Open Your Heart (Kings Grove #4) - Delancey Stewart Page 0,87

done in a small town like this,” I told them. “Look, Annie’s cute, and yeah—if we were in LA and I had the chance to never see her again? Yeah, I’d probably pursue it. But here?” I shook my head. “I’d like to stay here a while. And when things fall apart, it’ll just make it all weird and uncomfortable. Not just for us, but for everyone.”

“Who says things will fall apart?” Harper asked.

I narrowed my eyes at her. “Statistically speaking, relationships do not work out.” It was true. I’d watched my mom go through at least fifteen relationships in the seventeen years I’d lived with her. “They end, and then they make people awkward and weird.” I’d experienced that part myself, though Mom had been a cautionary tale there too.

“Statistically speaking,” Harper said. “Nothing ever works if you don’t try.”

One of my dogs broke into an excited high-pitched bark just then, as if agreeing with Harper’s words.

“Shut it Yoga,” I told her.

Harper just smiled at me.

“Move along,” I told her. “Nothing to see here.”

“If you say so, man,” Cam said.

Sneak Peek - Christmas in Kings Grove (Chapter 2)

Annie

Having a mad crush on the tall Aussie who lived up behind Harper and Cam was not a good plan. Acting on that crush was an even worse idea. But I didn’t seem to be able to stop myself from suggesting he might help plan the festival.

For one thing, I could use his camera skills—I saw how well the trailer for the Inn he’d filmed had come out, and the footage of Maddie and Connor’s wedding was unbelievable. But the other part of it was just that I couldn’t help wanting to be near the guy. He was big and strong and he just seemed to glow with some kind of sunny feel-good vibe. And I needed a little bit of that.

The phone was ringing as I stepped into the house, and I laid down my keys and went in search of my always-missing cell. I found it in a cushion at the back of the couch and picked it up just in time. “Hello? Dad?” I plopped onto the couch and tried to steel myself.

“Hey.” Dad’s voice was tired. Like always.

“How is everything?” I already knew the answer.

“Your brother’s gone missing again.” He sighed.

“How long this time?”

“Just last night. Maybe he just went to visit a friend…”

“I think the time for making excuses for him is past, Dad.” Johnny had been using drugs for the last four or five years off and on. Dad had left Kings Grove to go live with him down in Escondido, thinking if he was there maybe he could be a positive influence in his life. It hadn’t worked. John was as bad as ever, and we both knew one of these days he would disappear and just not come home.

“I know it is. It’s just…it’s hard, baby.”

I swallowed hard, not wanting to cry. My loud sniffle gave me away anyway.

“I shouldn’t burden you with this, you can’t help from there,” he said.

“It’s okay, Dad. I don’t want you to feel like you’re doing this all alone.”

“Johnny won’t see that doctor now.”

The rehab doctor. He’d been in and out of three different programs now. In-patient, out-patient, it didn’t seem to matter. “Why not?”

“I think because the guy suggested he quit doing drugs.” Dad’s sense of humor wasn’t completely gone, but caring for Johnny had aged him, had stolen a lot of his joy. I wished I had an answer for this, wished I didn’t feel like I was hiding from our family’s problems, staying in Kings Grove.

“Do you want me to come?” I asked the question for the fiftieth time. “Or do you think maybe bringing him home would help?”

Dad sighed. “I’d love to come home, Annie. But bringing your brother to Kings Grove might just be bringing a lot of trouble to all those nice folks.”

“Maybe it’s what Johnny needs.” I said the words feeling no confidence at all about what might help my brother.

“The place is not equipped to handle him.”

“Maybe not.”

“I just needed to hear your voice,” Dad said. “To know I didn’t screw up both my kids.”

“This isn’t your fault, Dad.”

“Maybe not.” I hated hearing the resignation in his voice, the unspoken belief that he’d done something wrong and it was going to cost Johnny his life.

“Will you let me know if you hear from him?” I asked.

“Yeah.”

“Okay,” I said. “Hey Dad?”

“Yeah?”

“Are you going to come up for Christmas this year?” Dad