Nash Brothers Box Set - Carrie Aarons Page 0,68

as the wetness from her eyes soaks into my shirt. I blink up, trying not to get emotional. I don’t know that I have anything left in me. Between talking about Dad, where we dropped Fletcher off at today, and Presley …

She sniffles, gulping hard as she straightens to look at me. Her dark eyes narrow, the same color as my own. “And he’d want you to do the same. Move on, I mean. I see the way you look at Presley. Don’t be a fool, Keaton. Tell that girl you love her that you can’t live without her.”

“This isn’t about me.” I huff, turning away.

“Oh, yes, it is. And while it’s my turn to get real with you, I need you to know that you’re not responsible for everyone else’s problems. Your brothers can make their own mistakes and learn to clean them up. You’re not their keeper, and you shouldn’t be expected to be mine. You have to live, too, sweetheart.”

Her words hit the most vulnerable spot inside of me, the one that prickles with shame and aches from being broken. Since my father died …

Hell, even before that. I’ve always felt this sense of responsibility. Do everything in an orderly fashion. Family over everything. Duty over happiness. Love should only happen in a practical, ducks-in-a-row kind of a way. Date, get engaged, get married, buy a house, have kids.

But … my life was living proof that nothing ever happened according to plan. And here I was, still trying to control it and live by these ridiculous ideals I’d set up for myself.

“She was only trying to protect you that night, Keat.” Bowen’s expression tells me he’s on Mom’s side.

“She’s reckless. She … she, she makes me act spontaneously. I’m not a child. I’m a man with a business and responsibilities.”

“And I’d say the fact that she just purchased a storefront on Main Street says that she’s just as serious about making a life here as you are.” Forrest is looking down at his phone.

Mom clucks her tongue at him.

He shrugs. “What? Accessing building records and real estate deals is like, the easiest thing ever.”

Presley had bought a storefront? Obviously, I knew that Hattie had put the book shop up for sale but …

She was really putting down roots in Fawn Hill. Despite my rejection, despite my idiocy in letting her go, she was making a decision to settle in.

And just like that, my heart started beating again.

“I told her I loved her and she didn’t say it back,” I tell them all for the first time.

Before right now, no one knew the secret pain I’d been hiding. Her unwillingness to give me those emotions back burned in the deepest chambers of my heart.

Bowen’s voice is quiet when he speaks. “You can love someone very much and not be able to say it.”

No one touches that with a ten-foot pole. Instead, Mom turns back to me and takes my face in her hands.

“Your father told me he loved me on our second date. We’d known each other for ten days, and he professed his love to me. To say I was shocked would be an understatement. It took me an entire month after that to say it back. You are so much like him it scares me sometimes. Keaton, you are a man who knows exactly what you want. You say how you feel when you feel it. You’re humble, intelligent, loyal and when you love someone, they know it. You’re the best kind of person. But … you can also be a bit intimidating. Presley loves you, I know that girl does, but she just needs some time to sort out her feelings. She chose you because you’re the type of man who will let her. Who will still be waiting there for her when she does finally come to that conclusion. And if she needs a little push, because she is who she is, then you give her a little push. Be her steadiness, be her patience. And when you can’t be that anymore, put it all on the line.”

“Grand freaking gesture, man,” Forrest echoes our mother.

Mom’s words open my eyes to the thing I haven’t been able to see all along. The one that’s been right in front of me.

Presley and I … we chose each other because of our differences, not in spite of them. I love that she forces me to be spontaneous, and I think she loves that I ground her.

“But I