bring us that much closer to one another,” Joseph said. “Katherine and I didn’t always have an easy road, and we still have a lot of differences, but that doesn’t mean we don’t love each other unconditionally. And to be exactly the same would be boring. What would we have to talk about? What joy would there be in discovering who a person is if they were just the same as us?”
“We had an amazing time a few days ago. She ran a tractor, helped clear all of the fallen trees off of the land, then we had a picnic in the bucket of the tractor while looking up at the stars.”
Crew interrupted him when he laughed, making Hudson glare at his brother. He waited for the wisecracks to come.
“You’re pulling out all of the stops,” Crew said between chuckles.
“I’m glad I’m bringing you joy as well since you’ve been such an ass lately,” Hudson said, not at all pleased that everyone was finding humor in his misery.
“Did your night not end as planned?” Finn asked. He, at least, was doing better at hiding his glee at his brother’s misery.
“I didn’t really have a plan. But we talked about how my love of building began, and then we got on the topic of children. She seriously has some good arguments against procreating . . .” He trailed off when Joseph gasped.
“There’s zero good arguments against having babies,” Joseph said in a huff that made Hudson, Finn, and Crew laugh.
“According to you, Uncle Joseph, everyone on this planet should have a dozen kids. If that were the case we’d run out of space and food real quick,” Finn pointed out.
“I’m just saying if someone is anti-kids there has to be a reason behind it,” Joseph said. “And then that reason can be countered and they can go right back to brining babies into this world.” Joseph was so set on his ways and he wouldn’t be satisfied until everyone in the world was bringing new babies around for him to play with.
“Well, her parents weren’t around much, and she brought up brattiness, messiness, craziness and more stuff like that,” Hudson said.
Joseph sighed. “Yeah, her grandfather was disappointed in his daughter. He was proud she was off fighting for good causes, but while she was doing that, she was missing out on the miracle that was her daughter. She missed all of Daisy’s firsts, such as her first steps, her first school pageant, her first sporting event.” He stopped with a sigh. “And then both of Daisy’s parents left her too soon.”
“That’s what it sounds like. Daisy became this warrior for justice because she wanted to make her parents proud, but now that’s as much a part of her as breathing. She doesn’t say it, but there’s some real resentment there for them leaving her so much when they were alive, and then leaving her for good when they died,” Hudson said.
“I want to go back to tractor night. How did that end?” Crew prodded.
Hudson sighed. “It ended with me being very frustrated, and her running away. I don’t know why. We click, I mean really click. And she’ll let down her guard for a little while, but as soon as she realizes she’s done that, the walls come right back up.”
“Then maybe you have to try harder,” Finn said.
“I agree. Any woman worth fighting for is worth putting in maximum effort,” Joseph said.
Hudson wasn’t going to admit everything, but he needed sound advice. He took a breath as he looked at each of his brothers and then his uncle. He hadn’t been willing to tell them he’d met her before, but how was he supposed to get true advice if he only gave half of the story?
“I met her about two months ago.” The words were spoken quietly.
The gasp among the men was loud. “Where?” Joseph asked, being the first to recover.
“On my flight from Australia. I met her in the terminal. We talked. Then we sat together on the flight home.” He stopped himself from saying more. Utter silence greeted those words until laughter rang out. First it was from Finn, and then his other brothers and Joseph joined in.
“What in the hell is so funny?” he snapped.
“You moved her up to first class with you, that’s for sure. There’s no way she’d pay for that ticket,” Joseph said. “I’ve known her grandfather for a very long time and he’s told me all about Daisy since she was a very