He sighed and rubbed his eyes, then held up his hand. “Ground rules.”
I bit back my grin. Uncle Bent always had ground rules.
He pointed at me. “You be careful. She’s still young.”
I felt myself flush, knowing exactly what he was saying.
“We’re both too young,” I mumbled. I knew we were both still virgins. For me, sex and love went hand in hand, and Addi was the same way. Although we had dated a few people, it had never gone that far for either of us.
“Good. Keep it that way until you’re thirty—or even better, when I’m dead.”
Auntie Emmy burst out laughing. “Stop it, Rigid. You’re overreacting as usual. They’re both good kids and plan to take this slow.” She looked at us, one eyebrow lifted. “Right?”
We were both quick to agree.
“Same curfew and rules apply, Addi. I don’t care whose son he is.” He looked at me. “You pick her up and have her home at the set times. We prefer group outings. And no sneaking off while we’re here.
“Same rules apply when we go back to Toronto. And when you start driving, you keep both hands on the wheel.”
“Done.” I had my learner’s permit and planned on taking my test as soon as possible.
“You both will be respectful to us. Both your sets of parents. If we think things are getting too serious or you aren’t following the rules, we’re addressing it.”
I agreed, nothing he said surprising me. I was actually shocked he didn’t have more to say, but I had a feeling he would come to me later and talk to me privately. I also knew it was going to be far more personal and I wasn’t going to enjoy it. But I would take it because it was for Addi.
“We’re just starting, Uncle Bent. We wanted to be upfront with you. I don’t want to hide anything or be deceitful.” My parents were big on the truth and had drummed that into my head my whole life.
He smiled, some of the tension easing from his shoulders. “I appreciate that, Brayden.” He met my gaze. “You take care of my little girl, and we won’t have a problem. Otherwise…” He let the words trail off, then grinned. “I’ll set Aiden on you.”
“I will,” I promised after the laughter had died down. I hunched closer, everyone else disappearing as I spoke directly to him. “I care about her a lot, Uncle Bent. I won’t hurt her. But seeing her with anyone else hurt me, so I had to speak up.”
He clasped my shoulder with a firm nod. “I trust you, Brayden. If I didn’t, you’d be in the lake by now.” He winked. “We’ll save that for another day.” He squeezed hard in warning. “I’ll be watching.”
I sat back, relieved. Addi watched her father with amused adoration. He shook his finger at her. “You behave. You’re too much like your mother.”
She laughed. “Everyone says I’m like you.”
“Then you’d be hitting the books, not mooning over Brayden.”
She smirked and grinned. “I’m a woman. We can multitask.”
He groaned. “Don’t remind me.”I smiled at the memories. The years that followed. School, work, growing, and learning. Together. We were always together, and neither of us wanted it any other way. Ours wasn’t a typical relationship. It never had been. Growing up together. Falling in love so young. We’d never been in a hurry to get married, because we knew how solid we were. We went to school, although Addi followed in Bentley’s footsteps and left before she got her degree, with the same bug he possessed in that she was bored and was eager to enter the business world. I pushed and worked hard, and at twenty-five, I held my CPA degree. Addi was a young president at the age of twenty-six, but she had earned the title. Bentley was too smart a businessman to entrust the role to anyone who wasn’t qualified—daughter or not.
And today was the day I’d been waiting for since I first kissed her. Our lives had settled enough that we could move on to the next step in our journey—husband and wife. We were ready.
Here in this place I loved. We had all our firsts here. First kiss. First declaration of our feelings. The first time we made love. The day I asked her to marry me. Our entire world was linked to this spot.
And it would continue. Our parents had gifted us a house here. BAM had slowly bought up every piece of land around the area. There was a bustling resort a couple of miles down the road run by a new division in the company. A successful winery run by another department—and where I would marry Addi today. The rest of the land was personal holdings of the company and its directors.
Our house was set away, still overlooking the water, close enough to the main area we were still part of the group, but with a little more privacy. A bluff was a natural wall with an easy access path toward the other grouping of houses. There was room by our place for three other houses—and more space behind us if needed. For some members of BAM, this was a fun place to escape, a weekend getaway, or a place to vacation. For others, it was our home.