Page 260 of The Maxwell Brothers

“Yeah, that's just a tease,” Sam added.

Travis cocked a brow at them.

Luke shrugged. "It's true."

“I'm with Luke on this one. Give us a hint," I said.

"No, I don't want to jinx it." This was Travis's attempt to shift focus. It failed, obviously, compared to the wedding news, but still, I appreciated the effort. I was also relieved too, because for a while there, I thought my brother would party forever and lose his way. We were all well off and really didn't need to work, as our parents had set up trust funds for us after selling the chain of bookstores. Travis not only had the trust fund but also hundreds of millions from the sale of his company. But I always thought everyone needed a direction in life, a goal, a reason to get up every morning and have a system. That was what our parents drilled into us, and it stuck.

"We’re the only losers, Declan," Luke said. "We’re the only ones who don't have news."

"Neither do we," Kendra said.

Luke smirked, then lowered his voice, leaning in. "Yeah, right. I saw you two exchanging that look before. You definitely have news. You’re just choosing not to share it for some reason. Still only leaves me and Declan."

“And me and Sam,” Kimberly noted.

"Is everyone in this family so observant?" Kendra asked.

“Yeah, babe, we are. Especially when we’re all on edge, and I think it's obvious that we are tonight," Tyler said.

Everyone resumed chopping at full speed, the volume of knives on boards deafening.

"I think that went well," I said in a measured voice so Luke, Travis, Kimberly, Sam, and Reese could hear me.

Luke jerked his head back. "Dude, Gran has been silent all this time. She only said ‘Congrats’ to Tate and Lexi. She's definitely not okay."

“Yeah. She hasn’t asked me one question,” Sam said, “and usually she wants the gritty details of everything.”

Fuck, they were right.

“Everyone just give me whatever you've chopped, and I'll put it together with the risotto," Mom said. She fried some onion before adding the rice and some wine. Then the flavors wafted through the air.

I knew Mom and Dad were dying for more details of Uncle Harvey, but with Gran so quiet, everyone held back from finding out more. Reese even looked as though she wanted to continue with further details of her visit but decided against it until the tone of the night shifted. But it never did.

The mood was serious the whole evening. After dinner, I offered to take Gran home. She lived close to my parents, but we didn't want her to Uber, so we took turns taking her home after family events. For some reason, I thought she'd start talking the second we got in the car, but she stayed silent. After five minutes, I cleared my throat.

"Gran, are you okay? I've got to tell you, this silence is freaking me out."

Gran looked at me, smiling sadly. "I'm still processing."

"Yeah, but you usually process things out loud while having many opinions and not being afraid to voice any hundred of them," I teased, hoping to lighten things a bit.

"My relationship with your uncle… I don't know. After your grandfather died, things weren't the same. I wasn't the same." I knew that. I'd heard from my parents that Gran went into a depression of sorts—totally understandable.

"I sort of disappeared into myself. Your father was a grown man back then and was handling it all better than I. Your uncle was younger and still in college. I think he needed his mother more than he let on. I tried to be there for him, but time slipped on by. The boys got married, had their families, and life went on. Then after Harvey lost his wife, it was like a wake-up call, and I threw myself into raising the girls. I saw him doing exactly what I did when I lost your grandpa. Harvey was sinking into himself. I tried my best to reach out, but it didn’t work. We weren't that close anymore.” She blew out a long, shaky breath. “I'm happy he's rebuilding his life. wish I was a bigger part of it. And I can’t help but think that this is all partly my fault too. Had I been there for him, maybe we wouldn’t have grown so far apart.”

"Gran, all we can do is our best, and you did your very best. What are you going to do?"

"I'm going to take this evening to think everything through. And tomorrow, I’ll call him. And then I'll book a flight to London, of course. I want to be there after the birth."

"You’ll what?" I asked, feeling completely blindsided.

"How else am I going to meet my granddaughter?" she asked.

"She can come over here. I really don't think it's a good idea for you to fly across the ocean."

"And why is that, young man?"