"It always is with me," I tell him, winking as I walk away.
From the corner of my eye, I spot Brody as he slams his head against the side of his truck. With his hand draped across his chest, he closes his eyes as if writhing in pain.
I hear his truck door open again. "Are you for real right now. I want to go home," Hannah scolds him.
"Hannah, sweetie, have I told you lately that you… complete—" Hannah slams the door and Brody chuckles out the word, "Me." He sighs and pushes away from his truck. "Works every damn time."
"You need a bigger challenge in life," I tell him, disappearing into my Jeep.
6
I peek into the back seat and spot Parker asleep in her car seat. Oops.
I sent Melody and Brett a text message to see if they were still at the shop, wondering if I should take Parker there or to Brett's house, but they tell me they'll wait at the shop for me.
The ride isn't long. I pull around back where Melody and Brett are waiting by the back door. "How was it?" Brett asks as I step out of the Jeep.
"Great. We sold out. Parker is tuckered though. She fell asleep as soon as she got into the Jeep."
Brett glances down at his watch. "Yeah, it's late for her."
"It's late for me too," I joke.
"I heard you ran into my brother," Brett smirks.
"Your brother?" I toy with him.
"Brody," He replies.
"Oh, him, yeah, I saw him. He hasn't changed a bit," I reply.
"Neither of you has," he responds. "And I know exactly what that means."
"What does that mean?" Melody follows, clearly confused by the fact that Brett knows way more than he should know about my past with Brody.
"That they're both obnoxious," Brett responds to Melody.
"I guess that just makes us likeminded," I tell him.
"That sounds like a recipe for disaster," Melody says.
"Well, to you two bourbon lovers, we'll just call it a recipe for a bourbon the rocks."
"What?" Melody asks, not reading between my lines. "Never mind. I need to go home and go to sleep. I've been around little kids all night, and it was exhausting."
My phone buzzes in my pocket as I open the door of the Jeep to help Parker out. Before I unbuckle her booster seat, I retrieve my phone, finding a message from Brody that says:
Brody: Tell my brother that I'm going to win this one.
What the hell does that mean?
I pull Parker out of the Jeep, and she wakes up as I'm doing so. She jumps out of my hands and runs to Brett. I grab her booster seat and close the Jeep door, and I turn to see Brett looking at something on his phone as he hugs his daughter with his other hand.
Brett is quick to look up at me with a smirk. "Just my brother … checking to make sure Parker got home okay."
"How nice of him to be concerned," I grunt, cocking my head to the side.
Brett glances down at his phone again and chuckles. "I see what's going on here … just a little friendly continuation of the game you two played when we were in high school," he says with a pleasing sigh. "Well, for the record, I think you'll win this round."