and proposed marriage.” I stare at the simple band that still rests on my finger. “We drove three towns over, stopped at the courthouse, made it official that very day, then we moved to the desert for the four years it took me to earn a degree.”
Evie’s romantic eyes regard me whimsically. “What did he do for those four years?”
Even on struggle street, even so poor that he chose to feed me instead of himself, they were good times for us. “He worked hard. He worked at a garage in town, saved every penny, helped me through school. I graduated in the summer, and by that Christmas, we’d conceived and already named our first baby.”
“What happened to your daddy?”
“He died of alcohol poisoning a few years later. It was amazing the power I thought he had over me. But the day Bryan married me was the day he gave me my power back. My daddy was a bad man, a bully, but like most bullies, he had no power once I told him no. He found us, he even came to us with a rifle, but Bryan never let him hurt me.” Broken teeth – my daddy’s. Broken knuckles – Bryan’s. “He visited us once. He cried about how he only wanted what was best for me. Then when Bryan refused to relinquish the power we’d discovered, the power he knew I had all along, Daddy never came back again. He went home and drank himself to death. By the time Bobby had arrived, my father was already dead and buried, so we came home. Geo wanted his best friend back, he had a job lined up for Bryan, and I was pregnant with Aiden. It was time to come home to our friends.”
“Where’s Geo now?”
“Wait!” Bean shoots up until her spine snaps straight. “What did you say Geo’s last name was?”
I smile cunningly. “Blair. George Blair.”
She scrunches her nose. “He’s related to Mac, isn’t he? He’s a moron too, isn’t he?”
I laugh. “Yes, sweetheart. On both counts. Geo is Mac’s grandpa, and yes, he’s also a moron. But just like Mac, he means well. He grew out of his immaturity by the time your daddy was born. He’d settled down, had a daughter with a nice woman. She’s gone now, too. She passed away right around the time Mac was born. Now it’s just Geo, his daughter, and Mac – the car-stealing, adrenaline junkie, trouble-making teenager – left for those Thanksgiving dinners.”
Evie tilts her head to the side. “How do you know this? Are you still in contact with Geo?”
“Of course. I see him around all the time. We lost contact for a long while there, while he was settling in with his family, but kismet played tricks on us. The universe brought your Auntie Kit into Bobby’s life, and with her, came Geo. It’s like we’re twenty-somethings living in a crappy apartment all over again. Our houses are much nicer now, but the nostalgia sure feels good.”
The girls look between each other, and like they have a million times since Bean was a newborn and Evie was a curious toddler, they link hands, giving and taking the love that began the day Bryan declared me his.
Evie’s blue eyes penetrate mine and send my heart thudding with memories, good and bad. “Do you miss him, Gramma?
I nod thoughtfully and spin my wedding ring.
“Every single day, baby.” I meet their eyes. “I miss him every single second of every single day. But then when it gets to be too much, I visit my boys and I take a hug from my arrogant Bobby, because he’s his daddy’s arrogance. Or I hug my serious Aiden, because nobody was as serious as Bryan until Aiden came along. And when I need to laugh, when I’m scared that I can’t go on another minute without him, I visit my Jimmy, because his jokes are as bad as Bryan’s.”
Bryan Kincaid promised me the world.
And for as long as his boys insist on hugging me every day, every time they take me in their arms and press a kiss to my hair, I know that he delivered.
Their hugs are his hugs.
He’s too stubborn to ever truly be gone.
Follow the Kincaid’s in Finding Home.
Book 1 of the Rollin On Series.
WRITTEN IN THE STARS
Then
“One!”
Her sweet growl has me smiling before I even open the door.
“Two!”
I stop on the front stoop and press my ear close to the door. I want to know what they do when I’m