Page 97 of My Grape Crush
He was managing JC and his band even back then.
Representing the family biz because Dad gave him no choice.
At one point in my life, having to be related to Sawyer was its own special kind of misery. Maybe having a big brother pushing me to be better isn’t the worst thing after all.
“You never went to bat for me when I needed it the most. That stung,” I admit. “But I understand now why you didn’t.”
“There were only so many times I could save you.” And with what sounds like grudging respect, Sawyer adds, “So you saved yourself.”
“Is this where you two kiss and make up?” JC chirps in, his dumbass smile more blinding than the wall of stainless-steel appliances behind him.
Before either of us smacks him one, Mom and Dani enter the kitchen. Arms linked. Ear-to-ear smiles.Bestie patrol.
“Oh, Sawyer,” Mom says. “I didn’t hear you come in. Dani and I were in the study, looking at old photos.”
Dani lays a flirty wink in my direction. “You were pretty cute with your long hair. All those ringlets. Pudgy legs.”
A grape bounces hard off my forehead, and JC chortles a laugh. “Always a looker, that Rhys. Remember all the girls who used to call here, giggle and hang up? Mr. Heartbreaker.”
I can feel my face go red from the collective gazes of everyone in the room landing squarely and humorously on me. “It’s not like that ever amounted to anything.”
Not like the scorched earth of smitten groupies JC left behind in high school. Or the emotional devastation of every girlfriend when he moved on to the next target.
Mom lays a protective hand on my shoulder, her sensitive thirdborn. “I spent the morning with your father. He’s perked up immensely since yesterday. The nurse couldn’t believe the transformation.”
All the emotions of last night flood through my veins like a narcotic, making me feel woozy.
“Really?” I clear my throat to get the shake out of it. “That’s great news.”
And the little smile Dani gives me is one I tuck into the safety of my heart for all of eternity.
“Can we eat?” Sawyer asks. “I have to get back to the office.”
“Isabel has set up everything in the dining room,” Mom says, referring to her devoted housekeeper, now gray-haired and long in the tooth. “Tomato soup and grilled cheese sandwiches.”
She beams at me, and my stomach flip-flopping has nothing to do with hunger. Lunch happens to be my favorite childhood meal.
“Let’s go.” She links her other arm through mine. “We have so much to catch up on.”
Her loving gaze travels across all three of her children before landing on who is very obviously her newly adopted daughter-in-law. JC gives me an exaggerated eye roll. I’m done for, and he knows it. But who would have guessed that emotionally awkward Rhys scores big in the relationship department? Or that, in the house where I never felt remotely important as my brothers, where I lived in fear of punishment for being me, I can enjoy a meal untroubled, no longer pathetically in search of my father’s approval.
I never thought I would say this, but it feels good to be home.
Chapter Thirty-One
DANI
I fidget with my hair,keeping an eye on the homeless guy pushing his mangled shopping cart of bicycle parts along Hastings Street. Rhys finishes paying for our coffees and sets the tiny cortados on our table.
“Are you ready for this?” He eyes the tower of stacked sugar packets. My restless hands have been busy.
“Yes.” I blow out the breath I’ve been holding. “And thank you for coming with.”
He leans in to steal a quick kiss. “Are you kidding? Would not miss this for my life.”
Four weeks in Vancouver have blown by in a haze of hospital visits, family time, and working out our frustrations on my standard-issue mattress. A certain someone keeps coming after me, and Rhys has had enough.
Today it ends.
