Page 47 of Almost Home
Knowing there’d be some kind of upheaval, I resisted the urge to hoard the information and just went for it. “We’re going out tomorrow night.”
“Ohhhh!” Warrick said, all exclamation.
Wyatt just grinned and slapped me on the back. “Good.”
Nerves bubbled in my gut. “I hope. I don’t know.”
I certainly wanted the time with her, but dividing my attention still felt like a wrong move.
“Don’t be stupid. You were made for each other.”
I scoffed. “Right.”
If that were true, we wouldn’t have parted. But even with the bitter singe of that reality, I couldn’t have kept myself from asking her to dinner earlier today any more easily than I could’ve stopped what happened before. The way she’d looked at me, the way I’d known shewantedme, and the way I’d honestly never stopped wanting her…
I’d thrown every screaming caution into that gentle spring breeze and gone for it. Having decided that I couldn’t simply cut her out of my life now that she lived here and worked for my company—and more so, that if I could on a gut level I didn’t want to—I’d given in to the necessity to ask her.
“You do seem well matched. I can understand that you’re cautious. That’s not a bad thing.”
Wyatt’s words were always measured, and though he hadn’t been one to give me advice very often of late, I still respected his perspective.
“I support that. Slow and steady. But pretending like you guys aren’t fire on a dry summer day? It’s stupid. So might as well lay the track if you know the train’s coming.” Warrick raised his glass to no one, then sipped again.
“That was freakishly complex, but I agree,” Wyatt said.
Warrick shoved him, one long arm stretching behind me to knock Wyatt sideways. “Shut it, grumpy.”
“I’m not grumpy. I’m quite joyful and satisfied. Just ask my wife.”
Wyatt’s wide smile beamed louder and prouder than anything I’d seen from him, probably ever.
“Oh, you’re gross. You should just go home, you old married man.”
Warrick’s statement came with a full smile of his own, clearly absolutely delighted for our older brother. Wyatt had always wanted love and companionship, and seeing him so head-over-heels gone for Calla felt like a rightness in the world. After all the wrongs I’d seen, all the horrors and brutalities, my older brother’s glee at being a husband to a good woman carrying his child?
Damn, but it was beautiful. He’d been steadfast even as a teenager, working hard and waiting for a chance to build his own family. It’d come later in life than I would’ve guessed and from an unexpected person, that was for sure, but he had it “all” now in the best sense.
“You’re not so far off from being an old married man yourself, are you, War?” Wyatt’s question came a little quieter and with a pointedly raised brow.
“Shhhh!” Warrick’s eyes shot to the table more than thirty feet away where the girls sat.
My own gaze used the excuse of his attention to look there, too. My heart kicked at the sight of Sarah, her head thrown back in a laugh, eyes scrunched shut. She’d always been free like that with friends. At one time, she had been with me—maybe more than with anyone else.
Or so I’d thought.
Earlier today, she had been with me. It’d shifted me from idling into action, and I’d asked before the logic of our situation and history between us could stop me.
“She’s not going to hear me from here.”
Wyatt’s just-above-a-whisper response had me turning back to them.
“So? I don’t want word getting out. It’s coming up and I’m…” He blew out a big breath. “Nervous.”
“What’s this?” I asked, realizing I’d missed something.
“I’m asking Sadie to marry me next month.” His face had paled, but after a second, he unleashed one of his giant, classic Warrick smiles.
“Congratulations. She seems great.” And she did. The family dinners I’d attended had all shown her to be genuine, thoughtful, and completely in love with my brother. “I don’t know the details, but I can’t imagine she’d say no, from what I’ve seen.”
