AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Brooke put her elbow on the table, chin in her hand, and grinned at him. “Of course you do.”
“She’s an executive. She’ll need an assistant. The office downstairs doesn’t have a space for a cubicle.”
“It’ll be fine.”
“Fine isn’t good enough. If you can’t do what you need to do here, then that means you’ll have to go there.” Cody didn’t know why he was getting so worked up about office space.
Summer put her hand over his. “We’ll figure it out.”
David pushed his empty plate away. “I heard you’re hiring a personal assistant, too, to help with the day-to-day stuff. I could use someone to stock my fridge, clean the apartment, run errands.”
“Your work schedule is insane,” Brooke agreed. “And your fridge is a sad wasteland where condiments rule and food turns into gross science experiments.”
David shrugged it off. “Alex thought the green mush that used to be mashed potatoes was cool.”
“Yeah, well, next time we come over, you need to have snacks. And wine.”
“Alex really shouldn’t be drinking that stuff,” David teased.
Brooke bumped her shoulder into his and shook her head. “I drink the wine and you get lucky.”
“I know for a fact, you don’t need the wine for me to get lucky.”
“Gross,” Cody said, putting his hands over his ears. “Please make them stop,” he implored Summer.
“Should I tell your sister that you’re going to get lucky later?”
“Ew.” Brooke scrunched up her lips.
Then they all laughed.
Cody caught David’s eye. “You two seem really good together.”
David and Brooke shared a loving look and smiles.
Summer addressed Brooke. “Alex told me this morning that you’re all going to his friend’s birthday party together.”
Brooke blushed. “We’re making it a point to spend more time together.”
It seemed that their relationship was quickly moving ahead.
And it felt like Cody’s relationship with Summer wasn’t getting to where he wanted it fast enough. And other times, he wondered if they’d ever get there, but didn’t know why he felt that way when everything seemed great between them.
Brooke leaned toward him. “Are you worried about Summer going back to Texas and how that will work for the two of you?” Leave it to his sister to read his mind and ask the hard question.
“I am,” he admitted.
Summer put her hand over his on the table and squeezed it.“Our circumstances are complicated. The reality is, I live and work in a different state. You’ve known for weeks that I have to return, yet we’ve just started making plans to join our lives in a way that works for both of us.”
He wanted to explain why he’d held off, but she put her hand up to stop him from interrupting.
“The circumstances of me getting to know my family, while also starting a relationship with you, made us both wait on the long-term stuff because we needed to know if this was something we both wanted to hold on to. For me, it feels like we’re moving in the right direction toward what we both want.”
“I think so, too. But I also can’t deny that I’m concerned things will fall apart if we’re not communicating what we need.”
“Aw, look, David. He learned from his past mistakes.” Brooke gave Cody a sincerely absurd grin of approval.
Cody rolled his eyes, then turned back to Summer. “Just because this relationship is going to take a lot of effort doesn’t mean we can’t make it work.”
