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“Hey!” I pointed at Richard. “You’re supposed to be the supportive brother.”
He grinned at me. It was still somewhat disconcerting to see the same characteristics Rowan had in someone else, but I was slowly getting used to it. Richard and Rowan were working on rebuilding their relationship, so I was bound to see him often. “Just because I’m not willing to read the book doesn’t mean I’m not supportive.”
“It’s notgirly,chick shit,” Cassidy interjected. “It’s a beautiful story he wrote based on his relationship with Navie.”
“Wait… is there sex in this book?”
Uh-oh.
“Oh, dear,” Rowan’s mother, Marie, mumbled from behind her hand, clearly trying to stifle her laughter at the same time everyone else—well, except for Carson—broke into loud, raucous laughter.
“Everything okay over here?” Rowan asked as he joined our group of misfits, having finished with the last reader. He leaned in to give his mother a quick kiss before wrapping his arm around my shoulder and holding me against him.
“You mean besides the fact you’re a pervert?” Carson snipped.
“Why me?” I lamented, staring up at the heavens as Marie lost the battle against her giggles and joined in along with everyone else.
“Oh, sweet girl,” she offered, patting my arm. “You knew what you were getting into when you picked this one, here,” she told me, throwing her thumb in Rowan’s direction.
“What am I missing?” Rowan whispered in my ear.
I reached up and patted his cheek. “I love you. Let’s run away to Bermuda for the holidays.”
His lips turned up in a knowing smirk. “Getting the families together for the holidays was your idea, baby.”
“For the very first time in my life, I was wrong.”
I felt Rowan chuckle against my body as his lips touched the skin at my neck. “Besides, it’ll make proposing so much easier with everyone here. Get it all out of the way in one fell swoop.”
I pulled my head back on a sharp inhale, excitement coursing through my veins. “Wait… are you… really… rightnow?”
“No, notright now. But soon.”
Just as I stood on my tip-toes to press my lips against Rowan’s, my cell phone rang from inside of my purse. Pulling it out, I looked down at the screen, my brows furrowing in worry.
“Who is it?” Rowan asked.
“It’s Harlow.” At the sound of her name, everyone in our circle grew quiet. They all knew about Harlow’s unexpected trip back to the town she grew up in. She and her brother had been raised by their grandparents. Their grandfather had passed years back, and with her grandmother’s health suddenly taking a turn for the worse, she needed to go take care of her little brother. We were all concerned, but it was the lack of communication between Harlow and me that was bothering me the most. Every time I tried calling, she either didn’t answer or kept the conversations short. It was evident in her voice that she wasn’t doing well.
I feared the worst. She never really talked about her past, and I never felt right pushing her, but from what I gathered, she’d left something behind in Jackson Hole that had changed her.
“You think everything’s okay?” he asked, rubbing his thumb along my jaw and holding me tighter, offering me comfort when I needed it most.
“God, I hope so.”
