He wraps his arm around my waist.“Promise you’ll tell me?”
I run my hand up his chest, tilting my head back.“Yes.I just don’t want to say it here.”
He presses his lips to my forehead.“Then come on.I’m going to take you to the tree our dad built a swing on for Paisley when she was a baby.He wanted her to have somewhere she could go when she grew up since she would be living with a bunch of boys.”
I arch an eyebrow when he snatches up a blanket hanging over the railing.“And she’s okay with you hijacking her special spot?”
“We all go there to think and she knows it.It became all our spot.You’ll be the first non-Hayes to go there.Not even Landon has been there as far as I know.”
I melt at the sentiment.“Thank you for taking me.”I link my fingers through his.“What’s in the bag?”
He holds up the picnic bag.“It started off as a little lunch bag from Mum, but then the cook heard me telling Paisley I’ll be taking you out for a picnic and she went crazy adding shit into this picnic bag.”
I snort.“Don’t act like you aren’t happy to eat food you didn’t make.”
He chuckles.“You got me.Can you blame me though?If I’m at home, I have to deal with a Carter, and when I’m at yours, I may as well be dealing with the entire Carter clan.”
I lean into him, smiling.“It still surprises me how much the Carters can put away.”
He pulls me to a stop at the fence line, swinging his leg over.“Really?That surprises you when you live with a group of women who are feral when it comes to food?”
I snort out a laugh as he helps me climb over the fence.“You’re so judgemental when it comes to them.”
“Makayla nearly stabbed my hand to stop me from reaching the garlic bread,” he reminds me.
“She didn’t touch you though,” I point out, knowing that doesn’t make it better.
He snorts.“Is Max still trying to get Malia to join him in a food eating contest?”
“I don’t know why he wants to lose so badly.He doesn’t take me for a guy who loses well.”
“Oh, he doesn’t.He wore a suit, top hat, and a monocle to Cluedo game night at Charlotte’s library once.It didn’t end well.Wait, no, I said that wrong.It barely even started before he managed to rile everyone up.I’m pretty sure his kids and their cousins lie to their parents now when they’re having game night.Probably safer.”
We’re walking up a slight slope, closer to the main house than the bed and breakfast, when the tree comes into view.The oak tree is huge, the robust branches splintering off in all directions, some even close to the ground.It’s so overgrown, the green leaves flourishing and giving shade to the swing hanging from one of the middle branches, where an alcove has been made by the tree branches.It’s like the tree had a mind of its own and wanted to grow in a way where a swing was meant to be strung up to give it another life and meaning.I understand why the space is trespassed by the brothers.
“This is beautiful,” I whisper in wonder.“You need to get a bucket swing up here.Maybe some twinkle lights.I would never want to leave.”
He lays the blanket out so half is in the sun, half is in the shade of the tree.“It is.The branches will need trimming again once Jaxon and Eli begin to bring the girls up here.Only the left side, so the house has a clear view up here.”He holds his hand out.“Come sit.”
I lower myself to the ground, tucking my dress under me so I don’t flash.Not that anyone could see.The branches give enough cover from anyone close by.Reid lowers himself next to me.“You didn’t want to bring Hunter?”
He huffs out a breath, giving me the stink eye.“You think I could pull him away from Mum?Not a chance.That dog hovers around her throughout the day and then you during the evening.The only time I get a look in is when it’s just me.”
I laugh, leaning back on my elbows.“He’s a ladies man.”
“You’re mine,” he growls, leaning on his side.His finger runs over my bare thigh, lifting the dress a little.“Now tell me what happened in the few minutes I left the spa that had you looking so down.”
“Urgh.It’s stupid.Well, it’s not, but I feel like I’m tittle-tattling.”
“Let me be the judge of that,” he orders.
“You promise not to repeat it?Not even to Paisley?”
He loses his relaxed posture, tensing.“Yes.I promise.”
“I mean it,” I warn him.
He links his fingers through mine.“Hey, I promise.You don’t work for me.You work for Paisley.I know how much you love working there, and how seriously you take your job.Unless it directly hurts my sister, I would never repeat what you tell me.And if it had been aimed at Paisley or her businesses, you would have already told her, or you wouldn’t ask me to keep it quiet.That’s not who you are.This is something that has been said or done to you.Or you’re not happy I turned up at the spa.I swear to you, I would never have gone in had Paisley not ordered me to.I declined three times and you can ask her.She told me to tell you that you work too hard, and that if anyone has a problem with me dropping in to see you, they don’t belong there.So whatever it is, you can tell me.”
