A Long Time Coming (Cane Brothers, #3)(80)

Kelsey and Lottie exchange some sort of knowing look before they turn back to me. “It’s because Breaker always thinks of you first,” Kelsey says softly. “He truly cherishes you. I’m sure he doesn’t say all the things to you that he says to us, but you are his number one. There’s no question about it.”

I look over my shoulder where I find Breaker laughing with his brothers and Ryot, all holding Bloody Marys in hand, looking like a pack of Men’s World Fitness models getting ready for their next shoot. Breaker glances at me just at the same time, and with a simple wink in my direction, my stomach tumbles out of my body.

“Yup, always puts you first,” Lottie seconds as we all take a sip of our drinks.





“Did you try the croissants?” Breaker asks as he sits on my lounger and places his hand on my shin.

“I did,” I say as I can feel the warmth of his palm once again.

“And . . .”

I attempt to look anywhere but into his eyes, but it’s useless. They’re the brightest blue, which means they’re pulling me into his gaze—his comforting, warm gaze. “They were fantastic,” I manage to say.

“Told you.” He gives my shin a squeeze. “Seemed like you were having fun with the girls. What’s this I hear about a knitting club? And how can I get an invite? I bet Lottie and Kelsey have no idea the skills I have.”

His charm soothes the tension I was just feeling. “Your ability to knit barely registers as a skill. You can knit a line, and that’s pretty much it.”

“Lies!” he says. “I knitted a scarf.”

“Your ‘scarf’ was three lines knitted together, and you said it was for a mouse.”

“Yeah, so, mice need to stay warm, too. And maybe if I was invited to the knitting club, I’d grow my skills into something more, like a knitted hat.”

“Last time I tried to teach you, you pierced the wall with your knitting needle because you were frustrated.”

“The yarn was aggravating me. I’m better now, less temperamental.”

“Uh-huh, sure.”

He nods at me. “Scoot over.” I move to the side of the large lounge chair just as Breaker sits next to me and loops his arm around my shoulder. Together, we lie there, staring up at the cloudy sky as everyone around us chats and enjoys some lasting mimosas and JP’s apparently not-so-mediocre Bloody Marys. “What else did you guys talk about?”

How you’re probably a stallion in bed.

How you made a woman come so many times in one night that JP was actually impressed.

“Uh . . . things,” I say.

“Things? That’s so descriptive. Wow, I never would have thought.” I poke his stomach, causing him to laugh. “Seriously, what did you talk about?”

“The wedding and how you seem to care about me.”

“I do care about you.” He pulls me in closer so I can rest my head on his chest. “You’re important to me. Did you tell them how I’ve been your knight in shining armor when it comes to The Beave?”

“In so many words but not quite that eccentric.”

“I think it’s important to know that I’ve been the hero of this journey down the aisle. It’s vastly important.”

“To whom?”

“The world.”

“You’re so ridiculous.”

“Maybe, but you were the one who made me the Pickle of Honor.”

“How could I possibly forget?” I ask as his hand strokes my shoulder. It feels nice to have human contact. Not just groping hands and pecks on the cheek. Does Brian miss me when he’s gone? Miss holding me? Touching me?

“I’d hope that you wouldn’t. Did you talk about anything else?”

“A few things,” I answer. “But nothing I want to talk about in the backyard of your brother’s house.”

“Okay, shall we leave, then?”

“We don’t have to. I mean, it’s nothing important.”

“Yeah, but if we stay any longer, JP will make me drink another Bloody Mary, and I don’t think I can stomach it. I nursed the one he gave me two hours ago and then dumped it in a bush when they weren’t looking.”

“No, you didn’t.”

He points at a shapely bush off to the right near the fence gate. “That one, right there, if it starts to die, we will know why.”

“Aah, just another secret I’ll have to hang over your head.”





“Okay.” Breaker flops onto his couch and puts his hands behind his head. “Give me all the dirt. What did you talk about?”

When we returned to our apartment building, I went to my place and changed because there was no way I was lounging around Breaker’s apartment in a dress. I switched over to a pair of flannel shorts and a regular T-shirt. I also washed off my makeup because it made my eyes feel weird. Breaker changed into his athletic shorts and a shirt that features the art of the inner workings of a computer. He thinks it’s cool, and I tell him it’s one of the nerdiest things he owns.

“It’s really not that big a deal,” I say as I sit cross-legged on his couch and clutch a throw pillow.

“It has to be a big deal if you didn’t want to talk about it in Huxley’s backyard. So spill, Lia, what is it?”