25
Liv followedthe group through the Annex, listening to their plans to grill burgers on the back patio. Her stomach growled, liking the plan.
Zeke veered off from the pack and entered an office. Rather than making a quick stop to grab something, he sat down in a chair and swiveled around to fire up his computer.
Not realizing she’d paused, she startled when a presence beside her spoke in a quiet voice. “He takes much upon himself.”
She peered down to find Johona Blackwell staring into Zeke’s office with concern pulling at the corners of her eyes. Eyes that had witnessed the horrors of war, the loss of a husband and son, the struggle of a beloved grandson.
“Does he not trust his brothers to share the burden?” Liv asked, matching the older woman’s tone.
“Once, he did.”
“What happened?”
“He became the team’s reluctant leader.”
“Reluctant?”
Johona nodded toward the exit. “Walk with me?”
They strolled from the Annex, leaving Zeke to his work. Every step Liv took away from him felt like an abandonment, but she didn’t want to miss this opportunity to speak with the Blackwell matriarch alone.
She matched the shorter woman’s strides. Neither of them spoke until they were on the path leading to the chapel.
Johona was the first to break the companionable silence. “You like my grandson?”
The question caught Liv off-guard. “Of course. All of your grandsons seem like great guys.”
“They are.” Pride softened the area around her eyes. “They are the best of men.” She clasped her hands before her. “But I believe your affection for Ezekiel goes deeper than admiration. Or have I misread the signs?”
She doubted the older woman misread much. Even so, Liv didn’t know how to answer her. She liked Zeke. Enjoyed looking at him. Loved having sex with him. She also admired his strategic mind, his business acumen, and his love for his family.
But he wasn’t the guy for her and she wasn’t the woman for him. Their personal end games diverged, rather than entwined.
The night they’d spent together in Charlotte was nothing more than a flash point, an exciting, explosive moment in both their lives. A moment extinguished by the reality of those lives.
“Your grandson is an attractive man, but I have a nine-year-old son. I don’t think Zeke’s in the market for an instant family.” She glanced back toward the Annex. “He has enough responsibility, I think.”
“Family is not a burden to be borne. It’s a privilege. A gift.”
“It’s also hard work.”
“As are most important things in life. Josephine Cochrane did not snap her fingers and the world’s first dishwasher appeared. Patricia Bath did not invent a laser to dissolve eye cataracts with her magic wand. Mothers across time did not birth, raise, and send their babies off without shedding a little blood and more than a few tears.”
Like a locomotive, scenes from the past blew through her mind. Tyler and Brodie kissing her goodbye, rigged out in their baseball jerseys and caps. Brodie sitting alone in a hospital waiting room, the relief on his blotchy face when she arrived. A trio of six-year-olds, mitts in hand, standing on her front porch, confused by their friend’s rejection. A four-by-six frame lying facedown.
Liv couldn’t imagine what the next three, five, ten years would bring, but what she did know was that she didn’t want her son to navigate the teens without a solid father figure to learn from.
Liv had grown up without the guiding hand of a mother and father. Regina and Stanley Thornton spent their free time engaged in social politics rather than nurturing their three children. If not for her aunt and uncle’s intervention, who knew what dark path she might have detoured down.
She could raise her son on her own and do a damn fine job of it. But she didn’t want that for Brodie—or for herself. She wanted to find them both someone worthy of filling the void Tyler left behind.
Zeke could be that someone. He had the right tools for the job, but not the heart for it.
Johona interrupted her thoughts. “When my grandson Asher oversaw the family business, Ezekiel was content, even thrived in his role as Asher’s right hand. The two brothers were inseparable, had been since they were toddlers.”
Liv smiled at the image of two dark-headed boys, hand in hand, causing endless mischief with their curious minds and adorable smiles.