You Were Meant For Me (Wishful 10) - Page 4

“The whole thing was over in four hours. There was nothing you could’ve done,” Judd assured him. Not for the first time. As he’d been in on the takedown, he was in a position to know. Not that it made a whit of difference to Mitch.

“And when I called home to say I was extending my trip? Nobody thought I should be read in about the fact that Miranda was in the hospital.” He didn’t have to manufacture the bitterness in his voice.

“Because the guy who put her there was already dead, and she wanted the chance to heal a bit,” Judd continued, as if it was the most reasonable thing in the world. “You know she hates it when you hover. The rest of your family was doing enough of that.”

Mitch stabbed up a bite of pie hard enough to send the slice halfway off its plate. “I should have been here.”

“What is it you think you could’ve done that Ethan didn’t already do?” Liam asked. “Do you blame him for what happened to her?”

“No.” Mitch wasn’t arrogant enough to believe that if he’d been home his sister never would have been taken in the first place or that she’d have been found any faster. Ethan had taken a bullet for her. It was hard to think that while they’d both been suffering, he’d been with Anna. Cheerfully oblivious.

“Then what is your deal?” Judd demanded.

If they’d told him, if he’d come home on his normal schedule, he never would have met Anna, and he wouldn’t have this damned crater in his heart. Because the Bard was a hundred percent wrong. Loving and losing sucked ass.

“I don’t appreciate being cut out.” How could she have just left?

“Are you seriously going to be a drama queen about this? Because the decision wasn’t about you,” Judd said.

Not talking about Anna. Pull your head out of your ass.

“I know. Intellectually, I get that. But all of you were here, you went through it, and you processed it. I’m just still working my way through all of that. I’m her brother. I’ve spent my whole life protecting her. I can’t just shake it off.” The sense of failure was too great.

Liam nudged him with an elbow. “It wasn’t your fault.”

“I know that, too. I’ll get past it.” And he knew he would get past the complicated snarl of emotional shit with his sister, at least. “I’m just…not feeling like any of the things I cared about before matter anymore, and I don’t want to just go through the motions.”

His friends were silent for a long moment, watching him. Mitch wondered what they saw. Did they really buy that this was all about Miranda?

Judd blew out a breath. “Okay then. Take the time.”

“We’re here if you need us.”

A little of the pressure to perform, to rise to expectations, slid off Mitch’s shoulders. He let the corner of his mouth curve. “Are we done with the touchy feely shit now? Because I really just want to finish my pie.”

Chapter 2

“We’re so glad you’re here!” Sandy wrapped Tess in a warm hug.

After a long moment, Tess lifted her own arms to awkwardly return the embrace. A part of her wanted to be reserved, out of loyalty to her mother. She didn’t know what to do with this open affection from a woman she barely knew. But her mom and her grandmother had instilled manners, no matter what. “Thank you for having me.”

As Sandy stepped back, she seemed to flow toward Tess’s father and he toward her, until they were linked, arms around each other’s waist. A unit. The gesture was so natural, so seemingly in sync. She’d never seen her parents act like that. It was disconcerting and set up some kind of ache inside, as if her inner child was finally having to let go of the idea that they’d ever be a real family again. Which was ridiculous. Her parents had been divorced for more than a decade.

“Almost everybody’s here,” Sandy said. “My niece, Miranda, and her boyfriend, Ethan, couldn’t make it. And my nephew is running late, but everyone else is out back. They’re so excited to meet you.”

Tess couldn’t claim the same level of enthusiasm, but more than a fair chunk of that was the jet lag. She forced a tired smile. “Then let’s get to introductions.”

The moment they stepped out onto the wide back patio, her mouth dropped open. “Oh my God, there are so many of you.”

They laughed and a petite brunette stepped forward, beaming. “It’s a little overwhelming at first, but I promise we’re all housebroken. I’m Norah Crawford, Sandy’s daughter-in-law.”

Norah Crawford, formerly Burke, the city planner who’d convinced her father to invest in Wishful in the first place. A woman Tess knew he considered something of a second daughter. Uncertain exactly how she felt about that, Tess extended her hand, taking the other woman’s measure. “Pleased to meet you.”

Norah shook, her grasp warm as she covered it with her free hand. “I’ve heard so much about you.” She looped her arm through Tess’s and began the introductions, starting with a lanky man, whose thick blond hair was about two weeks past needing a cut. “This is my husband, Cam.”

“Sandy’s son, the city councilman and owner of the nursery,” Tess reeled off.

Cam stepped forward and grinned. “And I guess technically your step-brother now.”

Tags: Kait Nolan Wishful Romance
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