Page 27 of Falling With You

It had felt like a part of my childhood had died, the one that had been solid and pulled me through when everything else had sucked. It felt like death.

It wasn’t that Jack had done a bad job, it was that he hadn’t been able to do it on his own, and things had changed. He had been draining his life.

And we hadn’t been there to help him. His sons hadn’t been there to help him.

I would blame myself for that until the end of my days.

But we were here now, and the place was doing well. Beckham and Cameron were behind the bar, laughing and making drinks.

Brendon was helping the waitstaff, mostly because he liked being on the floor in a manager capacity when he wasn’t in the office helping with everything that needed to be done paperwork-wise.

We each had our zones, and we were good at those. Mix them up, though? Yeah, we weren’t the best.

But that’s why we were brothers. We did what we needed to do and got it done.

I looked over to the far corner booth and smiled. I should have known who would be here. Because it wasn’t a weekend night, it was a Thursday, and that meant people would be playing pool in the back, and my brothers’ girls would be at their table.

I walked over and shook my head. “It’s like you guys are just here for me and my cooking. You should have told me you were here earlier, I would have brought out something special.” I leaned down and kissed the top of Violet’s head and then the top of Harmony’s.

They each gave me strange looks, but I shrugged it off.

I wasn’t the best at showing affection, and I didn’t really like touching people, but I was getting better at it. Because these were my brothers’ women, and that meant they would be family one day. They were already practically family now.

So, I needed to stop being an asshole and get over myself.

Of course, as soon as I thought that, I looked over at the other two people in the booth.

I lifted my chin at Meadow and smiled. She gave a little wave back. She was one of their new friends, a neighbor of Violet’s, and pretty sweet. I didn’t know her that well and honestly didn’t hang out with her that much. But it was good to see her again. She seemed to settle the other three somehow.

It was always a little jarring to see the three girls here and not see Allison with them, but I wasn’t going to mention that. After all, they probably thought about it often.

And I had to wonder if Meadow thought about it, too.

Finally, I looked over at the fourth woman and nodded.

“Hey, Sienna. Surprised you’re here.”

I hadn’t meant to say that, but it wasn’t like I could take it back now.

“The girls wanted to come out. So, here I am.” Her gaze moved down to my hand.

“You doing okay tonight?”

I looked at my hand and shrugged. “Doing fine. Dillon’s doing most of the work. I left him alone back there with the kitchen staff.”

“Poor Dillon,” Violet said, laughing.

“No. My poor staff,” I corrected.

“Dillon’s great. You need to be nicer to him.” Harmony smiled as she said it and took a sip of her drink.

“Me? I’m the nicest one of us.”

“Really?” Sienna asked. I ignored all of their laughter.

“Really.”

“The food was great tonight by the way,” Meadow put in. “Thank you.”