Hero by Lauren Rowe

Author:Lauren Rowe [Rowe, Lauren]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Romance, series
Publisher: SoCoRo Publishing
Published: 2018-03-10T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 39

Colby

The Climb & Conquer party is done. The band just now finished playing its final song. Izzy’s face is painted with kitten whiskers. Bea’s cheeks are decorated with glittery stars. Theo and Ryan are now soulmates for life, having climbed four towering rock walls together over the past hour and a half. And my matchmaker of a mother, God bless her, has just insisted Lydia and her “kiddos” should come for a Morgan family dinner “as soon as we can wrangle everyone’s busy schedules.”

“Oh, we’d love to come for dinner,” Lydia says brightly, her face aglow. “Colby has raved about your cooking, Mrs. Morgan.”

“Please, call me Louise or Lou,” Mom says. “Or call me Momma Lou, if you like. That’s what everyone calls me these days.”

I look at Ryan like, What the fuck? and he chuckles. No one in the history of the world has ever called our mother Momma Lou, as far as I know. And in our family, we don’t nickname ourselves. It’s just not done.

More conversation ensues and, soon, everyone is pulling out their phones to compare photos from the party. Ryan shows everyone the shots he snapped of Theo at the top of the highest wall. Lydia and Mom follow suit. And, suddenly, I find myself tasked with gathering all the party photos via air drop and putting them onto a Google drive for everyone to access.

“Sorry, I have no idea how to air drop photos to you,” Lydia says sheepishly.

“Oh, it’s easy,” Ryan pipes in. “I’ll show you.”

Lydia pulls out her phone and hands it to Ryan, just as Izzy tugs on Lydia’s shirt and urgently tells her mother she needs to use the bathroom. In a flurry of commotion, Ryan says he’ll perform the air drop for Lydia. Lydia hands Beatrice to my mother. Mom and Dad, with Beatrice in tow, take Theo for one last climb while Lydia and Izzy hit the bathroom... and, just like that, I’m standing here alone with Ryan.

After my brother quickly transfers the designated photos from Lydia’s phone to mine and his, we begin swiping through the shots together. Ryan stops on a particularly adorable picture of Izzy and me on the dance floor and we both gush about Izzy’s unbelievable cuteness.

“She’s a cutie patootie, you might even say,” Ryan says, doing his best Keane impression, and we both laugh. Ryan adds, “Do you think Izzy was under the false impression it was the crutches that made you such a sucky-ass dancer today?”

“Hey, I’ll have you know Isabella said I’m a phenomenal dancer,” I say. “She told me so three times during one song.”

“Dude, Izzy didn’t compliment you because you’ve got actual dancing skills. She did it because she’s a little girl who’s dying to have a daddy.”

My heart pangs. Truer words were never spoken. The kid wears it on her sleeve.

Suddenly, the enormity of what I’m embarking on here with Lydia hits me like a ton of bricks. Dad warned me there’d be three hearts on the line along with Lydia’s and mine, and I’d approached today’s meet-up with that mentality.

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