Page 103 of Sawyer

Wyatt shrugs. “We heard you might’ve had a crappy night of sleep.”

“I woke him up,” Ella explains as she munches on her waffle.

My brother lifts her into his arms. “Uncle Cash says you missed your daddy very much. Maybe we need to practice our sleepovers more often, yeah?”

Ella runs her hand over his stubble. “What’s a sleepover?”

“When you come visit your uncles and have the best time ever, like you did that one time at my house.”

“Hey!” Sally smiles. “She visits her aunties too. Here, why don’t you come play with me while Uncle Wy and Daddy have a chat?”

I eye my brother as he hands Ella over to his fiancée. “We’re having a chat?”

“Yeah, we’re having a chat. You’re in love. As your?—”

“Wait, wait. I’m gonna stop you right there. I’m not?—”

“But you are.” Wyatt’s expression softens. “I know that look, because I had it too.”

“Still do!” Sally calls over her shoulder.

Ella is leading her upstairs, no doubt because my daughter wants to show her the fort we built out of her canopy bed earlier this week.

“Anyway.” Wyatt gently pushes me out to the front porch. “As your older, wiser brother who just went through something similar, I thought I’d impart some wisdom.”

I run a hand over my face before crossing my arms over my chest, my coffee cup dangling against my side. It’s sunny outside, but it still feels like winter. The air’s got a bite to it that I hope mellows out by the time Ava and Junie get here.

This is what I hate about this time of year. You’ll get a couple of warm days that make you think spring has sprung, only for winter to return with a vengeance. It’s such a tease.

Wyatt sips his coffee and squints at me. “She’s great. Ava.”

“She is.” I swallow and look away. “She also doesn’t want to get married again or have more kids.”

“Ah. So y’all found the rub nice and early in your relationship.”

Uncrossing my arms, I bring my coffee to my lips. If I have any more caffeine I’m likely to experience a cardiac event, but I feel strangely discombobulated talking about this shit with my brother. The cup in my hand—the smell of coffee in my head—helps me feel slightly less lost.

“I mean, we just met. This is crazy, right?” I keep my voice low in case little ears are listening. “But it felt so natural telling her everything. She’s a great listener, and I feel like she understood where I was coming from. I don’t want to scare her off, but I also don’t want to lead her on.”

“Because you’re in love.”

“Would you stop saying that?”

“Why?”

“Because.” I draw a deep, slightly annoyed breath through my nose. “It’s too fucking soon, Wy.”

“I’m not so sure about that.” He scratches the underside of his chin. “You’ve had lots of practice learning what you don’t want. Makes sense that when you’ve finally found what youdowant, you jump in with both feet.”

Leaning against the railing, I tuck my hand into my front pocket and look out over the yard. “Remember when it got real cold that one winter and Dad flooded the yard so it would freeze into an ice rink?”

Wyatt smiles, pointing to a spot several feet away. “Grass still hasn’t grown back. Mom hated it when we played hockey.”

“Yeah, because we used it as an excuse to beat the shit out of each other. We thought Cash broke his nose.”

“That was me.” Wyatt’s finger moves to the feature in question. “Still can’t breathe right out of my left nostril.”

I laugh. “Only what you deserved.”

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