Page 50 of A Return For Ren

“That’s if you can catch her from leaving the room,” Zane said around a mouthful. “And, no. No one told me. I figured as much. You came here two weeks ago to tell Lily he was back in town. I know how you are and what you went through when you broke up with him.”

“I didn’t break up with him,” she argued. “He broke up with me.”

“You know what I meant,” Zane said.

“Fine. And you said you know how I am, which means…?”

“You’re too forgiving,” Zane said.

“It’s not a bad quality to have,” Lily said. “Don’t listen to your brother.”

“I don’t think I’m forgiving as much as open to listening and giving people a second chance.”

“If you say so,” Zane said. “I’m still going to have words with him.”

“No, you’re not,” Lily said.

“She’s right,” Zara said. “Listen to your wife. Ren and I are working this out on our own.”

She watched as her brother and Lily had a battle of wills staring each other down. “For now,” he said. “And why did you ask if Rose told us?”

“She and Thomas saw Ren and me out to eat last night. I asked her to give me until Monday to let everyone know. I’m not one for keeping secrets and you know it.”

“That was the first date?” Lily asked.

“No,” she said. She knew Rose and Poppy would have told Lily about the conversation from last week too. “But it was the first time we were out together in public. It’s not a secret, as I said. We’ve had a few dinners together while we talked. I suppose those are loosely considered dates.”

More than loosely since she ended up making out with Ren except for the first dinner where they parted ways awkwardly. But she wasn’t going to share that information with her older brother.

“And you are telling your brother about this because things are going well?” Lily asked.

“They are. For the most part,” she admitted.

“What does that mean?” Zane asked.

“Why are you frowning, Daddy?” Willow asked.

Lily grinned at Zane. “Daddy frowns when he’s confused.”

“Oh, like when I asked him to braid my hair the first time and he swore when his fingers got stuck? He was frowning a lot trying to do that.”

That might be one of the sweetest things she’d heard of her brother. The ex-Army Ranger. Big, bad and tough had always been Zane.

He was never one to smile much in life, but she didn’t remember her brother being mean. Just protective.

“But I figured it out,” Zane said. “Right?”

“You did. Not as good as Lily does it, but we made do,” Willow said.

Her niece said that a lot for years. She knew it was Zane’s way of teaching his daughter they could do anything in life if they tried hard enough.

She supposed she should remember that too.

She’d tried long and hard with Ren. Then tried to forget him and moved on.

She was thinking she didn’t do such a good job with it if she was so willing to go back.

Then she had to remind herself she was going with her heart and her gut. She’d done that a lot in life and she wasn’t going to stop.