Love . . . Plus One: Part One (Lovers and Mavericks) by Teal Haviland

Author:Teal Haviland [Haviland, Teal]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: anonymous
Published: 2022-12-19T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter Seventeen

Lindy

“I’m just saying,” my mom calls out loudly from the pantry like I can’t hear her in the kitchen it’s attached to if she speaks in a normal tone. “He’s a fine-looking man and you should seal the deal on that one.”

“Eww . . .” my brother, Sam, says as he walks into the room from the entry. I hadn’t even heard him open or close the door. “Whatever and whomever you two are talking about, you can stop now.”

At the ripe old age of twenty-four, Sam is my youngest brother. He’s also the most light-hearted of us all. Even though he suffered more than probably any of us kids when our dad died. He was barely out of high school when it happened, so he naturally felt he’d been slighted the most with his death. None of us had dad around long enough, though.

My chest tightens with the memory, and I raise my hand to it and try to rub the feeling away. It’s been six years since the accident, but time doesn’t heal this kind of hurt.

Nothing does.

“Oh, stop,” mom says as she comes out of the pantry. “You’re not ten.”

“That doesn’t mean I want to hear about Lindy sealing the deal with some dude.”

“That dude is coming for dinner tonight, so be nice.”

“A dude is coming for dinner?” Wesley asks as he comes in with Cameron right behind him.

“Well,” Cameron says as he kisses mom on the cheek, then does the same to mine. “I don’t care who the dude is, as long as it’s not you know who and he treats you right.”

Wesley and Cameron had never been fans of my ex and refuse to speak his name unless they’re being sensitive to Charlie being within earshot. They’re twins and, even though I’m older than them by three years, they adopted the role of my protectors practically from birth and take that responsibility pretty damn seriously. It was everything I could do to keep them from going after him toward the end of our relationship.

All of us kids have blond hair, and all but one of us have blue eyes, with Wesley being the oddball who somehow came out of the womb as an identical twin with green ones. Apparently, it’s incredibly rare, but it’s a great way to tell Wes and Cam apart since they’re identical in every other way. And while Wes and Sam are older and could never be called short at just over six feet, Sam beats them in height by a couple of inches.

“Well . . .” I say. “The dude’s name is Jaden, and he’ll be here soon. You guys, please don’t be assholes to him. He’s pretty great.”

“How’d you meet him?” Sam asks.

“You all know him. Well, at least you know of him. He owns Stomping Grounds.”

“Oh, yeah,” Cam says. “The three of us were just there a couple of months ago. Nice place.”

“And you didn’t invite me?” I ask with utter dejection riding my words playfully.

“We knew you wouldn’t go if we did, Linds,” Wes says as he passes and kisses my cheek like Cam did.

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