Page 35 of Big Girl Panties

Her gaze dropped to the floor. My fingers twitched, wanting to tilt her chin back up to erase the doubt etched across her features. I hated that look of doubt in her eyes. The look that he put there.

Heat crept up the back of my neck, my jaw clenching so tight I could hear my teeth grinding. It enraged me that he made her feel not good enough, because she was. "Wear the dress, Brooke. You look beautiful."

She took a shaky breath, and when her eyes met mine again, they were bright with unshed tears. "I don't get it." Her voice cracked slightly. She turned to face me fully, my hands still resting on her hips. "I don't understand why you're here." She gestured between us like she was trying to solve a complex math problem. "You could probably date a supermodel or a rocket scientist or a supermodel rocket scientist, but instead you're here... in my bedroom... telling me I'm beautiful." The last word came out as a whisper, as if she couldn't quite convince herself to believe it.

"You want to know what I don't get?" I smiled, reaching up to tuck a strand of hair behind her ear. "I don't get how someone as brilliant and gorgeous as you can look in the mirror and not see what I see. I don't get how you can't tell that I'm completely, hopelessly, embarrassingly attracted to you. But since you can't see it, I guess it's my job to remind you every day until you believe it. Fair warning, though, I can be pretty persistent."

Her shoulders relaxed, and she swayed slightly toward me like a flower turning toward the sun. Her eyes fluttered closed, and she let out this soft sigh that made my chest do that fluttery thing again.

"My ex used to say that dresses like this weren't made for my body type." The words came out like they physically hurt to say.

I couldn't help it. I laughed. Not at her, but at the sheer absurdity of anyone being that wrong about anything. "Your ex is either legally blind or suffered some kind of traumatic head injury, because this dress looks like it was personally designed for you by someone who really, really knows what they're doing."

"Why would you be interested in someone as complicated as me?"

I cupped her face in my hands, tilting her chin up until she had no choice but to look at me. "If you could see yourself through my eyes for just five minutes," I brushed my thumb across her cheek, "you'd understand why I'm the luckiest guy in the world just to be standing here with you."

The smile that spread across her face was like watching the sunrise, slow, beautiful, and absolutely worth the wait. "Okay," she said, her voice stronger now. "I guess I'm ready to go make everyone at this BBQ incredibly jealous of your date."

From the doorway, Davina slow-clapped. "And that, kids, is how you do a romantic intervention. My work here is done."

Brooke and I both turned to stare at her, having completely forgotten she was there.

"Oh, don't mind me," Davina grinned, grabbing her purse. "I'm just going to go tell everyone I know that I'm basically a professional matchmaker now."

Chapter 14

Sweet Disaster

"One… Two… Three…"

"You know you don't have to play hide and seek with them, right?" Leilani, Matt's sister-law, laughed, stepping onto the patio with a serving plate balanced on her hip. Her long, straight, dark hair caught the afternoon light as she moved, and even at six feet tall, she carried herself with an effortless grace that made her seem to glide rather than walk.

Wrong. When a four-year-old fixes you with those big brown eyes and asks you to play hide and seek, you don't just play; you become a professional seeker. It's basically the law. "Of course I do," I waved her off with the authority of someone who'd just discovered their true calling. "Plus, I'm like an expert seeker. It's on my resume."

Leilani nearly dropped her plate laughing. "Right next to 'Expert Netflix Binger' and 'Can Open Wine with Shoe if Necessary'?"

"Hey, those are legitimate skills."

Matt's brother Niko had two daughters: Lilly, four, and Rose, five, who were currently treating our game like it was an Olympic sport. Which, let's be honest, it basically was.

"Well," Leilani settled into the chair across from me, "you should definitely add 'Kid Whisperer' to that resume. Do you have any of your own?"

"Uh, no. No younger siblings either. I'm basically winging this whole thing."

She scrunched her nose as her dark eyes held mine. "Sorry, am I being nosy? Niko says I have zero filter, but I prefer to think of it as being efficiently curious."

"It's fine. I came prepared for the full family interrogation. I've been practicing my 'I'm totally normal and not at all a weirdo' face in the mirror."

"How's that working out for you?"

"Jury's still out."

She grinned. "But seriously, I'm dying to know how you two met. Matt hasn't brought anyone home since…" Her expression shifted slightly. "Well, since the divorce that shall not be named."

"That bad, huh?"

"Let's just say if his ex-wife were a weather pattern, she'd be a Category 5 hurricane with a side of locusts. But Matt mentioned you're also recently…"