I hear another familiar voice right before she appears and I don’t have the chance to blink before Brynn is pushing our brother out of the way. She doesn’t bother even trying to hold back her tears, and doesn’t hesitate to throw her arms around me in a hug.
I hardly get a chance to look at her, but she looks different than the last time I saw her. She’s older, more mature. Her blonde hair is lighter than both Brent’s and mine.
“Hi Brynn,” I say softly. For some reason that only makes hercry harder. Now we’re standing right outside Brent’s front door in the freezing cold with my sister hanging onto me like a koala has me questioning my decision even more.
“I’m Brent.” I hear my brother introduce himself and realize they don’t know anything about Wes, or that he was even joining me.
I manage to pry myself away from Brynn, and seeing her tear stained face makes me feel even more guilty for how distant I’ve been from their lives.
“Wes.” I hear the man with me introduce before shaking hands with Brent, and it pulls me back to reality for a minute.
“Sorry. This is Wes my, um.” I look up at him hoping he’ll help with what he is to me. Friends?Are we even friends?Boyfriend doesn’t sound right, that sounds too official for us.
Brynn looks from me to the large man, lifting her eyebrow just waiting for me to finish my sentence that I really don’t know how to complete.
“We’re together,” Wes assists.
“We’ll get more into that.” Brynn gives me a suspicious look, then pulls me inside the house.
“We didn’t know you were bringing someone with you so I only have one of the guest rooms ready,” Brent tells me.
“You don’t have at least seven in this big ass house?” I scoff.
“It’s okay,” Wes says and I swing my gaze over to him. “We can share aroom.”
I narrow my eyes at that because we’ve never stayed the night together. I feel like it happening for the first time at my brother’s house is even more awkward.
“I bet you will.” Brynn winks at me.
“Auntie Brynn! Back!” A small voice calls out from another room and is followed by stomping footsteps. A little girl with curly brown hair, blue eyes, and a wide smile appears. Her smile seems to dim the slightest bit as she swings her gaze between me and Wes before tilting her head. “Who you?”
“Evie, I told you Auntie would be right back,” another voice calls out, this one sounding out of breath. As she comes around the corner, I see the heavily pregnant woman I recognize from the pictures Brent sent of her with baby Evie.
“Sorry, I figured you’d want to get settled before meeting us.” Chandler smiles softly, picking up her daughter. Brent is quick to offer to take the child from her arms.
“It’s okay. I’m Bailey. And this is Wes. It’s nice to meet you.”
She smiles. “Chandler. It’s so nice to finally meet you. I’ve heard a lot about you.”
She’s extremely beautiful with her long brown hair and soft eyes.
“Let’s let them set their stuff down before Dumont, McQuaid, and Wheeler get in here and overwhelm them,” Brent announces. I don’t bother telling him it’s too late because even hearing the unfamiliar names has my nerves ratcheting up once again.
Wes places a hand on the small of my back and the tiny action calms me more than I’m willing to admit.
They lead us down a hall on one side of the massive house and when we approach a bedroom, I gasp. It’s the size of the entire second story of my house. A king size bed sits in the middle of the room with a simple TV on the wall. There’s an en suite bathroom off to the side, and I don’t have to look to see it’s fancier than what I have at home.
“Hope this works for you,” Brent grunts, stuffing his hands in his pockets as Wes steps inside and sets our suitcases down.
“Thank you,” Wes tells him.
“Yeah, I guess this will do.” I shrug teasingly. I catch the playful glare Wes shoots my way.
“I’m glad you decided to come,” Brent says quietly.
“Me too.”
I just hope that doesn’t change.
