Ryker: Wedding location looking good. Now I just need to convince the wedding planner to side with me on a few issues. Muahahah.
Cole: Is she hot? I can put my charming skills to use... all to help you, obviously.
Ryker: Cole... do NOT hit on our wedding planner. The last thing we need is for her to bolt.
Cole: Is it just me, or is Ryker becoming more intense by the week?
Tess and I responded at the same time: It’s not just you.
Cole: I think we need a strategy to help him... relax.
Ryker: Still here, folks.
I grinned widely. The fact that Ryker was now engaged was such a surprise to Cole that he kept teasing him about it. He hadn’t seen it coming, and honestly, neither had I. My brothers had declared a long time ago they’d be bachelors for life—just like our cousin Hunter... who was now married. Yeah, things were changing fast in our family. Tess and I took turns teasing each of our brothers, depending on what the situation required. Right now, I was definitely siding with Cole, but only because Ryker did seem to need the teasing to relax a little.
I bit my lip, looking at that gorgeous picture. Ryker definitely had enough going on, organizing the wedding on top of everything. It was paramount for Tess and me to find someone to man the store on Sundays.
I laughed, sitting in my swing again when Cole wrote Tess and me in a different group message.
Cole: Best strategy to tease Ryker?
Tess: I have something in mind. Maybe we can tell him that we’ll have strippers at the bachelorette party.
I burst out laughing. Ryker was very possessive when it came to his fiancée, Heather.
Skye: Are you crazy?
Cole: We should at least consider the possibility.
This was just what I needed. A Winchester conspiracy/strategy to sink my teeth into and forget about everything else.
Chapter Seven
Rob
“You’ve got yourself a great place,” Anne said.
She’d inspected the house in far more detail than even I had. I’d promised Lindsay we’d get ice cream, and we’d just gotten back now, eating it directly out of the carton with plas
tic spoons. We were sitting on the couch demolishing our dessert as Anne gave me her opinion on everything.
“Thanks. It was the closest I found to you,” I commented between bites.
“You’re a good brother,” Anne said.
That was debatable. I should have realized something was off with Walter way before he left her and Lindsay—at least known more, done more to protect her better. But I couldn’t change any of that now. What I was going to do was concentrate all my efforts on doing my very best for her going forward.
“When are you unpacking the rest of the boxes?”
“I’m going to start later tonight.” Not that I wanted to, but it needed to get done at some point. When I’d moved to LA, I had stuff sitting around in boxes for weeks. I hadn’t wanted the movers to open the boxes because I didn’t like strangers touching my things.
Anne put her hands on her hips, surveying the room.
“Well, Lindsay, what do you say? Should we stay a little longer so I can help Uncle Rob? He might live out of boxes for a month otherwise.”
And that wasn’t too far off from the truth.
“Yes!” Lindsay exclaimed. Done with her ice cream, she was playing with a set of small figurines.