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“It’s not you, it’s us.” Adam’s voice from behind startled me.
I spun to see him standing in the doorway to the back room, his arm around Brooke.
“No one wants their mom to see them getting all sappy,” she said.
Right. They were talking about Bryan. I didn’t care, because my heart was cracking, seeing them together. I didn’t care if Adam said I wasn’t allowed to feel that way—I did. I hated seeing them together and not being a part of it, and it had taken me a long time to own that feeling, but here it was. “How much did you hear?”
“The last couple of minutes.” Adam dropped his hand to capture Brooke’s, and tugged her to fall into step beside him as they strolled toward me.
“It’s a shame he ran out like that,” Brooke said. “He’s going to miss the good news.”
Something told me he didn’t want to hear me pouring my heart out to his mom. Telling both Brooke and Adam how I really felt and doing whatever it took to get them to give me a real chance. “My news first.”
Brooke shook her head. “Mine won’t take long, but you do need to hear it. I’m having the block declared a historic site.”
“What?” Adam’s surprise overlapped mine. “You didn’t think to mention that back there?”
Brooke blushed. “One, Deacon needed to hear it first, and two, my mouth was full.”
I didn’t know if I was too stunned about her news to be jealous. No, I did know. I was still furiously envious that Adam had already claimed her again. They seemed to be all better. “How?” I asked.
Brooke explained what Paige found, and my surprise grew until my eyes were probably as wide as saucers—I finally understood what that meant. “Travis signed the paperwork just a short while ago, halting the requirements the council had put on the block. No one has to make the changes, even though my application is still being processed.”
“That’s amazing. Holy shit.” I didn’t have enough words to convey how excited I was about the news, but Brooke looked like she was holding something back. “What aren’t you telling us? How did you get Travis to back down?”
“I uh… I ran into him on my way to the city building. Making out with Manny in a back alley.”
My jaw dropped. “No shit.” Not as surprising as the rest of her news, but still not something I consciously thought I’d ever hear.
“I tried to tell him I wasn’t a gossip, but I know he yielded to get me to keep quiet about what I saw,” Brooke said.
I’d keep the information to myself as well, and the other news was so good. But my gaze kept drifting back to the way Adam and Brooke’s fingers were tangled together.
It was my fault that I wasn’t with her. That I’d never taken a chance to tell her I wanted more, because I never admitted it to myself, and now that she was with Adam… “I’m going to be that asshole,” I said.
Adam raised his brows. “Not new.”
“As opposed to the other asshole?” Brooke asked. “The secondary one most people don’t talk about?”
“Clever.” I was dryly amused.
“Almost always.” Adam squeezed Brooke’s hand.
The two of them were distracting in the best way, even now. “Let me get this out.”
“That’s what she said?” Brooke grinned.
I laughed. “I need to be serious for maybe sixty seconds, and then you can make jokes again.”
Adam looked like he was struggling to keep a straight face.
I sighed. “Get it out.”
“That’s sooo long.” He dragged out the words.
“That’s what she said.” Brooke’s grin grew.
This was already going to be difficult, but I needed to say it now, because I refused to lose them. I wouldn’t surrender the family I’d always wanted, and missed when it was right in front of me. “The two of you can’t be together without giving me a chance.”
