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“Oh, yeah. George is a great man.”

“And apparently Donovan doesn’t trust anyone else to supervise the job.”

“What does Lennon think about this?” he asks, reminding me of the impending conversation I’m going to have to have with her.

I wonder how she’ll even feel about it though? Will she be relieved to get a break from me? Or will she be disappointed that we’ll be forced to spend time apart? I’m fairly certain there’s no way she could go with me because of school anyway.

I’ve grown so used to having her around that I know how I’d feel if she left. Given what happened this weekend, I hope she’d feel the same way.

Fuck. I can’t wait to get home and figure out where her head is.

“I just found out a few minutes ago,” I reply, returning my attention to the conversation. “Needless to say, I haven’t had a chance to bring it up to her.”

“Well, I hope for your sake she takes it well.”

“Why wouldn’t she?”

“I don’t know,” he says, and I can practically see him shrugging even though we’re talking on the phone. “I just hear through the grapevine how men are generally scared to bring up shit like this to their wives. Although, I guess Lennon isn’t your wife in the traditional sense.”

“That might not be the case for much longer though,” I say, alluding to the real reason I called him this morning. I need his fucking advice.

Owen clears his throat. “And that’s supposed to mean…”

“Let’s just say some stuff went down when we left your house the other night, and then every night we were up in the mountains.”

“Holy shit. Did you two…”

“Not completely, but yeah. Things happened, Owen. Let’s just say she asked me to take care of her in a way I wasn’t expecting but wouldn’t have passed up for anything.”

“No fucking way. What brought that on?”

I spend the next few minutes filling him in on what Mom told Lennon over dinner and how she confronted me that night. I leave out every detail about touching her because even though he’s my brother, Owen doesn’t get access to any of that.

What I do with my girl is between me and her.

End of story.

Owen laughs. “Well, can’t say I’m surprised Mom took advantage of that opportunity. It probably helped Lennon understand why your friendship changed too. At this point, you should probably be thanking Mom.”

“I will do no such thing until I know where Lennon’s head is.”

“Where do you think she is?”

I adjust my grip on the steering wheel. “I’m not sure. She let me touch her every night we were up there. It felt so normal, so easy, so fucking right, Owen.”

“Well, you want more with her, right?”

Even though I tried to deny it, that’s pointless now. My brother already suspected my real reasons for marrying her. I didn’t want to get my hopes up that she could feel the same way, but now I think she might if I play my cards right.

“Of course I do.”

“Then take what she offers, Easton. Don’t put pressure on it. Let it unfold naturally. Trust me.”

“Spoken from experience?”

“Something like that.”

“You know, for someone that avoids relationships, you give some pretty solid advice.”