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Trent’s shiny black SUV pulls up and he slowly walks over to me.
“What are you doing here?”
“Decker called. Said I might want to get out here and talk to you.”
I roll my eyes. “What a snitch.”
“So what’s going on?”
I shake my head. “Hard to explain,” I say.
“All right, saddle up Misty. I’ll grab Fitz.”
“You’re in a suit.”
He shrugs. “Wouldn’t be the first time.” I give him a questioning look and he laughs. “Senior prom, Jenna O’Toole and I saddled up my old horse, Boots. Let’s just say nature got her going and I got her to the finish line.”
We ride up to our lookout point, the same place our dad took us whenever we were fighting as kids or when he had something serious to talk to us about like girls or sex or us taking over the brewery someday.
We dismount and spend a few moments taking in the scenery. Brook is right, it really is breathtaking up here. Sometimes I don’t take the time to enjoy it; I take it for granted.
“So how bad is it?” Trent asks. I look over at him and he’s propped his foot up on a boulder and leaning on one knee.
“You look just like Dad doin’ that,” I say, and we both chuckle.
“Brooklyn’s pregnant.” I shove my hands in my jeans but my shoulders stay up by my ears.
“Holy shit, man.” Trent walks over and pulls me in for a hug. “Dude, that’s amazing. I don’t understand, though. Why aren’t you happy? This is happy news.”
I nod. “I’m very happy. It’s just that she’s not. She said she’s not ready to be a mom—not ready to give up her job. I tried telling her that her job isn’t going anywhere. I don’t understand why she thought it would. Just sucks. I was so happy to see the test, then I felt like I couldn’t be happy because she was upset.”
“How long have you known?”
“Today.”
His head whips around. “Today? You both just found out today or you just found out today?”
“Both. I took a test to her at work this morning because all the signs were there. She thought I was crazy, but she took two and both were positive. She just had this meltdown and I guess it took me by surprise. I thought she’d be shocked—sure, the timing isn’t great—but I thought she’d show at least a little excitement.”
Trent laughs. “You’re more of an idiot than I give you credit for.”
“Excuse me?”
“She’s in shock, bro. She’s not worried about losing her job, it’s that she’s at the height of this huge new adventure in her life. She’s just brought on two new people and has three massive campaigns kicking off, so it’s already stressful, and now she’s about to grow a baby inside her? Not to mention her body is about to go through hell.”
I feel like an asshole. I mean, I already did with how I reacted knowing all those things, but I let my emotions take over in that moment.
“Well, I think I made things a lot worse.”
“Oh no, what’d you do?”
“I just reacted poorly. Kind of yelled at her and slammed her office door and stormed off back to the ranch.”
He waves off my concern. “That’s an easy fix. Make her a nice dinner, draw a relaxing bath, and apologize. Grovel. Tell her you’re an idiot and you won’t do it again. Just talk to her, Ty. Tell her that you’re scared too, and don’t shame her for not being happy yet. She’ll get there.”
I look over at my little brother. “Sometimes you really surprise me with your wisdom, you know that?”
He laughs. “Yeah, I’m good at giving it, but not so good at coming up with my own.” He picks up a rock and tosses it over the ledge.
