She matched the intensity of Janice’s smile, wide and bright, knowing that she, like Brynn’s parents, had likely been worriedabout her. Had missed her. Not only had she left her ex-fiancé in a spectacularly public way on the eve of her wedding three months ago, but she’d run off to Louisiana, of all places, to get away from it all.
Both of those things were very unlike her, and if it hadn’t been for the staunch declaration that she was heading down South after she’d seen the hurricane’s devastation on the news, only a few days after her broken engagement, she wondered if her parents would have pushed back harder on her desire to leave.
Then again, they’d never tell her no. They’d gently coax or provide a list of reasons that a decision didn’t make sense. They’d try to support her, with her safely ensconced in the bubble that her privilege had created.
That bubble, which made her one of the luckiest people on earth due to nothing more than being born to the right parents, had also given her blinders. That was the conclusion she’d come to while toiling away for months, cleaning up the wreckage of people who’d lost everything.
Her time away had given her time to think. Time to be grateful. Time to understand that she was at a crossroads in her life, and she was the only one who could choose her next step.
But there was still no world in which she’d want her parents to think that she didn’t love and appreciate and cherish them.
Which meant that while her return was going to be greeted with fanfare akin to a new monarch ascending the throne, she’d decided to surprise her parents a few hours early, to make sure they knew she missed them in the same way they’d been missing her.
Her luggage was already safely dropped at the house her parents lived in only a few blocks away, where she’d accepted a barrage of kisses and hugs from her mom, Margie Fitzpatrick. Extricating herself from that loving embrace had taken over anhour, and if she didn’t get in to see her dad soon, he’d be heading out to pick up her mom so they could get her at the airport.
Planning around the world’s most thoughtful parents had been harder than she’d expected, but as she stepped up to his slightly ajar door, she smiled, knowing that her dad was very likely going to burst into the tears of happiness that had become one of his defining traits.
Nothing about Stan Fitzpatrick, one of the top commercial real estate investors in the Northeast, made him look like he was a crier. Not his broad shoulders, for which he had to have his wardrobe custom tailored, or his six-foot-three frame, which allowed him to tower over most business associates. He kept his graying hair short and trimmed close to the sides, giving him the impression of a lifelong military man. Brynn knew, though, that it was because he had a wildly unruly cowlick that would spring up from the middle of his head if he didn’t visit the barber every four weeks.
He was the sweetest, gentlest man she’d ever known, and while she didn’t think any future partner could ever live up to the example he’d created, she hadn’t thought she’d stray so far from the mark in accepting Grant’s proposal.
But Grant was in the past—at least, as much as he could be, given that his sister and her father had now gone into business together. Better than with Grant himself, though, which had been the original plan.
She moved to push her father’s office door open, though she stopped when she heard Reese’s voice. “If you know anyone who’s interested in helping out over the holidays at The Stone’s Throw, please let me know. I wouldn’t ask you to utilize your network if it wasn’t important, but I want to make sure that Hallie can visit her family in Colorado.”
Brynn had never met Hallie, but Reese, who’d become someone Brynn considered a close friend, had said nothing but great things about her.
Without being able to see him, she knew that her dad had a sympathetic look on his face; he wouldn’t be able to stomach the idea of Hallie being without her family for the holidays. She could feel a very similar expression on her own face.
Janice was peering around the corner of the small hallway that separated her desk in the front area from her dad’s office door, clearly wondering why Brynn had yet to go inside.
So, without further ado, thankful her dad’s hugs didn’t carry quite the same bruising squeeze as Janice’s, Brynn pushed the door open.
The room, as it had been for the entirety of her life, was lined with hundreds of books. Law books. Business books. General fiction. There was even a shelf dedicated to romance novels, which her dad had always loved. He’d gotten his love of the genre from his mom, which he’d in turn passed along to Brynn. Their houses in Boston and Bingham held similar libraries, stacked to the brim with books.
Her dad looked from Reese to her, which caused Reese to turn around. He’d already stood up and covered the fifteen feet to the door, enveloping her in his arms in seconds. “Baby, you’re home! You’re home,” he said, and Brynn could already hear the tears in his voice. He kissed her forehead, then placed his hands around her biceps to hold her away from him, taking her in.
“Hi, Dad,” she said, hearing the same catch in her own voice. Her dad always had that effect on her, a strange wave of homesickness wrapping itself around her heart. Which was weird because she hadn’t felt that way in her months away. It was only now, in his comforting presence, that the feeling had decided to take root.
Maybe it was because, for the first time in her life, she felt adrift. No school. No relationship. No future plans. She’d bought herself three months to recalibrate and figure out what would come next, but it hadn’t given her any clarity on that front.
And now, as her dad enveloped her in his broad arms again, the scent of his aftershave taking her back to her childhood, she wanted nothing more than to have him tell her it would all be okay. For him to tell her what to do.
All her parents wanted was for her to be happy, but right now, she didn’t know what that word meant.
“Welcome back, Brynn,” Reese said, having stood up and taken a step closer, though she still gave Brynn and Stan ample space for their reunion.
Brynn wiped a tear from her eye and stepped out of her dad’s embrace, meeting Reese’s smile. “It’s good to see you,” she said as she accepted a long overdue hug from Reese.
When Brynn had left Grant, she’d assumed that would be the end of her nascent friendship with his sister. She was grateful when, on the way to Louisiana, she’d received a text from Reese, checking in on her.
Since then, they’d kept in touch, a phone call every few weeks and regular text messages back and forth. Brynn had shared little bits about the work she was doing to clean up after the hurricane damage, and Reese had shared how her expansion plans for her company, The Stoneport Group, were going. And how happy Reese was with Sydney, a bright spot to have come out of the last few months.
Brynn couldn’t imagine something positive happening to a better, more honest person.
It had been Reese who’d opened Brynn’s eyes to the type of man she’d been planning to marry, and Brynn was eternally grateful for that. While it had taken her longer than she’d have liked to make a decision regarding the information, the fact thatReese had risked her relationship with her family to tell Brynn the truth meant something to her.
And if she could do anything to help Reese, she would. No questions asked.
