I thought hard, trying to think if there was anything about me that Brody didn’t know. I shook my head for a few seconds before blurting, “Oh! Barb isn’t my aunt. She’s my parents’ maid, but she raised me. She helped me with everything so I could escape from there.”
Brody’s lips tilted up in a lopsided smile, before dropping. “Wait, why didn’t she tell you they were coming? Is she still that mad about us?”
“No, no, there’s no way she wouldn’t have warned me about that. My parents knew how close I was with her. My mom had to threaten to fire Barb in order to make me stay with Charles. But once they found out that I hadn’t actually been kidnapped or whatever, I doubt they even told her they were going out of town because I’m sure they figured she would warn me. They probably just left, and it’s not an uncommon thing for them to do. Barb packs for my mom if they’re going on vacation, but they’ll leave to check out horses on a moment’s notice and be gone for days, and they won’t tell Barb they’re leaving.”
“Okay,” he whispered and searched my eyes. “Anything else?”
“I love you . . . and I’m sorry. I can’t say that enough.”
Brody leaned in to kiss me softly, and I melted into his arms. “We’ve both said ‘sorry’ a lot,” he said, “and there have been a lot of hard times we’ve had to get through to be together. I haven’t regretted a single one of them, and there’s not one of them I wouldn’t go through again in a second. But I’m ready to start making good memories with you, Kamryn Cunningham. What do you say we get through this divorce, and then how about we focus on that forever?” he asked against my lips.
A short, relieved cry burst from my chest, and I nodded, my nose brushing against his. “Sounds perfect.”
20
Kamryn
August 4, 2015
“SO, NO MORE notes, no more nothing?”
I shook my head and shrugged at Kinlee. “There hasn’t been anything since the morning he went into the meeting with them. And Brody made up something about being able to arrest Charles for coming back to my bakery on Friday, and Charles bought it and told him that Olivia’s dad was the one who called my parents. But that had been before the meeting on Tuesday, so . . . oh, well. Now we’re just waiting to see when the court date will be, and then we’ll deal with that mess.”
“And then we’ll all be done with Olivia Reynolds for—hopefully—ever.”
I grinned and relaxed into the cushions of my couch. “Yes, ma’am!”
“I like that you aren’t hiding your accent anymore,” Kinlee said with the worst drawl I’ve ever heard.
“I don’t have an accent,” I grumbled.
“Whatever, Miss Kentucky!”
I rolled my eyes and kicked at her leg.
“Has Brody mentioned getting married or anything?”
My eyes went wide, and I sat up quickly. “Kinlee! No!” I shouted and laughed.
“What? Why is that such a definite no?”
“Really? Think about it. It has technically only been three months.”
Kinlee’s face fell, and her eyes looked up and to the side as she thought about that. “For reals?”
“Yeah. Just three months. It may have felt like it took years to get here, but . . . not so much.” I sat back against the cushions and watched as she thought some more, knowing she was nowhere near done with this conversation yet.
“But you’re different. From listening to you both tell the story, you met and the world stopped turning, and no one else mattered except for the two of you because you were made for each other!”
I glared at her.
“Whatever, you know what I mean,” she said with a laugh. “But you had that instant connection. And it wasn’t something you read about in fairy tales. Where they meet, fall in love, and live happily ever after. You met, you knew you couldn’t be together, and still you knew you couldn’t live without each other. Now you’ve both been to hell and back in the last three months, and you can finally live your happily ever after. Why would you wait?” She looked at me expectantly for a few seconds before sitting up and scooting closer to me. “It has been three months. When you put it that way, I totally get it. Any other couple and I would think it would be insane. But then again, any other couple and I would probably hate the fact that they were together. I would think you stole him from his wife and he was an ass**le. With you? I couldn’t be happier that the two of you are together, and I want this for you.”
“Kinlee,” I said softly when her eyes filled with tears.
“I didn’t even know about the bad shit when it was happening. But knowing the story, knowing both of you, I just—I just want you both to be happy. You deserve this.”
Leaning forward, I pulled her close and hugged her hard. “Thank you, Lee. Thank you for understanding us. And we will,” I continued when we both sat back. “We will get married someday. But I think once the divorce is final, we both just want to be together for a while.” I shrugged and smirked. “Or who knows, we might get married the day after it’s finalized if she drags it out long enough.”
Kinlee laughed and rolled her eyes. We both knew that was a possibility.
“Brody and I are both just happy that we can be together finally. So for now, this is enough.”
“Okay.” She nodded and looked away thoughtfully. “That makes sense. But promise me you’ll try to have babies someday!”