Page 24 of From Grumpy to Forever
“Your grandmother used to take you boys over to play in the gardens with little Avery while she and Sue would sit on that swing, drinking lemonade and catching up.” Tilley’s face grew wistful for a moment before her head snapped up. “Surely you remember the way you’d pick all the daisies and give them to little Avery? Or maybe that was Grayson…”
Something in the very back of my memory flashed. Sure, I remember being at the inn, and there had been a little girl sometimes, but…could that have been Avery?
Next to me, she gripped my arm and when I looked down into her eyes, I could see that she was coming to the same realization. We’d known each other as kids.
“It has been a while,” Avery said. “But things have a funny way of working out.” She looked right at me as she spoke, and I couldn’t help but believe that maybe this whole crazy situation would work out.
“Avery is going to be restoring the inn,” I blurted out. With any luck, Tilley would take the tidbit of info and rush off immediately to spread the news.
“Is that right?” She looked between the two of us. “I did hear a rumor that someone had returned to town to do just that. I didn’t realize it was you. It must be my lucky day, running into the two of you today.”
Tilley flashed me a grin, and I saw something spark in her eyes. “I wasn’t interrupting anything important between the two of you, was I?” She wiggled her wiry, white eyebrows.
There was no help for it, and considering we’d already committed to it, it seemed that there was no time like the present. I slipped my arm around Avery’s waist and pulled her close to me. “Well, since you asked…” I looked at my bride-to-be. She shrugged and offered me a half smile, so I went for it. “I guess you’re going to be the first to know, Tilley.” The whole town would know within the hour. “Seeing Avery again after all those years brought back feelings we didn’t even know we had.” Okay, it was a little white lie. “And just a moment ago, Avery agreed to make me a very happy man, and be my wife.”
I squeezed her a little tighter and dropped a chaste kiss on the top of her head.
Tilley’s face lit up, and she clapped her hands together in glee.
It was done.
For better or worse.
Chapter Thirteen
Reid
The last thing I wanted to do the night before my wedding—real or not—was spend it with my brothers.
The irony wasn’t lost on me, because, in almost any other scenario, that’s exactly how I’d want to spend the night before getting married. My brothers were my best friends. We were a close family.
Annoyingly so at times.
Which was exactly why dinner at Brody’s house was going to be unbearable. I had no doubt that news of my engagement had made its rounds through town. The fact that my phone hadn’t already been blowing up with text messages and calls demanding an explanation from Grayson, Brody, Preston, and Ethan could only mean one thing.
They were planning an ambush. Or an intervention.
Either way, I wasn’t looking forward to it.
I knocked twice on the front door of the house we grew up in. After Dad died and Mom remarried and moved south, my oldest brother Brody bought the house, which made it a handy and somewhat familiar gathering spot when we got together.
At times—like now—it felt like I was sixteen again, getting called out for skipping class or coming home late.
All four of my brothers were already in the kitchen when I walked in.
“Am I late?”
I wasn’t.
Preston, the youngest, handed me a bottle of beer. “Good to see you.”
I took it with a nod of thanks and tipped it to my lips. Judging by the atmosphere in the room, I was going to need it.
No one said anything for a few minutes. I was almost half done with my beer before Brody spoke up. “You’re always welcome to bring your fiancée to family dinner.”
Even though I was expecting it, I almost choked on my beer.
“After all,” Brody continued. “She’s family now.”
