Page 36 of The Love Fix (The Sunrise Cove #8)

The following night after dinner, Heath stood in his grandpa’s backyard. He’d been restoring an old sideboard for Misty, which

had been passed down to her from her grandmother. The brass accents had tarnished, and were made worse by Cole’s fumbling

attempts at cleaning before he’d given up and dumped the sideboard on Heath.

He’d carefully mixed up a homemade remedy and applied it to the brass. Since the paste needed to stay on for at least half

an hour, he’d stepped outside. Tipping his head back, he stared up at the stars. He’d been to a lot of different places in

his various travels, first for work, then later, when he actually had two pennies to rub together, for pleasure. But nothing

and no place ever compared to Sunrise Cove.

Tahoe at night had to be experienced to be believed.

Especially here, with no city or streetlights, where the sliver of a moon and countless stars scattered across the sky cast

the land around him in an illuminating blue glow. A glow that somehow healed something deep inside him he hadn’t even realized

needed healing.

There was something else healing him as well. Someone else.

Lexi.

He’d attempted to prevent himself falling for her. He’d failed. And now, every time he closed his eyes, all he could see were

the sisters escaping Vinny’s office, and his heart stopped all over again. All he’d wanted to do was yank Lexi in close and

hold on tight.

And that had been before she’d turned to Ashley with such worry and lingering terror in her eyes, her voice shaking as she

demanded to know if she was okay.

The way Ashley had smiled at the question told him that they’d bonded at last.

Not that he could tear his gaze off Lexi, his entire being focused on the beautiful worried heart in front of him, beating

and pushing and... trying .

“He’s not listening to us,” Grandpa said from his perch on a lounger, his personal favorite stargazing perch.

“Not even a little bit,” Cole said from another lounger.

Heath rolled his eyes and reached for the Oreo milkshake Cole had brought as a bribe.

“What I said was...” His grandpa raised his voice as if Heath was deaf instead of purposefully ignoring him. “That you

only drink your calories when you’re moping.”

Matty, who’d been snoozing in his dad’s lap, lifted his head and zeroed in on what his uncle held. With a gasp, he sat up

and gave Heath the gimme hands. “Unkie Heef! Me me me!”

“Wha...” Heath hugged the last little bit of the milkshake to his chest. “It’s spicy, you won’t like it.”

Matty catapulted himself off the lounge, straight at Heath, who leapt forward to catch him.

“Pweeze!”

Holding the kid in his arms, Heath looked to his brother. “Your Mini-Me is harassing me.”

“Hey,” Misty said, waddling out of the house, holding her own Oreo milkshake. “The uncle’s supposed to be the good guy and

share.”

Mentally kissing the last of his milkshake goodbye, Heath pressed his forehead to Matty’s and smiled at him. “What’s the secret

password?”

The kid grinned. “I wuv you.”

Heath handed the cup over, then ruffled the kid’s hair. “Love you too, little man.”

Matty sucked down the drink with loud gulps without breathing, then dramatically stopped to gasp for air before racing off

to run in circles.

Sugar overload... check.

Mayhem woke up and joined the kid in racing around. Then suddenly he stopped and hunched to poop.

Matty stopped short as well and... started stripping.

“Not in the yard!” Misty shouted as Matty crouched low to join in the pooping activities. “Cole!”

Cole was laughing too hard to get up.

“Seriously?” Misty asked him. “We’ve discussed this a million times.” She looked imploringly at Heath. “No one ever told me

that when you get a husband, the ears are sold separately.”

Heath snorted, but headed for the kid. When Grandpa made to get up too, reaching to unbutton his pants, Heath pointed at him. “Don’t even think about it.”

“Fun-sucker.”

Five minutes later, after failing to stop Poop-Gate, Heath held a very pleased-with-himself Matty while simultaneously hosing down the patio. He eyed the wilting strawberry plants he had hanging from the covered patio beams. “Why are you dying?” he asked them.

“Ashley’s strawberries are blooming,” Cole said. “She claims it’s Lexi’s doing. I guess she caught her talking to all of their

plants, and now they’re thriving. You should ask her.”

“He can’t ask her for help,” Grandpa said. “One, because he never asks for help. And two, he likes her. He’s especially not

going to ask for help from someone he’s trying to get lucky with.”

Heath rubbed the spot between his eyes where a headache was forming.

Cole, the ass, cackled.

Misty looked intrigued. “How do you know he likes her?”

“He doesn’t know shit,” Heath said.

“Language!” Misty’s head whipped to Matty.

“He doesn’t know shit ,” Matty repeated, getting the inflection perfect. “He doesn’t know shit . Shit, shit, shit.”

Misty glared at Heath.

Grimacing, he looked his nephew in the eye. “I’m getting a time-out for using that word, so if you don’t want to do the same,

don’t say it again.”

“He doesn’t know shit!” Matty yelled cheerfully.

Heath face-palmed.

“Did you know Heath kissed Lexi?” Grandpa asked.

Everyone’s head swiveled to Grandpa.

“Yep,” the old man said. “Right here in this yard.”

Heath’s headache arrived in full force. “Your intel is faulty.”

“If that’s true,” Misty said, “why are you blushing?”

“I don’t blush.” At least, he hoped not.

“You totally are.”

“Stop, or I’ll teach Matty some more bad words.”

Misty jabbed a finger at him. “When you have kids, I’m buying them a drum set.” She looked at Grandpa. “How sure are you about him and Lexi?”

“I might be hard of hearing, but I’ve got the eyes of a cat. I know what I saw. And he most definitely kissed Lexi.”

“Actually, technically, Lexi kissed Heath,” Cole said.

Heath turned his head to look at him, brows up.

His brother shrugged. “I was checking out the saved footage from the backyard cam, looking to see if I’d left my wallet on

the picnic table.”

“Violation of privacy much?” Grandpa asked.

Heath threw his hand out, palm up, in Grandpa’s direction. “What he said.”

Cole rolled his eyes as he looked at his wife. “You’re right, babe, he’s definitely caught the virus.”

“What virus?” Heath wanted to know.

“The L-word virus. L-o-v-e .” His brother leaned back, hands resting behind his head, cocky as hell. Heath half expected him to kiss his own biceps.

He was considering swiping that look off his brother’s face with his fist when he heard footsteps. He didn’t have to turn

and look, he could tell by the way his stupid heart picked up the pace who it was. Surprise hit first, quickly followed by

a whole bunch of other emotions that tangled all together.

Lexi appeared, her expression saying she wasn’t sure of her welcome. So he straightened and gave her a small but welcoming

smile, while flipping his family off behind his back. All while hoping she hadn’t heard any of their idiotic conversation.

Lexi smiled at everyone and gave a little wave. “Sorry if I’m interrupting.”

“Is this one of them booty calls?” Grandpa asked. “Because if so, we can skedaddle.”

Cole shoved his own milkshake at the old man. “Drink. It’s a better use of your mouth.”

“What, an old man can’t say booty call?”

“Please ignore him,” Heath said to Lexi.

Lexi smiled at his grandpa. “You enjoying your evening?”

“Better now that you’re here. This gang, they’re boring. Maybe you can liven things up. How did you meet the big guy here?

He’s so closemouthed. I heard something about school, but I was working around the clock back then.”

“They were in second grade,” Cole said helpfully. “He used to come home talking about some girl he could never beat at anything.”

“Oh, he beat me at plenty,” Lexi said on a laugh. “Actually, I think he beat me at most everything.”

Heath shook his head. “Not true. You beat me in the three-legged race in second grade, winning the Lego train set I would

have traded Cole for.”

Cole rolled his eyes. Heath ignored him. “And then in third grade, you won the cursive writing contest and got to skip that

week’s test. In fourth grade, you beat me at the jumping jacks competition, and for the next month everyone made fun of me

getting beaten by a tiny little slip of a girl who looked like a light wind could knock her over.”

Lexi laughed, and there was something in her expression, affection and a warmth that in turn warmed him from the inside out.

“I know you threw that one, by the way,” she said. “You let me win.”

He shook his head. “You won fair and square. And I didn’t even care because it was the first time I ever saw you smile at me for real.”

She bit her lower lip, staring at him. “It’s funny how, in the moment, you think everything’s bad. But then later, looking

back, you realize some of what you experienced not only molded you, but made you look at the world differently. Better.”

“Agreed. Looking back, I counted on you to push me, to make me try harder, to make me laugh, to give me... I don’t know,

some badly needed comfort in the normal, I guess. And it was... everything.”

Grandpa had stopped smiling, looking grim at the reminder of what Heath and Cole had been through during those years, but

also clearly touched by Heath’s words. By realizing how much Lexi meant to him back then—and now. But Heath had given their

audience enough, and he slid Cole a look.

Always a quick study, his brother jumped up. “Right,” he said. He scooped up Matty and helped Misty out of her chair, before

giving a chin jerk to Grandpa. “We’re heading out, and I’m taking you with me.”

“Aw, but it’s just getting good.”

“We’ve got chips,” Cole said in a singsong bribing voice, the same he used on Matty.

“With dip?” Grandpa asked.

“With dip.”

Cole leaned into Heath. “Veggie chips and hummus, he’ll never even realize. And you owe me a babysitting evening the next

time I need a date to kiss up to my beautiful wife.”