she’s not joking. It’s best they hurry up and get on that before she’s still popping them out when she’s ninety.”
“Seven?” he sputtered. “She wants seven kids?”
“Well, between you and me she doesn’t want seven kids, she wants Brady to have seven kids. The way he grew up with no family, she’s determined to give him one.”
“Taking care of her man,” Trey muttered, and it took me a moment to understand his gruff tone. But when I did, my heart clenched.
Had anyone ever taken care of Trey?
His mom? A girlfriend? Anyone? Judging by his reaction last night, the answer to that was a big fat no. Knowing that, remembering how his family behaved, what little he’d told me about them, my anger grew and grew and kept growing until he pulled into his garage. And then it didn’t stop growing—it just boiled over.
“Babe?”
“Hm?”
“Not sure what my dashboard did to you, but I’m fairly certain it’s gonna catch fire any moment.”
“What?”
I blinked and looked over at him.
“What’s with the look?”
“The look?”
“Yeah, the death rays that were shooting from your eyes and the scowl.”
Okay, that was funny, but I didn’t feel like smiling nor did I feel like participating in banter.
“I’m fine.”
“And I’m not dumb.”
“Please let me have this,” I whispered.
Trey waited a beat and nodded. “For now. But at some point, we’re gonna have to stop putting off these conversations.”
Gah. He was right. There was a lot we needed to talk about, but right then, I