Aaron shook his head slightly. “He asked if my wife and kids gave my life a new purpose.”
Joshua’s eyes widened as he turned back to me. He whistled low. “Damn, this is serious. What’s her name?”
“Mia,” I answered before I could catch myself.
“Who’s Mia?”
I turned to find the youngest Townsend brother, Tyler, entering the office. “Hey, Brutus,” he called out with a wave.
“You’ll never believe this,” Josh said, standing.
“What? Kayla finally smartened up and left your ass for someone younger with more money?” Tyler joked.
Joshua’s face darkened. He appeared utterly different from the joking, lighthearted manner of just a few seconds earlier.
“You think that shit is funny?” Joshua looked as if he wanted to knock his brother on his ass.
Tyler just chuckled. “No, but I still love getting a reaction from you.”
“Yeah, the shit is real funny until I remind you that your wife is probably receiving emails from men who listen to her podcast as we speak.”
Now it was Tyler’s turn to frown. His face became downright stormy. “Don’t mention my wife.”
Aaron grunted. “How did you meet Mia?” he asked, bringing the attention back to me.
Tyler and Joshua eyed one another for a few more beats before directing their gazes my way. Previously, I would’ve said they were crazy as fuck for being so damned serious about their wives. Neither one of them were in danger of losing their spouse. Everyone knew how obsessed these men were with the women in their lives.
A man would have to be insane to think he could even attempt to get next to one of the Townsend women. I’d seen firsthand what happened when more than one man had tried.
“Screw that,” Tyler said. “I want to see a picture.”
“No.” I shook my head.
“Come on, man,” Joshua tacked on. “We share almost our entire lives with you.”
“Because I need to know everything to protect you all.”
“And that you do so well,” Tyler said. “Let’s see a picture.”
The urge to take out my phone overcame me. Truthfully, I didn’t mind showing them a picture of Mia. I wanted to show her off to someone.
Without too much hesitation, I found myself with my phone in hand pulling up a picture of Mia and me on the day we went snorkeling. In the photo, Mia grinned that effervescent smile of hers. I had my arm draped around her while we sat with our backs to the beach. Behind us, the sun was setting.
“Holy shit,” Tyler said as he passed the phone to Joshua. He peered at me. “You’ve got it bad.”
Joshua whistled again as he gave the phone to Aaron. “She’s beautiful.”
“And you look like a kid in a candy shop,” Tyler added. “Hell, she makes you look a little less scary.”
I snorted.
Aaron lifted his eyebrows half an inch. There was a glint in his eyes, though. “New purpose, huh?” He nodded.
“My phone,” I said with my hand outstretched.
As soon as he handed it back to me, I took it. I couldn’t help but stare down at the picture. In it, I wasn’t even looking at the camera. I was staring at her. I trailed my thumb over Mia’s face, remembering that day vividly.
Tyler’s phone rang. “Speaking of purpose,” he said before answering. “Babe, you’ll never guess what happened,” he started.
