was easy. I loved Brody. His child? It was a piece of him I was able to keep."
"Loved or love?" Dawn took a sip of her cocoa.
Amber blinked and tried to catch up. "What?"
"You said you loved Brody. I've been listening to you every night this week. The soft laughter, the long hours of talk. You're still in love with him, aren't you?" Dawn set her cup down.
She took a drink of her cocoa to give herself some time to compose a response. Finally, she shrugged. "I don't know if I ever stopped loving him."
"Are you hoping for more than just Brody getting to know Gage?" Dawn took another drink.
"Maybe? I guess? I'm not sure that's what Brody wants, though."
"Have you asked him?"
"No!" She glared at her sister.
"Okay, okay, don't have a coronary and don't wake up Gage. He'll want cocoa and then food. That kid is always hungry." Dawn grumped, "You know communication between the two of you has been a stumbling block. Maybe you should work on that."
"We are. We're talking about how things were for me and for him. We've spent hours on the phone. At work things are good. We've been able to joke around, be together without the anger and the egg shells. He even called me after a work date this week."
Dawn stopped with her mug halfway to her mouth. "A work date?"
"Yeah, that’s what I thought too, but he's trying to get funding for the team and a woman he used to date is the person who has access to the purse strings, or rather putting the information in front of those who control the strings."
"Interesting. Well, you need to figure out what you both want and I'm going to make myself scarce on Saturday. Give you all some family time."
"You don't have to do that." She didn't want Dawn to feel like she was pushing her out the door.
"Oh, yeah I do. I'm going to go shopping, have dinner, and maybe catch a movie before I come home. If he's still here, I have an amazing book I need to read. You get those two guys together."
Amber lifted the cocoa cup and smiled. "A step at a time, right?"
Dawn snorted into her mug.
"What?" Amber blinked at her when she started laughing.
Dawn took her cup to the sink and rinsed it out. "Nothing... the two of you don't know how to take a single step at a time. You sprint and then crash. Don't crash this time, okay? It would break Gage's heart. Night."
She listened to her sister pad down the hallway. Unfortunately, if she didn't get it right this time, Gage's wasn't the only heart that would break. Again.
Chapter 11
Brody put Wilma into park and turned off the engine. Fuck, he was nervous. He was meeting his kid. You can do this. Play it cool. Yeah, right. Giving his palms another quick wipe against his jeans, he grabbed the triple chocolate brownies and a small gift he'd put together for Gage and got out of the truck.
Amber came from the back of the house, opening the gate, a smile on her face. "Nervous?"
"God, is it that obvious?" Brody drew a deep breath and handed her the pink box containing the brownies. He kept the small wrapped package.
"No, but I figured if I was nervous, and Gage was nervous, you may be freaking a little, too. Thank you for this." She peeked in the box. "Oh man, three more miles tacked on the end of my run tomorrow."
"You said he liked chocolate." He shrugged and peeked around her and froze. Amber glanced over her shoulder and smiled. "Well there you are. Gage, come here, bud." Amber held her hand out in invitation, and the boy moved toward them. He shoved his hands in his front pockets and examined him like he was a bug under a microscope.
"Gage, this is your father, Brody. Brody, your son, Gage."
"Hey." They both said the same thing at the same time, and Amber laughed. "Yeah, you two are most definitely related. Come on. I want to get the burgers on before you eat all the chips."
"We have two bags." Gage sent her a mischievous grin.
"Not my point." She motioned for Brody to follow them. They walked through the side yard and into the back. A nice sized concrete pad had lawn furniture arranged with an umbrella anchored in the middle of a table. A BBQ off to the side was hot, and the smell of charcoal was enticing.