Page 38 of Forever Enough
“Me being like what?” my dad asked as he walked into the room.
“Why don’t you get dressed for your dinner date and meet us down in the kitchen, sweetheart,” Mom suggested as she stood and walked to my father, taking his hand in hers.
“Please, Bradly, will you let me pick out something for you to wear to dinner?” Avery asked.
Dad raised a brow. “Date isn’t over, I take it?”
“I’m having dinner with Kenzie at her place.”
My father glanced at my mother and frowned. “Are you crying?”
“No! No, they’re happy tears.”
Avery chuckled. “Because your son here just all but admitted to being in love.”
“I did not.”
“You said you saw Mackenzie in the barn last night and it was like, finally, there she was. The person you’ve been waiting for since you took your first breath.”
Dad glanced at me and raised his brows as he said, “Those romance books you read all the time are paying off. That’s some good shit.”
My mother hit my father on the chest. “Dirk Littlewood, stop it.”
“What? They are. Can you imagine me ever saying something like that?”
Avery busted out laughing, and I couldn’t help but smile.
“As a matter of fact, I’ll have you kids know your father was very romantic. Still is romantic. Once he got his head out of his ass, that is.”
Rolling his eyes, Dad said, “Thanks for that, Merit.”
Winking, Mom replied, “It’s true.”
“Come on, let’s go make our own dinner, I’m starving,” my dad said, wrapping his arm around Mom’s waist and guiding her out of the bedroom.
After Avery and I argued about what I was going to wear, we both settled on jeans, a button-down shirt, and my cowboy boots. She put a cowboy hat on my head as we left my bedroom and headed downstairs to the kitchen.
Avery sat at the kitchen island and gave me a questioning look. “What are you bringing with you?”
“Um, I wasn’t aware I should bring something.”
She harrumphed. “Romance books, you have failed him.”
I snarled my lip at my sister as she went on.
“Bradly, she invited you to dinner, so you need to bring something. Flowers, dessert, a gift.”
“A gift?” I exclaimed.
“It’s the first date, she is not expecting a gift,” Dad interjected.
“I agree, she won’t be expecting anything, but I also agree with your sister. You can’t show up with nothing,” Mom said as she glanced around the kitchen. Tapping a finger on her chin, she paused, then smiled.
We watched as she rushed over to the refrigerator. She pulled out a pie and set it on the counter before walking into the dining room, where she grabbed a bouquet of flowers in a vase.
My dad quickly intercepted her and snatched the vase out of her hands. “Hey! I gave you those flowers on Christmas Eve!”
Taking them back from him, she said, “And they’re beautiful, but we need them. You don’t want your son to show up with nothing, do you? You raised him better than that. Besides, you and I both adore Mackenzie, and Bradly can’t afford to let her slip through his fingers.”