Seventeen
It was Sunday again. It had a tendency to roll around with alarming regularity. Which was massively annoying for Faith because it was getting harder and harder to put on a brave face in front of her family.
Although, how brave her face was—that was up for debate.
Her brothers already knew exactly what had happened, and by extension so did their wives. And even though she hadn’t spoken to her parents about it at all, she suspected they knew. Well, her mother had picked up on her attachment to Levi right away, so why wouldn’t she have this figured out as well?
Faith sighed heavily and looked down at her pot roast. She just wasn’t feeling up to it. You would think that after two weeks things would start to feel better. Instead, if anything, they were getting worse.
How was that supposed to work? Shouldn’t time be healing?
Instead she was reminded that she had a lot more time without him stretching in front of her. And she didn’t want that. No. She didn’t.
She wished she could have him. She wished it more than anything.
The problem was, Joshua was right. She was kind of secretly hoping things would work out. That he would come back to her.
But he hadn’t.
That was the problem, she supposed, about never having had a real heartbreak before.
She hadn’t had all that hope knocked out of her yet.
Well, maybe this would be the thing that did it.
Not at all a cheering thought.
There was a knock on the door, and her parents looked around the table, as if counting everybody in attendance. Everyone was there. From Devlin on down to baby Riley.
“I wonder who that could be,” her mother said.
“I’ll check,” said her father as he stood and walked out of the dining room, heading toward the entryway.
For some reason, Faith kept watch after him. For some reason, she couldn’t look away, her entire body filled with tension.
Because she knew. Part of her knew.
When her father returned a moment later, Faith knew.
Because there he was.
Levi.
Levi Tucker, large and hard and absurd, standing in the middle of her parents’ cozy dining room. It seemed...beyond belief. And yet, there he was.
“This young man says he’s here to see you, Faith,” her father said.
As if on cue, all three of her brothers stood, their heights matching Levi’s. And none of them looked very happy.
“If he wants to see Faith, he might need to talk to us first,” Devlin said.
Those rat bastards. She hadn’t told Devlin. That meant clearly they’d had some kind of older-brother summit and had come to an agreement on whether or not they would smash Levi’s face if he showed up. And obviously, they had decided that they would.
“I can talk to him,” Faith said.
Their father now looked completely concerned, like maybe he should be standing with his sons on this one.
But her mother stood also, her tone soft but firm. “If Faith would like a chance to speak to this gentleman, then I expect we should allow it.”
