Total pages in book: 125
Estimated words: 119093 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 595(@200wpm)___ 476(@250wpm)___ 397(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 119093 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 595(@200wpm)___ 476(@250wpm)___ 397(@300wpm)
We arrive at the Pierce Hotel—a luxury hotel that I’ve only ever seen in passing—and the guys escort me to the restaurant that’s on the rooftop. The hostess takes us back to a private room with a candlelit square table. After pulling out and pushing my chair in for me, the guys sit on either side of me.
I’m assuming they handled the details ahead of time because the server doesn’t take our order. Instead, he brings out a bottle of the wine I love and pours us each a glass.
“How did Miles do on his math test?” Brody asks after taking a sip of his drink. “It was today, right?”
“He thinks he did good,” Hayden replies before I can. “He texted me this afternoon and thinks he got them all right.”
“What? When?” Brody pulls out his phone, his brows pinched together.
“Not in the group chat,” Hayden explains. “I texted him earlier about his hockey game on Monday and asked.”
“He’s so damn nervous,” Brody says with a chuckle. “We should take him to practice on Sunday to get him hyped up.”
“Hell yeah,” Hayden says. “He’s going to kill it as goalie.”
As the guys talk about my son, my gaze volleys between them, listening, watching, and taking it all in. Two years ago, Lacey set me up on a blind date with some corporate bigwig who worked with her husband. I tried to refrain from bringing up my kids, wanting to keep the date about me, but when it came up, and I mentioned my kids, I could immediately see the shutters dropping. The date might as well have ended at that moment because once he knew I was a single mom, there was nothing left to say. This is why I told them I had kids when I first went out with Brody and Hayden. I figured it would push them away, and I could say I tried, then go back to being a lonely, mourning widow.
Only instead of pushing them away, they embraced me being a single mom and they didn’t stop there. Without expectation, they’ve developed their own relationships with my children. Relationships that aren’t just for show to win me over—no, they care about them and connect with them. We’re at dinner, celebrating our four-month anniversary, and instead of discussing getting laid—which hasn’t happened in over a week thanks to life—they’re talking about hockey games and math tests.
“Hey, what’s wrong?” Brody asks. It isn’t until he knocks me out of my thoughts that I realize I’ve teared up, my emotions getting the better of me.
“Nothing,” I say honestly. “Everything is perfect.”
Hayden’s brow furrows. “Then why the hell are you crying?” He swipes at a tear that’s leaked out and is sliding down my cheek.
“I just… I’m…” Jesus, how do I explain how I feel? I take a deep breath and just go with whatever comes to me. “I love you both so much. I love that you love my children and that you think about them. That you think about me. I didn’t even know we have an anniversary date,” I say through a watery laugh. “And…” I sigh, my gaze flitting between the two of them. “I’m happy.”
Those two words shouldn’t send me over the edge, but they do because after living through the childhood I did, then finding love and shortly after losing it, then losing my nana, happiness has been really hard to grasp. But between my children, who were the only things keeping me afloat since losing Pete and my grandma, and Hayden and Brody, I’ve finally found happiness again, and it feels so damn good.
“Every time I imagined what happiness looked like, it seemed so far off. It was wrapped around my marriage, the life we were creating. After he died, that happiness looked different. It wasn’t as vibrant, full of color. Don’t get me wrong—my kids are my entire world, but I craved the happiness that comes from adult conversations, lazy mornings in bed… orgasms.” I feel myself flush, but I’m not embarrassed. Hayden and Brody make me feel safe to say whatever’s on my mind.
“I didn’t think I’d ever find that kind of happiness again. But then you two came along. You gave me back the happiness I longed for. Filled my heart with a kind of love that I didn’t think I’d ever feel again.” I lift my hands and thread my fingers through both of theirs. “Thank you for not giving up on me when I pushed you away. Thank you for loving me, for loving my kids.”
Hayden shakes his head, and Brody chuckles under his breath.
“What?” I ask, worried I said something wrong.
“We had this huge speech planned, and then you swooped in and stole our thunder,” Hayden says, his tone half playful and half serious. “Fuck it.” He shrugs, then pushes his chair back. “We were going to wait until after dinner to do this, but after everything you said, now seems like the perfect time.”