a year ago, I’d fallen in love with my husband all over again. At the dinner table after the girls had gone to bed one night, he’d confessed that he thought he was in love with his best friend and didn’t know what to do.
Hudson had only smiled at his boy and said, “Like father, like son.”
To which Jack almost fell out of his seat.
Under the table, Hudson grabbed my hand and said, “I fell in love with my best friend too once, son. I couldn’t care less if you’re gay. What I care about is you being a brave man and recognizing love when you feel it. It took me years to understand my love for Lex. So if you love Nolan, then tell him when the time is right and you’ll never regret it.”
I’d lifted our paired hands to my mouth and kissed my husband’s knuckles, thankful he was the father of my children, my lover, my bossy other half, my forever beer, wings, and darts partner, my biggest champion, and—that day and forever—my best friend too.
I smiled at the memory as I gave Jack back my attention. “The keys are on the counter.”
“’Kay,” Jack said, his gaze slipping down to his father’s arms around my middle. “The no-making-out rule also goes for you two though. I don’t need anymore siblings.”
Poor Jack. He’d spent so much of his life as the only child in our giant, crazy family until it seemed baby fever had hit us all at the same time. Cal and Vanessa had been busy with two girls and a boy, and even Lauren and Grandpa Mark had defied the laws of reproduction and had a little girl of their own a few years back. Jack loved them all and had secured a pretty substantial bank account as the family babysitter, but his patience was wearing thin.
“Boy, get out of here before I change my mind about you taking the Chevelle,” Hudson rumbled.
Jack rolled his eyes, but like the smart man we’d raised him to be, he snagged the keys and hurried out the door.
Hudson slid around in front of me, his hands dropping to my ass. “We’ve got a solid ten minutes before your parents get here.”
I shoved at his chest. “Right. Which means I need to hurry up and make my secret recipe salsa before Judy realizes it comes from a jar.”
He chuckled and dipped low to lean his forehead to mine. “I can’t believe he’s actually eighteen. Where did the time go?”
Encircling his neck, I placed a reverent kiss to his lips.
Time had gone to smiles and laughs.
It had gone to making memories and making love.
It had gone to the three little girls laughing and fighting upstairs.
And in ten minutes, it would go to an afternoon of cake and presents with the unconventional family we’d made together.
Although I’d known him most of my life, I’d spend every minute of every day proving to him I’d always bet on us.
“Love you, Hud.”
“Love you too, babe.”
The End
Preview of When the Walls Come Down
“Shit, shit, shit!” I chanted as I navigated the sidewalk, juggling a Jenga tower of my belongings. “A little help here!”
My brother chuckled from somewhere nearby. “Nah, I’m good.”
“You know being a jerk isn’t going to make me stay, right?”
“Maybe not, but if you break your leg or get stuck cleaning forty thousand palettes of eyeshadow off the sidewalk, you probably won’t be able to leave, either.”
God, I loved Heath, but when I’d asked him to help me move, sitting around cruise-directing without lifting the first damn finger wasn’t exactly what I’d had in mind. I should have asked his wife, Clare, instead. She wouldn’t have been able to help me get my mother’s old mahogany trunk down the stairs, but she also wouldn’t have spent the day guilt-tripping me, either.
“I’m impressed you knew they were palettes. Has Tessa already started hitting you up for makeup?” I grunted, hoisting the stack of boxes into the back of my Chevy Traverse.
Heath finally sprang into action and gave them a shove before they had the chance to tumble out. “She’s not even six yet. She’s got forty more years before she’s allowed to wear lip gloss. I figure they’ll cover eyeshadow when I’m in the grave.”
It should be noted that when it came to Heath’s sisters, his wife, or his daughters, my brother was a caveman. Obnoxious as it was, I couldn’t blame him. In a way, he’d been forced into that role at a