Total pages in book: 143
Estimated words: 133878 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 669(@200wpm)___ 536(@250wpm)___ 446(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 133878 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 669(@200wpm)___ 536(@250wpm)___ 446(@300wpm)
If she ever forgave him.
He was going to lose her because he hadn’t proven himself. She was still wary, still worried he wouldn’t do what it took to make her happy.
“See, that’s where you don’t understand women. Rach was pissed off, but we made a deal a long time ago. When I do something to upset her, I owe her sexual servitude. Usually that’s my place because it’s hard to be the charming, funny one all the time. Some of my adventures don’t go the way I want them to, and I end up hanging out with Nate. Rye doesn’t usually get into the same kind of trouble, but I have to give him this one. Those two need to reconnect. I’m actually happy she walked in yelling. It means she’s coming back to us. My baby has some anger issues. I can handle those. What I can’t handle is her being sad all the time. Especially when we’re the cause. We’ve been parents and not spouses, and being her husband is my favorite thing on earth to be. We have to remind her of that.”
He didn’t hate the sound of Max’s reasoning. “So you’re saying if I want to get Brooke back, I should make her happy in bed?”
Max winced. “No. I am not saying that. Not saying that at all.” His hands tightened on the wheel, and he let out a long sigh. “But I’m also not not saying that, damn it. Where is your daddy?”
“Well, he’s dead, but if you’re asking why I’m not talking to him about this instead of you, it wouldn’t matter if he was still alive. I wouldn’t be talking to him. My dad was pretty pathetic. I always talk to Shane.”
“Son, that is the dumb leading the even dumber,” Max quipped. “Well, I guess the only thing to do is take you both in hand and under my tender care.”
“What is that supposed to mean?”
“It means I think my sister is in love with you, and while I wish like hell I could blame you for all of this, we might be looking at a problem of my own making. Or rather my other half’s. Hell, I’m involved too because I never wanted Brooke to leave at all. I would have been perfectly happy with her coming home and staying in that house we built and being auntie to all our kids. It’s hard when you have to deal with the fact that the people you love, the ones you watched grow, turn into actual adults who need to make their own way in the world. We handled it poorly with Brooke. We made her think she owed us something. We didn’t try to but that’s what happened.”
“She loves you.”
“Which is why she’s hurting. We haven’t been communicating well. See, this is the funny thing about a great love story. Which is what I have with Rach. She and Rye have a regular old love story, but the outcome is the same.”
He wasn’t going to debate with Max about whether Rye had the better love story. It was ridiculous because they both loved her. It was all their story. But he was curious. “What outcome?”
“See, when you get married you think it’s all settled, but here’s the hard part. You still grow, and you have to make the choice to do that together. You have to watch the woman you love more than life itself become a mother and give herself to those babies you made together. You have to watch them become their own people and know that one day they’re going to leave and you won’t be able to protect them anymore. They want their own stories, and your story never stopped. If you aren’t careful, you’ll forget that love is an active choice you make. And you start using the kind of words I just did.”
Bay felt a deep well of emotion open inside him, and his childhood spilled out. His parents hadn’t loved each other. They’d gotten married because it was time and they were dating. There had been no grand love story for them. He’d grown up in a house where they didn’t even like each other. They stayed together because someone told them they had to in order to be good human beings. They hadn’t chosen each other. They hadn’t chosen themselves. They had chosen misery.
He knew the words Max was talking about. “You don’t have to. You get to. You said that was the bad part, but it’s the good part. You get to watch the woman you love become more. You get to hold her hand. You get to have a partner to watch your kids grow, and no matter what happens you stand beside her. Those kids are there because of you and her and the love you have. It isn’t an obligation. It isn’t a sacrifice. It’s the whole reason we’re alive.”