how such an event would play out. A smile tilted the corners of her mouth. Never in a million years would she have thought they would have literally played and talked for hours on end. There were no awkward silences between them after they started to play. None. They slotted together as if they belonged together. Well… they did, didn't they?
A tiny niggling of jealousy ate at her, and she batted it away with a firm mental slap. She wouldn't begrudge either of the males in her life the time to get to know each other. She'd done enough to keep them apart. Damn it, she wanted there to be a bridge, some way to negotiate the past and have a future. She closed her eyes and shook her head. A foolish desire, and yet it burned hot and bright.
Chapter 13
"Are you sure?" Brody asked her again as they waited for Gage to use the restroom before they headed to his mom and dad's house.
"I'm positive. It was nice of Brianna to agree to be my buffer, but I don't need one." She hoped. Brody's mom had always intimidated her, but it was time for her to lift her head up and be proud of her son and herself.
"She said she’d try to get someone to come down and watch the plumber."
Amber chuckled. "I'm okay, honestly. Brianna needs to take care of her restaurant, and taking care of a backed-up drain in the kitchen is way more important than standing guard over me. I'll be fine."
"Ready! Oh, should I bring my football?" Gage stopped two steps from them, his eyes wide as he waited for an answer.
"That would be great."
"Okay! Be right back!" He tore off down the hall.
"He's excited."
"He's also scared." She'd fielded a hundred questions, most of them variations of 'what if they don't like me?'
"Of what?"
"That your family won't like him."
"Why would he think that?"
"Because he's ten? Even though he's bigger than most kids in his grade, he's still young. He's worried, so anything you can say that would ease that fear would be––"
"Got it!" Gage barreled toward them again.
"Okay, then let's head out. I know your grandma and grandpa are so excited to meet you." Brody opened the door for them.
"They are?" Gage nearly twisted in half trying to see Brody.
"Of course. My brother, Blay, the fireman is going to be there and so is my little sister, Bekki. You said you've seen her on television, right?"
Amber ushered Gage into the truck and helped him connect the middle seat belt. "Yeah, she's a reporter."
"Right. Do you want to know a secret about her?" Brody waited for her to get in the truck, holding the door open for her.
"What?"
"She stinks at football. Never get put on her team." Brody wiggled his eyebrows and shut the door, jogging around the front of the truck.
Gage laughed and glanced up at her. She winked at him and smiled. "See, I told you, they are excited to meet you."
Brody opened the driver's side door and jumped in.
"Who else is going to be there?" Gage rolled his football in his hands as he spoke.
"Well, I know our neighbors will be there. We grew up with their kids. Between the two families, there were eleven of us kids."
"The picture. That's a lot of kids." The awe in Gage's voice was almost comical.
"It got kind of crowded at times, but it was always fun. My older brother and his new wife are stuck at work. They went on a honeymoon, and now they are both catching up, but they want to meet you. Brock and Kallie are police officers, too. Homicide detectives."
"Really?"
"Yep."
"And your other brother is a fireman."
"Correct." He held up his fist, and Gage bumped it with his.
"Why did he get named after a fire again?" Gage rolled his football in his hands.
"He didn't, actually. Blayze is my great great grandfather's name on my mother's side. Or something like that. An old family name."
"Oh, yeah, I remember. Why does everyone's name start with a B?"
"That's a family tradition on my dad's side. I have three sets of cousins, and all their names start with either J, N, or K."
"That's cool. Where did you go to school?"
Amber listened as Brody and Gage talked. The conversation was happy and easy. She was delighted and at the same time a little envious at how easily Brody accepted Gage into his life when he’d let her go so long ago. And of course, then she felt guilty