Page 26 of Endlessly Yours (The Wilder Brothers #10)

CHAPTER TWELVE

RORY

“T hank you for saving my sister,” Cameron whispered, and I leaned against the doorway, watching as Cameron wrapped her arms around Brooks’s waist. The man I had slowly fallen in love with, without even trying, held her close, his shoulders tense.

“She would have found her way back up. But don’t worry. We found her. So many people were looking for your sister. You guys are never alone. Do you understand that? You have been adopted by the Wilders. We sort of take over.”

I ran my hand over my heart, watching as Cameron’s eyes widened and a small smile played on her face.

I’d rarely watched that little girl smile, as she didn’t do it for me. But if Brooks could do it, I would take that as something.

I let out a breath, watching as the two talked about soccer, of all things, and I made a note to sign Cameron up for a local team. She hadn’t told me a thing, said she wanted to do nothing, but, if she and Brooks could talk about it, maybe it was something I could help with at least quietly.

Alice came out of the bathroom, all spick and span from her bath, and I lifted my arm so she could slide next to me.

“My knee doesn’t hurt, which is nice. But Brooks said it might hurt later.”

“As I, too, have been hurt by a barb from a cactus before, I can tell you it might hurt in a bit. But don’t worry, we will keep an eye on it, okay?”

“Does Brooks have an owie too?”

“I’m all good, Alice. Don’t worry,” Brooks said as he lifted his arm.

Alice looked up at me then, and my heart caught. Because that was my sister’s smile. My smile.

Every once in a while, it was like a two-ton truck to the chest, reminding me that my twin was gone.

I hadn’t had peace to grieve. To realize that the person that I had thought would be with me until the end of time, my other half, would be out of my life forever.

First by choice, then by fate.

But as I watched Alice scramble onto the couch next to Brooks, the three of them with their heads bent together as they looked at something on his tablet, I couldn’t help but stare and wonder at the fact that part of my sister was here.

And I had almost lost one of them.

Emotionally, I had almost lost the other. But Cameron smiled at me softly before going back to look at whatever Brooks had in his hands, and maybe, just maybe, I could figure this out.

“What are guys looking at?” I asked, clearing my throat.

Cameron looked up at me, her gaze going wooden, but didn’t say anything. Alice grinned. “We’re looking at different soccer teams to pick our favorite local one.”

I raised a brow at Brooks, who gestured for me to sit on the other side of Alice.

I sank onto the couch cushion and took the throw off the edge, wrapping it around the four of us. Cameron didn’t push away, nor did she look at me.

Was it because she saw her mother? Or was it because she just didn’t like me.

I was going to give her a little more time, and then we would get to the root of it.

Because this was it. This was our family.

The three of us. And I couldn’t fix it. Of course, it wasn’t just the three of us on this couch.

And that was something I was going to have to make a decision about soon.

But for now, I leaned against Alice and looked at the teams on the screen. “We don’t have a local team?” I asked.

“No, there’s one in Austin and Houston, at least in this league for women. There’s a men’s team, but I have a feeling we want to become fans of a woman’s team?” he asked.

“Duh.”

“Cameron,” I warned.

She sighed. “I mean, yes. We need to figure out what the team colors are and everything. I want to know more.”

“We can make that happen,” I said, my heart beating quickly in my chest. Because Cameron was interested in something other than glaring at me. The day was a miracle of all miracles. My family was safe, and Cameron was looking at something for the future. And Brooks was underneath my roof.

My heart raced a little bit more at that.

“Okay, so who is our team?”

“Well, I’m in Austin more often than not, and tickets are a little easier to get.”

I glared at him. “I don’t know if tickets are in our budget,” I whispered.

“Not season tickets,” he said with a shake of his head. “But you know, a couple of tickets for me and my brothers.”

Cameron gave him a look, and he grinned. “And maybe as rewards for good behavior, doing your chores, getting grades that make you proud, or I don’t know because it’s a day that ends in Y.”

I wanted to glare at him, but I couldn’t. I just looked at the way that he made Cameron smile, and I couldn’t help but smile the same. The damn Wilder men were dangerous.

I looked at my phone, and my eyes widened. “Okay, I didn’t realize how late it was.”

“It took us a little while to get home from the Wilder Retreat,” he said softly.

Yes, because everybody had needed to make sure that Alice was okay, and then, of course, an actual wedding had to take place. The bride and groom hadn’t been aware that a little girl had been lost for twenty minutes and that my world had nearly ended once again.

“Well, I like the team colors. Because I like purple.”

“Purple’s nice. And I like the team colors too,” Cameron said shyly.

“Good. I guess we’ll have to do our research. I only know football, a little bit of hockey, and women’s rugby,” he said with a grin.

“Should I ask about the women’s rugby?” I asked dryly.

“You know exactly why we know about women’s rugby,” he added just as dry.

I snorted before I pulled myself off the couch, and we went to tuck the girls in. Brooks read another story as I held Cameron close, and she didn’t pull away this time. And it started to feel like a routine.

That scared me a bit, though, because Brooks and I definitely hadn’t discussed anything like a routine.

Because if he needed to back away because it was too hard or something he didn’t want, he wasn’t just going to break my heart.

He was going to hurt these two little girls that I loved more than anything.

So maybe we needed to have that big talk. But not right now.

Not at this moment.

As we found ourselves in my bedroom soon after with the door closed, I sank on the edge of the bed and rolled my shoulders back.

I looked down at my hands and sighed. No matter how many times I had washed them today, there was still dirt under my fingernails, and I probably needed that same shower that Alice had taken.

Because I had run down that embankment just like Brooks had, clinging to my family.

“I can’t believe I lost her,” I said after a moment.

Brooks had sat down in the reading chair in the corner, taking off his boots. “We all had an eye on her, and she knew better than to run out into the field like that.”

“She’s just a little kid. And she got scared and hurt because of something that those other kids said. I sometimes forget how cruel kids can be.”

“You live with Cameron and the way she speaks with you. I don’t think you can truly forget.”

I winced. “I don’t know how to fix that. I don’t know if it’s because she sees her mother in me or that she’s so angry she needs to lash out. I’m just sick over it.”

“I think it’s a bit of both,” Brooks said as he came forward. He cupped my cheek and ran his thumb over my lips.

“Let’s go downstairs, watch a movie, have some Wilder Wine, and just relax, okay?”

I bit my lip and nodded, knowing we just needed a moment.

While I wanted to get into bed and let myself forget while being in his arms, we didn’t actually get to spend too much time alone.

Funny, for a man that I couldn’t get enough of, sometimes we didn’t have time to just sit and talk without the girls or his family around.

“Do you mind if I bring my tablet? I probably should go through a few work things.”

“As long as you don’t mind me doing the same,” he said with a laugh. “Maybe we let ourselves do that for half an hour and then relax?”

“Oh the joys of being self-employed. What do you mean you’re supposed to take some time off?” I teased.

He slid his palm over my cheek and kissed me softly. I moaned into him, wanting more, and told myself that I needed to stop. I just needed to breathe.

“Come on, if we don’t stop, I’m going to fuck you right at the edge of this bed, and then we’re never going to get up.”

“You say that like it’s a bad thing,” I teased.

“Minx,” he growled before he bit my lip, a little harsher than usual, and kissed the sting away.

I pressed my thighs together, wondering exactly why that had been so damn hot.

I let him take my hand and lead me downstairs to the family room, where Brooks had set up a large couch and TV.

“Have I ever told you how much I love the furniture that you’ve chosen for this house?”

“What’s funny is that I never used to be good at that,” he said as we sank down onto the cushions, wine in hand. As well as our tablets.

“What do you mean?” I asked, wondering what Brooks wasn’t good at. It was a little annoying sometimes.

“When I first built the company, my job was to design the homes, but really, just do whatever jobs I could get. Whether it was carpentry, electric work, and even plumbing. I was certified in all of that and was trying to be the jack of all trades. In the end, though, I needed somebody to help me narrow it down and figure out exactly what I wanted. Instead of working seven days a week for fourteen-hour days, wondering why I had no life. I mean, I can put in an entire new bathroom in two days, except for the glass and any extra design work, but I couldn’t actually make it a home. ”

“Amara. That was Amara’s job, right?” I asked, wondering why I even had to say her name. Why bring up ghosts in a space that was already tentative. But that wasn’t fair. It wasn’t fair to Brooks, me, or Amara.