He really couldn't wait until Sunday to have a chance to talk to his cousins.
He needed some help to put things into perspective and as much as it galled him to have to ask Josh or Gabe, he couldn't think of anyone else who might be able to understand.
Ah, fuck!
CHAPTER10
Sunday dinner wasa usual thing with his family. But with three of them being first responders working crazy schedules, sometimes the whole family wasn't there.
Brody showed up early to make sure they had enough chairs.
Well, that was the reason that he gave himself.
It seemed plausible.
"Brody! Wait for me!"
He turned his head as he walked across the green and saw Rachel coming out of Kay's house.
"These are heavy," he told her as he lifted the folding chairs he was carrying with him.
Rachel laughed and started to run a little to catch up with him. "They're so heavy that you can lift them all to show me how heavy they are? Try again, brother mine."
He looked at her. "How are you doing?"
She shrugged. "Okay. It's been busy at the clinic. I go to work. I come home. I just had to get some baby time over at Kay's before dinner."
Brody stopped walking and Rachel jogged on past him a few steps.
"What?"
He shook his head. "Unless someone cut Kay and the babies out of the family, you're going to see them in, what, a half an hour for dinner?"
Rachel moved back to him and took one of the four chairs away. She started walking toward their mother's house with her chin up. "Well, I'm not the only one who wants time with the babies, so once everyone else is there, I'll only get a little bit of time with them."
Brody caught up to her, grumbling softly about how, "the chairs are unbalanced now."
Rachel sighed but she was smiling when she looked back at him. "Anyone ever tell you that you're the most annoying brotherever?"
He shrugged, the shoulder with one less chair going higher than the other. "The only one I can think of... is you."
She walked up the steps to their parents' deck. "At least that means you listen to me."
Brody shook his head. "It's lucky for you that I love you so much."
She opened the chair and set it down. "I hear you've been busy."
He set down two of the chairs against the railing and looked at her.
"Ohhhhkay?"
She reached for the last chair he was holding and opened it with a wink. "I'm cutting to the chase, old man."
"Old man?"
"From what I hear, you've been hanging out with a single mom who has a super cute kid."
He paused, about to open one of the chairs. "You do know that I work with that hot single mom, right?"