AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Shaking my head at Brex’s perpetual state of worry, I pointed out, “But you’ll get to glow! We can buy pretty things for a nursery.”
“I’ll swell up like a beach ball.”
“And pick names and watch Rhyett fret over making sure your entire existence is perfect.”
“Oh God, and then I have to squeeze a watermelon out of a grape.”
I burst out laughing. That did it, right there. Sometimes Brexley’s cynicism was tiring, but other times, it was ridiculously hilarious. We were sitting in her room at Rhyett’s as she packed up their clothing in precise little piles. Hell, I’d never been this organized, let alone for a trip across the country. Time blindness made me prone to unwitting procrastination, followed by running around like a chicken with my head cut off, stuffing random odds and ends into my suitcase hours before leaving for the airport. Jealous of the fact that the two of them got to go home to my sweet cat, Chloe, and Brexley’s golden retriever, Royal, but otherwise just anxious that I was going to be up here alone, I was slowly helping her through her drawers. Not that it took a lot, as they were already folded properly.
“I think the grape is built to stretch,” I reassured, handing her a stack of crisp-edged denim leggings.
“Did you know Juniper had all of her babies without an epidural?Oh god,I don’t think I can do that.”
“And you don’t have to. There’s not a trophy for finishing one way or another. Healthy and happy is all that matters.”
“Oh, Jesus, I have so much to learn.”
“And you will,in time.” I handed over a rolled-up hoodie, and she gingerly placed it into the suitcase. “How do we eat an elephant?”
“A bite at a time.”
“There you go.”
“And I have Rhyett.”
“Yeah,” I said, smiling as the stack of shirts settled on limp hands in my lap. Warmth grew in my chest. “You have Rhyett.”
“Okay,” she said, blowing out a breath. “Let’s talk about literally anything else. The girls will drive me crazy in no time. Oh god,the girls.”
“Will expect the details on everything.”
“I don’t want them planning the wedding.”
I cackled despite myself. Rhyett had—in true Rhyett form—proposed when he remembered how to set Brexley on her own two feet. According to Jameson, he’d had the whole thing planned out, but tossed the elaborate beach proposal to the wind when she told him the news. The family had lost their minds. There was toasting, and crying and celebrating, and baby books whipped out of thin air full of cute, naked rolly butts, and filthy kitchens, and tiny gremlins more mud than child. Much to Broderick’s chagrin, he made appearances in a few of those, and Max showed up a handful of pages later. To his immense satisfaction, his photos were all clothed. Even the bonus brothers were teary and emotional over Rhyett and Brexley’s bun in the oven.
“So, don’t let them. It doesn’t have to be fit for royalty. Do it your way, and then they’ll feel extra grateful when I make them organize mine someday.”
She laughed, setting her half-folded jacket in her lap so she could look at me. “On a scale of calling me ‘twat’ for six months to burning my house down, how angry would they be if we eloped?”
My throat went tight, hand hovering awkwardly halfway to her case. “Eloped?”
She nodded enthusiastically. “We could bump our flights out a few days, go hike back to those fields of purple lupine so the photos are pretty, and get married here, where Rhy grew up.”
I looked out the window at the omnipresent misty gray, only sporadically broken apart by sunlight. It could work. “Now?!” My voice was definitely not supposed to crack like that. Still, everything about the way they met and then the impulsive driveway proposal, and now a potential mountainside elopement was so far from the precisely planned calendar and mile-long to-do list Brexley was known for.
“Yeah, I mean, you’re the only family I have. So many Rhodes are here right now—we could call Pax, Finn, Hadlee, and Jeanne and see if they could get up here. But, worst case, we have the bulk of who we want already,” she said with a gentle little shrug. Brexley had always been afraid to ask for what she wanted. This was good—her knowing, herwanting. I loved it.
“I say we do it.”
“Oh, thank god, because I have to ask for a favor.”
“Oh, boy.”
She laughed nervously. “Will you somehow give me awayandbe my maid of honor?”
My heart stuttered, tears immediately pricking my eyes. “Of course, sweetie. Oh my god, Brex! That means theworldto me.” She threw her arms around me as I did with her, and we both rocked and somehow simultaneously giggled and cried together, leaning awkwardly over her suitcase. I released her to straighten my back and was dabbing at my eyes when Rhyett and Jameson appeared in the doorway.
“Oh, Jesus,” Jameson muttered, immediately vanishing, earning a trill of laughter from both of us and a wry smile from Rhyett, who, evidently, didn’t share Jameson’s aversion to emotion.
