Page 22 of She Likes It, Hey Micah
“No.” He growls that word in the way only he can. There’s a reason the twins called him Grizzly when they were younger; even as a teenager, Chad was a bit gruff. It’s not his fault; his dad was kind of awful, but I wish he would find reasons to be less surly.
Chad has a lot to offer a woman, but I don’t think he sees it. He thinks he’s better off on his own, which lately seems to be the pattern with all my Briggs half siblings. Houston hasn’t been on a date since he broke up with his movie star girlfriend a couple months ago, which has to be a record for him, and I honestly don’t remember the last time Brooklyn even looked at a guy.
These Briggs sibs, man. They need help.
“Got any bad dates I need to hunt down?” Chad asks, which probably means he’s hoping for something to distract him from his new neighbor.
“Is she cute?” I reply.
“That conversation is over, Mic.”
“You’re the one who started that conversation, Chad.”
Honestly, I was surprised when I saw that it was him calling. He calls me once a week or so, and I usually go over to his house for Sunday dinners, but I kind of figured I wouldn’t hear from him while he was in Laketown. When he told me he was going a few days ago, it sounded like he needed a break from the world. And yet the first words out of his mouth when I answered were, “Someone moved in next door, and she is going to drive me crazy.”
Chad likes to think he’s independent—and he is, sometimes to a fault—but everyone needs someone to talk to when life gets to be too much. Even though he’s eleven years older than me, Chad has always turned to me for that, and I love him for it.
I grab a cake pan and spray it with cooking oil before dumping the brownie batter in.
“Don’t lick the bowl,” Chad says.
I roll my eyes. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“You’re making brownies. I know you are. But don’t eat raw batter or you could get sal—”
“Salmonella. Yeah, I’ve heard. But you would be astounded by the amount of cookie dough I’ve eaten, and I’ve been perfectly fine.”
He groans again. “Don’t tell me that. I worry about you enough as it is.”
This is why Chad needs to find a girl and settle down. Start a family. He’s basically a dad already, and he did so much to raise Houston and Brooklyn that I’m pretty sure he’s hardwired to take care of people. Being all alone out in the middle of nowhere isn’t going to make him feel better about his life, and I guarantee he’s going to fall for his neighbor in less than two weeks.
Once I’ve put the brownies in the oven, I hop onto the counter and lick the spatula. “Do you know when you’re going to come home?” I ask. It might be weird to miss him when he’s only been gone a few days, but I do. “If you’re falling in love, you can take all the time you need, but if not, don’t spend too much time up there, okay?”
He sighs loud enough that I can hear it through the phone. “Okay,” he agrees. “Honestly, I’m already pretty bored.”
“I told you there would be no mysteries to solve there!”
“You really don’t have any dates for me to dig into?”
I love that he cares, though he might be a little too obsessed with doing background checks on guys who never make it past the first date. “None worth your time. Shouldn’t you be taking a break from investigating?” He’s quiet for so long that I almost think he’s hung up. “Chad?”
“Yes!” he says too loudly. “Yeah, I need to not look into people. There’s no point because nothing is going to happen.”
I wish this was a video call instead of a phone call so I could see the look on his face right now. “Chad, did you look into your neighbor?”
“Not yet.”
“But you want to.”
“You have no idea.”
“So she’s cute.”
“She’s too young for me.”
“Says who?”
“Says the fact that she would have been in elementary school when I was supposed to graduate high school. And I meanearlyelementary.”
