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My cheeks heated in embarrassment as the woman gasped, and I moved away quickly, following Ani and Morgan as they walked toward the shoe department. When I caught up to them, Morgan was laughing, but Ani was scowling.
“Did you see that?” she asked. “I could literally feel her breath on my neck as she tried to look over my shoulder.”
“Why didn’t you just move?” I asked, eyeing the rain boots on sale. Those wouldn’t stain; you could just spray them off with a hose.
“Because,” Ani said, bumping me with her hip. “I had to see if you were going to answer any of my questions or chicken out and change the subject.”
“I never chicken out,” I replied, reaching for a pair of purple boots in my size.
“You’ll fit in just fine,” Ani said, chuckling. “Now hand me that blue pair.”
Chapter 11
Alex
Honey, I’m home,” I called as I pushed through my brother’s front door. He’d moved in with Ani when they got together, and since Ani loved sprucing up the old house, it was always a work in progress. As I looked around the space, I noticed that the baseboards along the wall were missing. She must’ve decided to replace them with something she liked more, but she hadn’t finished the job yet.
“Hey,” Bram said, coming around the corner, carrying Arie. “Watch where you step. We’ve been tearing out the baseboards, and Ani isn’t real good at keeping track of the nails.”
“That seems safe when you’ve got a baby crawling around,” I replied drily.
“We’ve got a gate set up,” he said, walking toward the living room. “She can’t get out of here.”
I followed him around the short wall and stepped over the gate, blinking as what little sunlight we had poured through the large windows at the front of their house.
“How’s it going?” I asked, dropping onto the couch as Bram sat Arie on the floor with some toys.
“I should be asking you that,” he said as he lay down on his side and propped himself on one elbow by his daughter. “So you’re getting married, huh?”
“That’s right.” I grinned. Someday, we’d have a house like this, and I’d be the one lying on the floor while my kid ignored me in favor of a multicolored lion with no legs.
“You sure about it?” he asked.
I jolted. “Of course I’m sure,” I replied, scoffing. “I wouldn’t have asked if I wasn’t sure.”
“Don’t be that guy,” Bram said, his voice low.
“Don’t be what guy?” Okay, I was surprised by his last question, but now I was getting kind of pissed at his insinuation.
“The guy who gets married on a whim and gets divorced just as fast,” Bram said.
“What makes you think I would be?” I sat forward on the couch. “Just because I didn’t have kids with her first—”
“Watch yourself,” he warned, glancing at Arie. He and Ani had been together before Arie had come along, but when Ani had decided to adopt her without Bram’s agreement, it had caused some major problems. Of course, once Bram met his daughter, all his doubts flew out the window. Since then, you had to pry him away from the two of them.
“I want to marry Sarai,” I said, staring at my brother. “I love her, and I want to marry her.”
“Where are you gonna live?” Bram asked, unswayed by my declaration. “You two planning on kids? How many?”
“We’ll figure it out,” I replied. We hadn’t discussed any of that yet. My apartment was nicer, but Sarai’s was bigger. I wasn’t sure which she would choose, but it was a nonissue for me. I didn’t care where we lived. I’d already mentioned kids and she hadn’t argued, so that discussion could come later, way later.
“Man, you have to know that shit,” Bram scolded.
“Like you and Ani knew any of that when you got together?” I said snidely.
“Ani and I weren’t engaged,” he said, looking at me as if I were an idiot. “And do you really want to go through what I went through?”
“Out of everyone in our family, I figured you’d be the hardest sell, but I didn’t think you’d bust my balls,” I said in disgust.
“I’m not busting your balls, jackass,” Bram shot back. “I’m asking you if you’ve thought this through.”
“I’ve thought it through, all right?” I said. “I know what I’m doing.”
Bram stared at me for a long moment, then nodded. Jesus, he looked like our dad when he did shit like that.
“All right,” he said. “I’ll drop it.”
“Thank you.”
We were quiet while we watched Arie play with her toys, babbling at them and then throwing them to the side to grab a new one. Damn, she was cute. Every time I saw her, she was so much bigger than the last time. It was hard living so far away, especially now that everyone had kids running around and growing up without me.
