Erin Kern - Along Came Trouble

Brody’s eyebrows shot up his forehead. “So you’re trying to have another one right now?”

She dropped her hand from Mason’s head and turned her gaze to Brody. “We’ve been trying for over a year.”

A year? Couples who went that long usually sought out the help of a fertility specialist. “You and Noah aren’t having trouble conceiving, are you?”

“It took me seven months to get pregnant with Lily.”

Brody had no idea the two of them were having such a difficult time. “I had no idea.” What a stressful and frustrating situation for anyone to go through. And now a year to have another one?

“That’s because we didn’t tell anyone.” Avery smoothed a hand down her knee-length skirt. “Noah would absolutely kill me if he knew I was about to tell you this, but…” She inhaled a deep breath. “About six months ago I miscarried.”

A piece of Brody’s gut twisted at the agony his brother and Avery must have gone through. To try for so long, then have it end like that… Brody wasn’t sure how to console her. He had no clue how she must have felt, how confused and desperate Avery must have been. His heart cracked open for his brother and sister-in-law. He took a step closer to her and placed a hand on her shoulder. “I’m so sorry, Avery.”

Her shoulder moved underneath his hand. “I was only a few weeks along. But we’d already been trying for several months. And now six months later, we’re still not having any luck. Noah thinks we should go see this fertility doctor in Casper.”

“What do you think?”

She tilted her face to his. “I think if it’s meant to happen, it’ll happen.”

He squeezed her shoulder and offered her a comforting smile. “It’ll happen.”

Out of nowhere, Tyler ran from the kitchen and toward the front door. “Dad, Uncle Chase is home.”

The boy threw open the front door and started pummeling Chase with weak punches to the arms and midsection. Chase dropped his bag and grabbed Tyler in a headlock as he practically dragged the boy away from the front door and into the house.

“You’ll never be stronger than me, kid,” Chase said as Tyler struggled to remove himself from Chase’s steel-like grip. Tyler wrapped his hands around Chase’s forearm in a weak attempt to get free.

“You just wait. Someday I’m gonna overpower you,” Tyler said in a strangled voice as his feet dangled off the floor.

Chase’s grin turned evil when he dug his knuckles into the top of the boy’s head. “Let me hear who your favorite uncle is, then I’ll let you go.”

Tyler giggled and continued to struggle. “Uncle Noah,” he replied.

“That’s it.” Chase picked Tyler up, slung the boy over his shoulder, then dropped him onto the loveseat. Tyler bounced once then rolled onto the floor, laughing even harder than he had a moment ago.

“You’re going to wake Mason up, then you’ll really be sorry,” Avery scolded.

Lily ran to Chase and wrapped her arms around his legs. “Dat’s not nice!”

“You want some too?” Chase picked the girl up, dangled her upside down, then set her back on her feet. Lily giggled until she had tears coming out of her eyes. “How’s my wife doing?” Chase asked after the children had calmed themselves down.

“Cursing you to hell and back,” Brody answered.

“You mean like she does every day?”

“I’d like to see you carry two babies,” Avery said as she gathered baby toys from around the room.

Chase ignored Avery’s comment and kissed Mason’s sweaty forehead. The boy didn’t so much as twitch an eyelash. He was out cold.

“Since my work here is done, I’m going to go home and cook my husband some dinner.” Avery took Lily by the hand after the girl gave everyone in the room kisses bye-bye.

“I’ll walk you out,” Brody said to Avery as she headed toward the front door.

He walked over to Chase and slapped his brother on the back. “Do yourself a favor and rub your wife’s feet.”

Chase gathered his sleeping son off the couch. “I do that every night. The woman’s hormones are unpredictable.”

Brody chuckled as he ushered Tyler out the door and followed Avery and Lily to their car. At six fifteen, the sun was already making its way past the horizon. A light but cool breeze tousled the leaves in the nearby trees and whipped the short strands of Avery’s hair around her face.

“Mommy, ice cream,” Lily demanded as Avery slid open the side door to her minivan. Brody still had a hard time believing the woman who first drove into Trouble in a hundred-thousand-dollar car was now at the wheel of a soccer mom car. Getting married and having kids had a way of bringing a practical side out of most people.

“Not before dinner,” Avery answered as she helped Lily climb in.

Tyler wandered over to Brody’s truck and waited for Brody to follow. “Lacy said you’re looking for a caterer for the youth center’s fundraiser.”

Avery glanced at Brody from over her shoulder as she buckled Lily in her car seat. “Yeah, the people we used last year went out of business, and it seems like every restaurant either doesn’t cater or the food isn’t good enough. I have an appointment with a caterer in Cheyenne next week, but I’m not holding out much hope.”

That could be a good thing for him. “Why’s that?”

After getting Lily settled, Avery turned around and looked at him. “Their online menu didn’t look all that appetizing. But I don’t really have much choice. I’ve kind of run out of options.”

He waited a beat before speaking. “What if I did the catering for you?”

She stared at him for a moment, then swiped a strand of hair out of her face. “You as in the Golden Glove?”

He nodded. “Yeah.”

“I thought you hated your head chef.”

Anthony? Then Brody remembered that Avery probably didn’t even know about Anthony. “I never hated Travis. He just wasn’t good enough so my father fired him. We have someone much better than him now.”

“I didn’t realize the Golden Glove was also in the catering business.”

“We’re technically not. But we’re in a bit of a jam, and I need to get the word out about our new menu and head chef. A fundraiser would be a good way to reach a large volume of people in a short amount of time.”

Avery gazed at him while her teeth sunk into her lower lip. “I don’t know, Brody. I know we’re family and everything, but the Golden Glove doesn’t have the best reputation right now. And this fundraiser is a high-profile thing. It’s a luncheon, and some of the people at the youth center might object when they hear the name.”

“I know,” he said as he placed a hand on her shoulder. He had to get her to agree. The fundraiser might be the only way to get their momentum going again. “How about this? You come into the restaurant and sample food from our new menu. If it’s terrible or you just don’t think it’s right, then I won’t bother you about it again.”

Was it sad that he was practically begging his sister-in-law? What was next, going door to door and handing out discount coupons? Avery glanced at Lily for a moment then looked at Brody again. “We can’t pay you. Everything is strictly on a volunteer basis.”

Brody shook his head. “I don’t care about money. I just care about reaching potential customers.”

More wind stirred the short strands of her hair. “I’ll come by next week.”

Brody was still grinning like a moron when he and Tyler climbed into his truck.

ELISA WASN’T HUNGRY. SHE DIDN’T need a drink. So why was she driving to the Golden Glove at four in the afternoon with Tyler sitting next to her? That was a good question.

A sane woman would stay away from Brody, especially with the way he touched her. Every time he saw her, he made a point to make some sort of contact. A simple yet devastating caress along her cheek. Threading his long fingers through her hair. These things shouldn’t scare her. They shouldn’t worry her. They shouldn’t make her lose sleep because every time she closed her eyes, she had erotic dreams of him.

Her body reacted to him despite her brain telling it not to.

Tyler’s stomach had been growling since he’d walked through her front door. She’d been going stir crazy for most of the day and needed to get out of the house. That morning she’d developed the proofs from the photo shoot they’d done with Anthony. The shots had turned out so good that she’d almost broke out in song and dance to celebrate. But then she’d received a piece of disturbing news that had dampened her mood, and she needed to talk to someone about it. Funny how Brody had become that person.

Somewhere along the way, Brody had become important to her. She felt a deep connection with him she hadn’t felt with anyone else, not even Marcello. She wanted to help him save the restaurant. She wanted to help him reconnect with Tyler.

When she’d first gotten the news of traveling to Mongolia, she’d been over the moon. But now, in the wake of her growing feelings for Brody, it scared her. She hadn’t been lying when she told Brody about being iffy on the project. One day she thought she wanted to go, and the next doubts clouded her euphoria. What if the job turned into a one-time thing? What if she sold her house, got all the way over to Mongolia, and had no other offers on the horizon? Where would she go from there? She’d have no house to come back to.

And now there was the question of Brody. She instinctively knew she was already on a direct path of falling in love with him. Would she be able to walk away from him when the time came for her to leave? Or was she willing to give up her dream for a chance at love? But what if Brody didn’t love her back? What if she gave up everything for him only to have him move on with someone else?