The Lemon Sisters Read online

  With a rough sound of male pleasure, Garrett held her tight, lowered his head, and kissed her like it was the only thing keeping him alive.

  “Hey, Brooke, Tommy’s going to take us to—” Mindy again. She broke off at the sight of them kissing, standing in the doorway where she’d poked her head back in.

  Slowly Garrett let Brooke go and she put her feet back on the ground.

  “No! Go back to kissing!” Mindy said quickly. “Ignore me!”

  Brooke turned back to Garrett. They both started to talk at the same time, then stopped, laughed a little, and stared at each other again.

  Garrett took her hand. “I’d like to be the gentleman here and let you go first, but I need you to know a few things.”

  Moved by the simple fact that he was even there, by just the sound of his voice, she couldn’t really find words anyway, so she nodded.

  “I let you leave Wildstone without saying some things that needed to be said.” His voice was thick, husky, as if he was as moved by the sight of her as she was by him. “Since the helicopter crash, I’ve made a career of steering clear of real relationships. I’ve always needed to be the one to leave, before anyone else could leave me.”

  An involuntary sound of pain and regret escaped her, because after a life of being abandoned by those who loved him—including herself—of course he would have solved the problem in the only way he could. “Garrett, I’m so sorry—”

  “Not why I told you that.” He cupped her face. “Something changed for me the day you set foot back in Wildstone. Brooke, I want to be the guy who sticks through thick and thin. And I want that with you. I know you think I want a big family, but I want a quality family. I can go either way on kids. What I can’t go either way on is having you in my life.”

  There was a sound in the doorway behind them, and Brooke turned to find Mindy still standing there, a hand to her heart, eyes shiny. “That’s so beautiful,” her sister whispered.

  Linc appeared behind Mindy, mouthed sorry to Garrett and Brooke, and tugged her out of sight.

  Garrett hadn’t taken his gaze off Brooke. “I’m all in,” he said. “Whatever you can give. You’re it for me, Bee. You always have been. And I should’ve told you that before you left. My dad says being a dumbass runs in the family.”

  “You got him back.”

  “I did, and this time he’s sticking.”

  She stared up at him, her throat tight. “I want to stick, too. I was coming back to you.”

  “Yeah?”

  “Yeah.”

  A slow, warm smile curved his mouth. “So we were both prepared to fight for this.”

  “Very much,” she said, needing him to know that. “Did you think you needed the whole town with you to convince me?”

  “My dad and Snoop got into my truck and refused to let me leave without them. Then your nosy-ass sister—”

  “Hey!” Mindy called out, making it clear she hadn’t gone far.

  “Want me to kill her?” Brooke asked.

  Garrett just shook his head. “Not her fault. I should never have let you get away in the first place.”

  “Well, I was pretty determined to sabotage everything,” Brooke told him with a smile.

  He entangled their fingers and lifted her hand, pressing it briefly to his chest over his heart before brushing his lips to her palm. “I want to be with you, Bee. I know you believe your life doesn’t really lend itself to relationships, but we’ve been in one since the day we met. I want to be with you wherever you are, here in LA or somewhere on the other side of the planet.”

  “But your entire life’s in Wildstone.”

  “My life’s with you.”

  She looked into his eyes and saw the truth. He’d seen the very worst of her—her demons, her fears—and he was still there. And she realized he’d done the same, let down his walls with her as well. He was her person, but even more amazing, he wanted her to be his person. “I want to go back to Wildstone,” she said. “With you.”

  A collective gasp sounded but the doorway was empty. Brooke moved there and craned her neck around the corner. Everyone was stuffed together, unabashedly eavesdropping—and she did mean everyone: Garrett’s dad, her sister and her entire family, all the occupants of the building, it seemed. “You need to get a life!” she said, and then laughed at herself. Apparently, they did have a life and she was a part of it, a big part, which made her feel . . . wow. Pretty damn lucky. Shaking her head at herself, she moved back to Garrett and slipped her arms around his neck. “I know it’s only been a day, but I miss being outdoors. I miss my family. I miss you,” she said softly, going on tiptoe to pepper his jaw with kisses. “I love you, Garrett.”

  “I know.” He smiled. “But it’s nice to hear you say it.” He sank his fingers into her hair and met her gaze. “I love you, too, Brooke.”

  She grinned. “I know.”

  A laugh escaped his chest as everyone crowded back into the room. Snoop reached them first and jumped up to join the embrace.

  Mason hit them next and began climbing up Snoop to get to Garrett. Garrett scooped the kid up and bent again for Maddox. Brooke got Millie.

  “Are you going to have kids?” Millie demanded to know.

  Garrett smiled into Brooke’s face. “Maybe we’ll just share you and your brothers.”

  “You can have one of them!” Millie said. “Take both!”

  “Millie,” Mindy said.

  Millie shrugged, like, I tried, right?

  Then Mindy and Linc joined the group hug, and Garrett’s dad, and Tommy. Cole had made himself scarce, and Brooke understood. “Thanks for being here,” she told them all, her tribe, having to swallow past the threat of tears. “Thanks for coming for me.”

  “Always,” Garrett said, his warm eyes and the way he held her, along with the huskiness in his voice, telling her how very much she meant to him.

  “Always!” Mindy murmured as well, and Linc nodded.

  “Always!” Millie mimicked.

  “Always!” Mason yelled.

  Maddox tipped his head back and howled.

  “So it’s unanimous,” Garrett said. “To always, for forever and ever.”

  Brooke’s breath caught. “For forever and ever.”

  Epilogue

  Two years later

  “I’m going to smother you with a pillow.”

  Summer had hit early and hard, leaving the patrons of Wildstone hot, sweaty, and grumpy as hell. It amused Brooke, because she could remember her years traipsing across the planet to places that had been hotter than hell with no air-conditioning, much less electricity. So she ignored all the bitching and told everyone to suck it up.

  Except for Mindy. Whenever Mindy got uncomfortable, Brooke moved heaven and earth to help her. In fact, she stepped out the back door with a tray for her sister, carrying slices of her sweet lemon bread and a fresh pitcher of lemonade, the ice clinking gently against the glass.

  “You’re an angel.” Mindy sighed from where she was stretched out on a lounge chair. “But I’ve got to pee.”

  “Again?” Brooke asked in disbelief. “It’s been five minutes.”

  Mindy grimaced and waved a hand for help up, which Brooke gave because her sister was about a million years pregnant.

  With Brooke and Garrett’s baby.

  When Mindy had first offered to be a surrogate for them a year after their wedding, Brooke had been stunned. But the idea was appealing because she had viable eggs—she just couldn’t carry a baby.

  But Mindy could. And she claimed that Brooke had helped her find her happy and she just wanted to give something back, something Brooke was missing.

  It took a minute for Brooke to hoist Mindy out of the chair, and it was no easy feat. She didn’t dare grunt with the effort, but Mindy managed a breathless laugh anyway. “I know, I’m the size of a house. Pass the sweet lemon bread. I’m starving.”

  Brooke eyed her sister’s hugely swollen belly with no little amount of alarm. “Where are you g