The warm glow of happiness is a glowing ember in the dark spaces of my heart that have long been abandoned, reigniting the feelings that had long since felt as though they might never return if they had ever been there in the first place.
I haven’t had many women in my life, but the ones who were there only hurt me and were never anything like Kathleen. It’s really always just been my sisters and me. This is a return to that familial love, wrapped up in the love I feel for Kathleen as well.
Making a show of it, I sigh at them both and try not to grin, dramatically raising and dropping my shoulders. “I guess I’ll have to get the best one out there. I mean, it’s only right.”
“Well, go on then,” Kathleen says, raising an eyebrow at my bravado.
“Well, maybe I’ll just wait until the storm is gone before I go out there,” I tell her, letting out a little laugh as she grabs my hand with a smile up at me.
“A smart man would wait, yes,” she tells me, but it feels like she’s talking about something else entirely, and my thoughts race. “Some things are worth it.”
“I’ll wait as long as I have to,” I tell her, tipping her face up a little.
“Maybe I don’t want to wait,” Kathleen breathes. “Maybe I want it as soon as I can get it. What would you say to that, Eddie?”
I don’t know how to answer her. “I would say that you need to be sure, Kat.”
“I’m more sure about you than I am about anything else,” she tells me firmly.
Luckily, as the rain grows harder, we find a tent with pumpkins already piled up and waiting to be picked out. As we carry our pumpkins to the checkout counter, I realize this has been the best idea I have ever had.
Grinning happily, Stevie ducks down to look through the pumpkins once again, placing his first one by my feet. He looks over at us and then waves a hand, pulling Kathleen along behind him as he goes to the little setup of apple cider behind the pumpkins, letting his sister pour them both hot, steaming cups.
This time it’s my turn again to be a photographer.
This time I won’t hide it.
I’m happy, and the scene is just too perfect to pass up.
Standing behind the bright orange pumpkins, Stevie lifts his cup to his sister’s, touching them together before they drink them; the two bent together smiling.
I have to tear his gaze away from the picture so that I don’t miss the real thing right in front of me, but this image might just be my new favorite.
Maybe though, if I’m a lucky man, we’ll be able to take so many more.
CHAPTERNINE
Kathleen
Stevie is in his bed in his new room, snug and warm under his new blankets. The big TV has been hung on the wall across the room, and I know he has to be so happy to finally have one of his own finally.
Eddie is such an amazing man. He loves my brother just as much as I do. He makes me happy, so damn happy.
I want it to be him. I want him to be the man to claim me as his own. I need him to be the first and only man to slip inside of me and make me his own as he is mine.
We’re in his bed, covered in the moonlight from outside and wrapped in each other.
I kiss him back, straddling his lap with a grin when I lean down.
“You really are the most beautiful man in the world,” I whisper, letting my voice create the melody of my feelings for him, all wrapped up in his touch.
I want him so badly.
I’ve wanted him since the day he walked back into my life, saving me from the disgusting men that tried to objectify me.
Eddie is the kind of man I want in my life forever, but I’m terrified he might leave me.
My lips are on top of his, and Eddie’s hands move to my waist, where the host of butterflies waiting in my belly seem to take flight right away. My heart begins to race, and my pulse quickens, my body tense on top of his.