Page 33 of From Grumpy to Forever
“Cheers to you, brother.” Brody tapped his can against mine, and we both drank deeply. “This is a big deal.” He looked around the still, mostly empty space. Out of all my brothers, I knew Brody would understand what this meant to me.
He’d opened Peak to Path, an outdoors store, in the plaza a few years back. Our youngest brother, Preston, helped him get everything up and running and had even invested a small amount of savings with him. But more often than not, Preston could be found out in the mountains instead of actually working in the shop.
“I know you understand,” I said to Brody. “I didn’t think it was ever going to happen, but when this space came available, I couldn’t pass it up.”
“Lucky you had the funds available.” He shot me a look.
I tipped the can to my lips and drank deeply before responding. “Is there something you want to ask me?”
Brody hesitated, and I braced myself. Ready for a fight. If my brothers had opinions about my marriage—and I know they did—they’d kept them to themselves so far, and I preferred to keep it that way.
Thankfully, Brody shook his head and lifted his can. “Nope. I was just going to say that it’s a damn good thing Avery Walker moved to town when she did with a big project.”
I narrowed my eyes, but I wouldn’t rise to the bait. “Sure is,” I said. “In more ways than one.”
It wasn’t a lie. Having Avery come to town allowed me to buy this shop. But it was more than that—a lot more.
I wasn’t used to working so closely with someone else, at least not someone who wasn’t my brother who I could tell to fuck off whenever they irritated me. But with Avery…it was different. Not only did her consistently bright smile and optimism about every single situation not irritate me—a miracle in itself—but I liked it.
“So, how’s married life?” Brody’s question caught me off guard. “You know, we still haven’t met your wife. At least not properly.”
Shit.
“We’ve been busy.”
“With the inn. Right.”
It wasn’t a lie. But it also wasn’t a good excuse.
“Well, I guess we’ll meet her Saturday.”
“Saturday?” I almost choked on my beer. “What’s happening on Saturday?”
Brody chuckled and crushed his now empty can in his hand before standing. “Only the biggest wedding Trickle Creek has seen in years.” He raised one eyebrow with a smug grin on his face. “Craig and Lucy, remember?”
Fuck. With everything going on, I’d completely forgotten. We’d all known Craig and the entire Carlson family our whole lives. Craig was a great guy; he deserved his happiness, and Brody was right. It was going to be a huge wedding. There was no way I could miss it.
“Right.” I finished off my own beer and tossed the can into an empty bin. “I guess you’ll meet Avery then.” I hoped like hell I sounded more confident than I felt about the situation. It was going to be our first event as a married couple and the entire town would be there. It had been easy to keep up the lie when no one was watching, but…could we make it believable with all eyes on us?
It didn’t look like we had much of a choice.
Chapter Seventeen
Avery
The thing no one tells you about restoring an old building was the amount of painting involved. So. Much. Paint.
At this point, it felt like the paintbrush was an extension of my arm.
Not that I minded it too much. Not really.
It was one of the few tasks I could do without Reid’s help that made me feel useful. Especially when so much was still out of my control.
Like actually being the owner of the inn officially.
I tried not to think about that one, very crucial detail too much. Especially because there was nothing I could do about it except wait for my lawyer to process the paperwork and hope like hell that my cousin, Jacob, wouldn’t screw it all up for me.
Before we could even arrange the funeral, the calls and text messages had begun. And once the will was read, he’d doubled his efforts to make it known that I wasn’t the only one interested in owning the inn. The fact that our grandparents had left it to me didn’t seem to matter to him.
