Page 55 of Where You Go (Whisper Lake 5)

“I know you’re not asking for my advice but, as your sister, I’m going to give it to you anyway. I think you need to tell that girl how you feel. She’s amazing. And right now, technically, she’s single. If you don’t lock that down, there’s a very real possibility someone else will swoop in and put a ring on it. That girl is wifey material.”

Fuck.Over these two months that they’d been talking, he’d never even considered that she’d be dating someone else. How fucking naïve could he be?

Since he didn’t want to answer that question, he asked, “Did mom put you up to this?”

His mom couldn’t stop talking about Liv. Every time he visited her, Liv was all she wanted to talk about. It wouldn’t surprise him if she hadn’t already bought a dress to wear at their wedding.

Chrissy shrugged. “She didn’t have to, I volunteered.”

“You did?” Chrissy had never gotten involved in his private life before. Well, unless you counted setting him up with her friend in a fake relationship.

“Yes, Sylvia said, and I quote, ‘someone needs to tell that boy to remove his head from his ass before he loses the best thing that ever happened to him.’ And I said, ‘I’ll do it.’”

Warmth spread through Grady’s chest. He was lucky to have two incredible women in his corner. And if everything went well, he’d have three.

A plan formed in his head, but he decided to keep it to himself. For now. If he told Chrissy, she’d tell his mom, and for once he didn’t want to give her any spoilers.

“Where’s Con-man?” he asked, changing the subject.

Connor hadn’t been himself the past couple of months. Every time Grady saw him, he wasn’t smiling. He barely talked. He was sure it couldn’t be easy on the kid having to leave the home he’d grown up in, not to mention his parents getting divorced.

“He’s in his room.” She took a deep breath as a cloud of concern darkened her face. “He told me today he doesn’t want to play baseball anymore. I’m really worried about him.”

Grady watched as a single tear slid down Chrissy’s cheek. Grady might not be able to fix all of her problems, but he hoped he could help with this one.

“Do you want me to go talk to him?”

Her face brightened in a rare glimpse of hope. “Would you?”

“Sure, I’ll go check on him and grab more boxes.”

She sniffed. “Thanks.”

Grady went down the hall and knocked on Connor’s door. “Connor, It’s Uncle G.”

When there was no answer, he opened it. He found his nephew sitting at his desk with a headset on playing a video game on his computer.

Grady walked a few steps so he was in Connor’s vision line and waved. “Hey, man, can I talk to you a sec?”

Connor lifted his hand indicating he’d be a minute and then looked back at the screen. Grady scanned the room. It was partially packed up. The posters that had been on the walls were down. The bookcase was empty, but his closet and desk still didn’t look like they had been touched.

After a minute or two of Connor’s thumbs furiously flying over the controller, his nephew cursed under his breath and tore his headset off.

“Everything okay?” Grady asked.

“I died.”

“I wasn’t talking about the game.”

Connor kicked the controller away from him. “Yeah, I’m fine.”

“Your mom said that you’re quitting baseball.”

His nephew’s eyes dropped to the ground as he crossed his arms in front of his chest and nodded.

“I was actually thinking about coaching this season. Coach Reynolds asked me if I’d be interested even though I don’t have a kid on the team because when you volunteer to coach your kid doesn’t have to pay for the—”

Connor’s eyes shot back up to his. “Wait, if you coach does mom still have to pay for anything?”

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