Page 40 of Take Me Slowly: part 2
Josiah gave him a look to suggest he could have stayed in town if he'd wanted to. "The snow has stopped falling. You'll be fine."
I glanced at the window to see he was right. How long had it been? I hadn't noticed it stop.
"I was hoping for a blizzard," Riley said with a sigh. "Half of that will be melted by morning."
"Good," Brooks said, rubbing his hands together as if they were still cold. They looked red from the fire.
"Don't worry, it'll be snowing its ass off properly in no time," Riley told him, knowing he'd get a rise out of Brooks.
He was right. Brooks looked at him like he was out of his mind.
"You'll be too busy at the pub to give a shit," Connor said. For the first time since they arrived, he actually seemed pleased about something. Of course he did, he no longer had to worry about his father insisting he take over from him. As long as Brooks was around, he was off that hook.
"I can't wait," Brooks said. He spoke with a hint of sarcasm, but he looked genuinely excited to take up the challenge. I couldn't remember having seen that expression on his face. Like for once in his life he wasn't being forced to do something he hated.
I was happy for him. For Connor too. And Riley, because I knew he wanted to grow their business as much as Connor did.
And Josiah? Things were going to take longer for him. Once we had all the answers we needed, the whole town would knowthe truth. I didn't expect them to welcome him back with open arms straight away. For that to happen, they'd have to admit they were wrong.
That might be the biggest hurdle of all.
17
LEAH
"Let me get this straight,"Whitney said slowly, cutting the occasional glance toward the bar. "He's your stepbrother and he's working for Connor and his dad."
"That's right," I said. "Connor thought he could take over as manager so Brooks is here, learning how to pull beer." He'd been busy all night, running back and forth, serving customers. The Frosty Brew was packed full of locals and visitors. There was barely enough room to turn around, but Brooks looked like he was loving every minute of it.
"And Brooks is one of your boyfriends now too?" Holly asked.
"We haven't talked about it, but it seems so," I said. "We're going to see how things go."
"And Josiah as well." Fiona looked impressed. "Woman, you aregoals." She raised her glass to me.
"You can say that again," Holly agreed. "Where do you sign up for this program?"
We all laughed.
"I guess I got lucky," I said. "Four boyfriends and three best friends. What more could a girl want?"
Fiona opened her mouth, glanced at the other two women and closed it again.
I could guess what she was thinking. A girl could want results for the DNA test. I took in a long breath and blurted out as much about Coral Clarke as I could before I ran out of air and had to inhale.
Whitney and Holly both stared at me.
"Are you kidding me?" Whitney asked. "Of all the things I thought you might say, that wasn't even on the list."
"Me either," Holly said. She raised a hand. "You're going to have to give me a minute or two here."
"I'll take three or four," Whitney said. "Wow." She blinked a couple of times and shook her head. "You knew about this?" She said to Fiona. "You don't look surprised."
"I only found out the other day," Fiona said. "For the record, I'm still trying to process it. But I'm glad you both know now. No offence, Leah, but I hated keeping secrets from them."
"So did I." I drank a gulp of wine to steady my nerves. They still might tell me I was out of my mind. "It's a difficult conversation to bring up, you know?"
Whitney leaned over to put a hand on my forearm. "Hey, it's okay. We get it. We're not judging you for holding out on us. Right Holly?"
