Hudson (Anderson Billionaires #4) - Melody Anne Page 0,73
you can’t ask me,” Katherine said with a chuckle. She didn’t seem to mind at all if Joseph’s meddling was focused on someone other than herself.
“Now, that’s just not fair. Crew was the one who brought it up,” Joseph said. “What’s going on?” He focused right back in on Hudson.
“Nothing’s up,” Hudson said as he shifted in his seat. They all continued to stare him down. He was completely uncomfortable having this conversation in front of his Aunt Katherine. There was no way he was talking about woman troubles with the classiest woman on the planet in his presence. She’d think he was a terrible human being, and he cared far too much what she thought about him to risk her coming to that assessment.
“Would you like to come with me, Aunt Katherine? I think the boys are planning on grilling Hudson. It’d be fun to watch, but you know he won’t say anything if we’re here,” Brooke said as she came back from inside the house.
“I’d love to walk the gardens,” Katherine said as she took Brooke’s hand and stood.
“Call if you need anything,” Joseph said. Katherine’s shoulders stiffened a bit, but then she turned, blew a kiss to her husband, and arm in arm, walked away with Brooke.
“Overprotective . . .” could be heard before their voices faded.
“It’s not that I’m overprotective, I just want to encase her in bubble wrap,” Joseph said as if that was perfectly normal. His words made them all chuckle.
“Okay, enough of that. Now talk to us, boy,” he demanded of Hudson.
Hudson let out a sigh as he reached over to the cooler and grabbed a beer before leaning back in his chair.
“Have you ever wanted to strangle and kiss a woman at the same time?” Hudson finally asked.
Silence greeted his words for several heartbeats, and then laughter rang out. He didn’t look at his uncle or his brothers. He was miserable, and he didn’t know what to do about it. He felt foolish over talking about his relationship with Daisy, but he also felt as if he didn’t have any other choice.
“Yes, many times,” Joseph admitted. “But not in a very long time. I think you eventually reach a point in your relationship where you admire the person you’re with, you respect them, and you acknowledge the differences between you. The two of you might not always agree, but you always love one another. Knowing the difference of what matters and what doesn’t will help you get through even the hardest of times.”
“I bought my land from your buddy, Bruce, but what I didn’t know was that he has a spitfire of a granddaughter who didn’t want the land sold. Her grandfather gave her all of the money, and she offered me the money back for the land. We were in a standoff and then I made a stupid agreement that I’d sell her the land back if she could convince me she was able to use it for a better purpose.”
“You did what?” Crew gasped. “You’ve been searching for this type of property forever. I can’t believe you’d do anything to risk losing it.” His brother’s mouth was hanging open in shock.
“I know, I know. For one thing I didn’t think it would be possible for her to convince me, so there were no worries on my part when I agreed to the terms of the deal. And for another, I bought the property. I’d have to actually give it to her to lose it,” Hudson said.
“But an agreement is an agreement in this family,” Finn pointed out.
“I know,” Hudson said as his fingers ran through his hair for the hundredth time in two hours. “And she’s driving me crazy because I can see valid points in her argument, but she’s also driving me crazy because she’s . . . well, she’s . . .” He stopped and groaned. “She’s just driving me crazy,” he finished, not knowing any other way to verbalize what she was.
“How so?” Joseph asked, his lips turning up.
“I’m glad to be bringing you pleasure with my misery,” Hudson told his uncle. “I don’t know how to explain it. When I’m with her I truly enjoy myself. But I don’t see how. We’re so different. We have some amazing times, but we also fight and have a lot of misunderstandings. Normally if there was this much tension with a woman I was interested in, I’d be long gone, but I can’t pull away from Daisy.”