“I’m not sure…”
“Sh…you’re going to listen,” she commands, sending a glare in Everleigh’s direction.
She nods in acquiesce, waiting for her older sister to elaborate.
“Now that the tables have turned, you’re going to do everything Brooks would do in this position.”
“Huh?”
From across the table, Nikki speaks up, “You’re going to seduce him.”
“What? I don’t think that will work.”
“Actually, your situation isn’t too different from mine and Austin’s when I came back pregnant. Men are pretty simple. Sex usually works.”
Her nose squishes upward in disgust. “Ew, that’s my brother. Mom?”
“What? She’s right. Sex always works with your father.”
“Oh my gosh, I do not want to know this,” Sydney shouts from beside their mother Amy, holding the palms of her hands to her ears.
“Ok, so you have a plan. There is one little problem.”
Answering for the group, Cassidy asks, “What’s that?”
“I don’t know how to seduce anyone.”
“That’s where we come in,” Avery announces as she returns to the room with a smile on her face.
It doesn’t go past Everleigh’s eye that she nods once to Cassidy, something passing between the two women.
“Ok, I’m all ears. Teach me how to get him back.”
***
A VORACIOUS RINGING SOUNDS in the background, breaking him from his slumber. Brooks has been going non-stop for the past five weeks and he feels as if he was just given a chance to rest about ten minutes ago. Along with the medical segments that he is on a trial period filming, he has been tapped to co-host a few spots on the morning show as well as cover some of the teams on the producer’s sports network. He has been told left and right that he is a natural on the screen, and his grandmother was pleased as a peach that she can show him off to her friends at church, but the television gig doesn’t hold the appeal to him that his practice in Carson does, for two reasons.
One, he truly wants to make a difference in people’s lives and always believes that it starts with patients at a young age. Treat them right, with the best medical care possible, or show them how to function throughout life so that any sickness doesn’t impede their day-to-day activities.
Two, Everleigh. He hopes he hasn’t made a huge mistake by signing the annulment papers, but in his mind, it was the right thing to do. Give her the one thing that she wants, has been asking for, and perhaps she will be more willing to succumb to her desire for him in the future. It’s not as if they can’t get married again.
But she hasn’t filed the papers, for some mysterious reason. And after their call earlier he is still confused as to why she hasn’t. He hopes that perhaps she is second guessing her feelings, finally seeing what he has from the beginning, or maybe she has just been as busy as Logan says.
The ringing continues and Brooks reaches around, hoping to silence the offending object and finds it directly under his head, above his pillow. He must have been exhausted when he fell onto the bed to have the phone still pressed to his ear.
Clicking the start button on the phone, Brooks absentmindedly holds the device to his other ear.
“Hello,” he croaks.
“Brooks?”
Hearing Avery’s melodic voice on the other end suddenly has Brooks wide-awake and worry takes over the feeling of fatigue.
“Avery? Is something wrong? Did something happen with the babies?”
“Oh, no. Caroline and Everett are fine, great actually. It’s worse.”
His heart crashes down and burns into the pit of his stomach, feeling like a ship tossing in the sea. His mind spins with thoughts and scenarios, making nausea rise in his throat.
