Total pages in book: 65
Estimated words: 60933 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 305(@200wpm)___ 244(@250wpm)___ 203(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 60933 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 305(@200wpm)___ 244(@250wpm)___ 203(@300wpm)
The thing I hadn’t considered while I struggled with fear of marriage was that I wasn’t weak like my dad.
I was strong like my mother. I loved the way she loved. Unconditionally. Just because I was a man didn’t mean I was a product of my father. My mother’s love had taught me more than he ever had. I was the man she had raised me to be. Not the man my father had been.
CHAPTER FOUR
RILEY
Pink icing smeared across the smile on Bryony’s face as she raced by me toward the inflatable slide and jump house my parents had rented made this all worth it. Her laughter filled the backyard and she turned to grab her friend Amy’s hand as they climbed into the jump house in their princess dresses.
Two hours had passed, but the party was still going. Adults were enjoying the cocktails I had made while the kids were still working out all the sugar they’d consumed. My baby was seven years old. I’d been so busy today, I hadn’t let that sink in. How had seven years come and gone so quickly?
When they’d placed her in my arms, I’d been so terrified. I had been a kid myself, but one little look from her sweet face and I’d known I would move heaven and earth for her. I had no regrets. Not one. I would go through it all over again to have her. She was a gift that had turned a nightmare into something else.
Brady walked across the lawn toward the inflatable and waited for Bryony to come down the slide. I watched him, feeling my heart squeeze as he laughed at her sliding down sideways. She beamed up at him and threw her arms around his neck. I loved that man. More than I’d ever thought possible. Every moment I watched him be the dad to Bryony that I’d never thought she’d have, I loved him more. So much, my heart felt like it would explode at times. Although he hadn’t asked me to marry him, we were a family already. We didn’t need a marriage license to make us one. I knew that deep down Brady struggled with marriage because of what he went through with his parents. I understood that and having his love was enough.
He whispered something to Bryony, and she nodded, then took his hand, and they walked toward the house. I studied them, wondering if he had a present he hadn’t told me about for her. We had already given her the bike she’d wanted so badly. Although Boone’s gift had been a close second. The newest Barbie Dreamhouse, complete with a garage and Tesla, was a massive hit with her too. It was also far more expensive than her bike had been.
I started to walk toward the door to see what they were up to in there when my mom called out my name. I turned to see her at the punch fountain. “We need more purple shiny juice,” she told me. “The kids are getting thirsty again.”
I walked over to her and reached under the table to find the bottle of apple juice I had in a cooler. I had already put the purple food coloring in it, along with the edible glitter. “We just add this,” I told her.
“Why didn’t we get sparkly drinks?” Gunner asked.
“You can always drink the fancy apple juice,” I told him.
He looked as if he were considering it. “I’ll stick with the whiskey.”
Laughing, I shook my head and turned to check the adult beverage table to make sure it didn’t need restocking. The party didn’t seem to be winding down.
I realized the Disney playlist that Bryony had chosen had stopped playing, and I started out of the tent to go restart the computer. It had probably gone through all thirty songs again. Just as I made it halfway across the yard, Taylor Swift’s “Love Story” started playing, and I paused. Bryony loved that song, along with everything else Taylor sang. Had she changed the playlist?
The back door opened then, and Bryony came out doing the choreographed dance she had taught Brady weeks ago. They did it to many songs at the house. She thought it was funny to get him to dance, and he had a hard time telling her no. Once she batted her eyes at him and begged, he always gave in.
I stopped and watched her, highly entertained by her performance. When Brady then followed her out the door and began doing the same dance, a burst of laughter came from me as well as some hoots and cheers from the guests behind me.
Crossing my arms over my chest, I watched as the two people I loved most in the world sang along to “Love Story” and danced. Unable to stop the grin on my face. Brady swore he would never do this dance in public, but here he was making Bryony’s birthday party epic. That man would do anything for her. One day she would realize how incredibly lucky she was.