My Beautiful Neighbor (The Greene Family #1) - Piper Rayne Page 0,79

turn.” Chevelle stands straight and pulls a piece of paper from her purse. “I wanted to write Mom a poem, but turns out it’s the one thing I’m not good at.”

We all laugh. I wish I would’ve had her read it to me that day in the kitchen. Another fail for me.

“But I wrote a letter.”

Fisher groans. I know he’s not into these days. He’d rather deal with this on his own, same as me. He’s just more vocal about it.

“‘Mom, I’m sorry…’” She glances up, and all of us huddle around her because we know the guilt that weighs heavily on her small shoulders. Our mom’s death is not her fault like she thinks it is. She was five. She didn’t know. “‘But we have a problem. Because you died, Cade is scared.’”

I draw back, and Fisher’s gaze meets mine.

“‘He’s scared to get close to someone. I’m sure you know, but there’s this new woman in town, Presley.’”

Adam steps back, smiling at our sister for calling me out.

“‘He’s so happy when he’s with her, Mom. I’m sure you see his smile all the way in heaven. But he’s trying to act like he doesn’t care about her. He humiliated her in front of the whole town. I know, I know. Not very Greene-like.’” She scolds me with a glare. “‘Please do whatever you can to reach him and send him a message that he can’t turn the clock back to before she came into town. Those feelings he has for her are never going to go away. If anything, he’ll hate himself when he finally realizes he lost her when he’s sitting at her wedding as a guest.’”

All my siblings stare at me.

I hold up my hand. “Is this some kind of bullshit intervention?”

Chevelle puts her hands on Mom’s headstone. “‘Thanks, Mom. We love you and not a day goes by that I don’t think about you.’” She drops a daisy in the vase. “Happy birthday.”

I stalk down to my truck, shaking my head, upset that a day we came to remember our mom has turned into something focused on me.

“Cade!” Chevelle runs after me and grasps my elbow. “It’s okay to put yourself out there.”

I turn back around to find all my siblings standing with Chevelle.

“We all feel the pain,” Xavier says. “None of us want to feel it again, but we can’t just stop living.”

“I’m surviving after Lucy,” Adam says. “I’m here and her leaving devastated me.”

“You guys were too young to understand,” I say.

“I’m only two years younger than you,” Fisher says. “It hurts, yeah, but you can love someone again.”

“I’ve seen you two together,” Adam says. “You’ve already fallen in love with her whether you want to admit it or not.”

My dad’s truck pulls up behind mine. He always joins us a few minutes after we start in case we want to say something we don’t want him to hear.

“What’s going on?” he asks as he walks over to us.

I cross my arms. “Seems my siblings earned psychology degrees I didn’t know about. They have a lot of opinions about why it didn’t work out with Presley.”

Dad sighs and pats my siblings on the shoulders. “Give us a minute,” he says to them.

“We’ll be at the house,” Xavier says.

Marla is making a huge meal at the house like she usually does after we’ve done our graveside visit.

Chevelle hugs me with tears in her eyes. “I’m sorry if you’re angry, but I can’t let you ruin your chance at happiness.”

I hug her tightly and pass her to Fisher, who walks her over to his truck.

“Walk with me,” my dad says.

I follow, expecting him to go back up to my mom’s grave, but he heads the opposite way.

“When your mom died, I never thought I’d love again. I didn’t want to put you guys through having a stepmom, and I wasn’t quite sure I could open myself up to caring like that for someone again. But when Marla returned, we just fit.”

I say nothing and keep walking, kicking at the leaves that were left behind under the melted snow.

“Don’t take this the wrong way, but having Marla in my life was worth putting you guys through a huge change. I’d forgotten what it was like to have a partner. Someone to listen to you, give you advice, or just love you. Someone you knew would have your back at all costs. I felt empty, and though I could stand it, once Marla came and filled that emptiness,