Page 66 of Hello Heartbreaker

I grabbed the bouquet of sunflowers I picked from the patch in front of my house and walked down the sidewalk to the front door. There was already chaos around as my nieces and nephews played corn hole in the backyard while Dad was at the grill working on a set of burgers and hot dogs. There were way too many people for us to have steak every week like we used to.

The front door was already opened when I reached it, and my mom pulled me into a hug. “Good to see you, hon.”

I smiled back at her and held out the flowers. “These are for you.”

She looked at them, smiling. “You are such a sweetheart.”

“It’s what you get for planting them and sneaking over to water,” I teased her.

She blushed. “Just because you’re grown doesn’t mean you’re not still my baby.”

From behind Mom, Tyler coughed, “Suck-up.”

Mom turned, bopping his shoulder. “Oh shush.”

My oldest brother, Gage, was farther back in the house, sitting at the dining room table with a bottle of beer. “Don’t listen to him. He brought over fresh baked cookies for Mom.”

The tips of Tyler’s ears went red. “Yeah, well you bought Mom and Dad a damned cruise. Gotta earn my inheritance somehow.”

I laughed. “If we’re talking inheritance, I better step up my game. Mom, you sure do look lovely. Did you get your hair done?”

Mom shook her head at me, turning to walk in the kitchen to put her flowers in a Mason jar. “In fact, I had a lovely time at Rhonda’s Salon. Maggie did a fabulous job on my hair, didn’t she?”

Tyler and I followed her back, sitting at the table.

Mom finished filling the jar with water and turned to us. “She’s so beautiful, Rhett. It’s just too bad you two had a falling out all those years ago. Maybe now that she’s back in town...”

There it was, the comments about me being single, me needing to settle down. I’d heard them often throughout the years, but they were getting more and more frequent lately. I glanced over my shoulder, not wanting to say too much to get Mom’s hopes up. But out the patio door, I saw... Gray and Agatha talking with my dad.

“What’s Agatha doing here?” I asked. It was normal for Fletcher’s dad, Gray, to join us for dinners, but Agatha hadn’t been over before. We were friendly when she waited on us at the restaurant, but never more than that.

Mom folded her hands under her chin. “Doesn’t it look like she’s having a good time with Gray?”

Gage spoke up. “Mom’s trying her hand at matchmaking again.”

I groaned. “Ma, you can’t play Cupid.”

“Why on earth not?” she asked. “They’re good people. They deserve to be happy.”

“First of all, because you can’t run around in a diaper. We’d have you locked up.”

She rolled her eyes at me, setting the flowers on the table.

“Secondly, they’re adults. If they wanted to get together, they would. Plus, Gray’s a good ten years…fifteen? Older than she is.”

Mom shrugged. “Age doesn’t matter so much when you get older. Sometimes people need a little push to see what’s right in front of them.”

Gage said, “That is true.”

“Hey,” I said, “don’t encourage her.”

Gage chuckled, and Tyler said, “Speaking of things right front of people, how’s it going with Maggie?”

I glared at him, then jerked my head to Mom. I hadn’t said a word to her about the extra time Maggie and I had spent together lately.

She had way too big of a smile on her face. “What’s happening with Maggie?”

“We’re coaching Maya’s team together,” I said, but my grin gave me away because we’d done a hell of a lot more than that last night.

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