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When Gavin met Chandler a year later, during his business program, he’d been ready for something a little more serious. She was the complete opposite of Nia in every way—blonde, blue eyed, athletic body, quiet personality—and somehow she liked him enough to stick around. They started out as friends getting coffee and studying together, then it evolved into kisses and sleepovers. Chandler was an exceptional lover and he enjoyed every minute of their relationship. But when she wanted to take things to the next level—meeting the family and planning for the future—Gavin panicked.
And Chandler walked away.
Since then, Gavin had been picky about who he hooked up with. It didn’t look that way to his friends, he realized. Jackson and Milo saw him flirting up a storm with every woman he encountered and they rightfully assumed that Gavin was going home with them. Even when he wasn’t. He just let them assume that, because it was easier than explaining why he was suddenly not interested in one night stands when he’d spent a good chunk of his life pining after a woman he’d never have.
* * *
“I’m so glad all of you could leave your busy lives to spend the holiday weekend with your aging parents.”
An echo of dramatic groans went around the table making Juniper Rhodes laugh as she got to her feet. Gavin smiled, watching his parents share a quick kiss before his mother hustled off to the kitchen. He glanced around the table at his brothers and nodded to himself. Gavin could moan and groan about hissituationall weekend, or he could just enjoy having everyone under one roof for a change. Spencer and Gavin lived close to home, while Noah, Graham and Simon were a few hours driving distance.
“How’s the shelter doing, son?”
Gavin nodded at his father’s question, taking a big sip of his wine before turning to face his old man. “The usual. Someone abandoned a mother and her newborn pups outside the shelter yesterday, so we’ve been taking turns looking after them.”
“On Christmas Eve?”
Heaving a sigh, Gavin shrugged. “They left a note that they had no intention of raising a full family of dogs, but the mother wouldn’t leave her puppies, so they dropped all of them off.”
The table was silent, all of them frowning at Gavin’s news. Every single one of them had gone on to become vets. Noah and Graham set up clinics the first chance they got, Simon worked mostly with farm animals and had a mobile clinic that took him all over the East Coast, Spencer worked with a speciality hospital in Wildes full time, and Gavin opened and ran the shelter when he’d saved up enough money. In Delaware, the Rhodes name meant something when it came to household pets and animals. They did house visits, late night emergency calls and always stepped up to the plate no matter what. Even without his full veterinarian education, Gavin showed up whenever he was needed.
So the reaction to the abandoned puppies was not surprising.
“What’s with the sad faces?”
As his mother walked out of the kitchen with a tray, six of them straightened up and beamed at her. Of all the Rhodes’, Juniper was the one who took offense to people abandoning their pets. Which is why they never told her all the bad stuff, because Juniper would take it to heart and then get loud and aggressive. She’d been detained by the police enough times for causing a scene when he was a kid, so Gavin knew to never bring the sad work stuff home with him.
“We were just talking about how unfortunate it is that Arlo’s been cursed with Simon’s ugly mug,” Noah told their mother with a playful pout.
At the mention of his name, the cutest kid in the world squealed and tossed peas from his high chair, making everyone at the table laugh. Arlo giggled along with everyone else, beaming at his father, who was flipping Noah off.
Their mother released a long-suffering sigh as she set the tray on the table. “Boys.”
“Sorry Ma.” The echo went around the table and she smiled at each of them, one at a time before looking at their father while gesturing at the Christmas pudding.
“Would you like to do the honors?”
“Always, my love.”
Their father stood up, the two of them kissed and when their mother yelped, all of them groaned in unison. Either there was a subtle ass grab or their father said something inappropriate. Whatever it was…the five of them were not impressed.
With parents who’d stayed married for forty-three years, always kept their shit locked up and away from the boys and never once gave up on each other; it was a miracle that all five sons had shitty luck with love. Gavin didn’t hold them responsible for the high standards, he just wished that he’d find his forever like his father did.
CHAPTER2
It wastwo days after Christmas and while most of the office was off with their families for the holidays, Ginny was still working. Since she didn’t have any plans with her family—she avoided her parents during the holidays and her siblings had their own lives—Ginny chose to spend it with files and paperwork for future clients. Especially when her inbox was already flooded with a million emails from those very same brides and grooms.
Her therapist—was Anastasia still her therapist if Ginny hadn’t been to a session in four months because of work?—would tell her that she was hiding behind her job instead of just facing whatever was weighing on her. Ginny was great at compartmentalizing and she had put her worries in a tiny box in the back of her mind. Temporarily, of course.
When Frankie quit and walked out of Knots & Crosses earlier that year, Ginny hadn’t even hesitated to follow her friend-slash-boss to whatever dreams she had in mind. Wildes Events + Weddings was born soon after and Ginny got to use all the things she learned in the eight years as Frankie’s assistant to become a planner in her own right. In the last few months, the company had expanded in terms of office space and employees, making it one of the hottest places to work in Wildes.
Ginny loved the office she and Frankie had selected, decorated and fitted for the company—exposed brick walls, large windows bringing in natural light, conference rooms along one side and an open-plan concept for the rest of the team. There were long tables that could be used for discussions and aesthetically designed cubicles that some people used to work on their own.
It was her second favorite place to be on any given day, which was why, even though it was the holidays, Ginny made herself a tall mug of coffee in the kitchen and took her time walking through the space while texting with her sister.
Stella
I wish you would have joined Rahul and me for the holidays.
