Brothers of Paradise Series

She rolls her eyes, but her face is open and soft. From the living room comes the muted sound of one cartoon character chasing another.

I clear my throat. “Remember what we spoke about last week?”

Her hand stops moving. “Custody?”

“Yes.” The papers are in a folder, and I slide them across the island to her. All the preliminary paperwork. “There are a few things to do before you should officially file for single custody.”

Her hand reaches for the paper. “Right.”

“It’s better getting ahead of this. Especially if you think he might… object.”

I don’t want to say return. I don’t want to think about that man being close to my family. Since the text two weeks ago at the White Party, he hasn’t contacted Jamie again. She never responded to it-but she’s convinced he’s not going to give up so easily.

“I’ll read all of it. Should I hire a lawyer? What should I do?” She looks down at the folder. “He’s not getting Emma.”Belonging © NôvelDram/a.Org.

I slide an arm around her waist and she leans against my chest. “He won’t,” I say. “I still have friends who practice law. Let me make some calls. Worst case, I can represent you. I’m not specialized in family law but I’m qualified.”

“Parker,” she whispers, and I hear what she can’t say. The fear. Anxiety has been weighing on her for the past weeks. “I can’t ask you to do that.”

That makes me smile. We’re so past that, I think, and kiss her temple. “Baby, I know you want to go slow. This isn’t to pressure you… but in all the ways that matter, I consider myself yours.”

There’s an audible exhale of breath. “You do?”

“Yes. This, right here? The two of you in my house, the smell of cookies, you smiling in my arms… it’s all I want.”

She tilts her head back. Large, chocolate-brown eyes meet mine. “I come with baggage.”

“I can carry a lot,” I murmur. “You’ve seen my workouts.”

She laughs despite herself and turns, wraps her arms around my neck. “I’m scared,” she whispers. “About us, about him, about myself. I’ll make mistakes, Parker. I know that. But…”

“But?”

Her lips rise in a smile. “Remember the girl who wasn’t scared of anything?”

“Oh, I do,” I whisper, bending to her ear. I’d been a little in love with that girl.

“Well,” she murmurs, “I’m finding my way back to her.”

JAMIE

I’m sitting crosslegged on the patio, watching as little Jamie and Emma run across the yard. They’re racing, and Emma is winning with her longer legs, but Jamie has determination burning beneath his dark hair.

“They’re still going?” Hayden asks me. He has a beer in hand and sits down next to me on the patio. From inside, we hear the calm sounds of Lily on the phone. A buyer has called her about the gallery, about a piece, and she’d pulled out her professional voice. I can’t wait to tease her about it.

“Yes, they can’t seem to stop. They’re going to sleep well later.”

“Out like two lights,” Hayden agrees. His arms rest lightly on his knees, the beer bottle dangling from his hand. Despite the dark clouds, rain hasn’t fallen yet, and we’re taking full advantage of it. The scent of the grill being fired up is warm in the August air. “So… you and Parker, huh?”

I groan, and my best friend’s husband laughs. He’s been a constant presence in both of their lives since the age of eleven, and through them, also mine. We’d both been spectators to the Marchands.

Outsiders with one foot in, one foot out.

“You know I have to ask,” he says. “He won’t tell me anything.”

“He tells you everything.”

Hayden snorts. “Not this. I offered to start by talking about my love life, but he begged me not to. Was quite entertaining, actually. Seems he doesn’t want to hear about me and his little sister.”

I laugh. “Surprising.”

“Baffled me. So, Moraine. Did you guys hook up in high school?”

“What? No, never.”

He grins. “I always suspected you did, you know.”

“Really?”

“Yes. If we’d be sitting on the quad and you’d walk by, he’d watch you like a hawk until you were out of view. I caught him at it several times and he always tried to play it off.”

I roll my eyes, but my chest grows warm. “We were kids back then.”

“So was I, and I was in love with Lily even so,” Hayden says calmly, in that unwavering certainty he possesses. “Didn’t you like him too? Lord knows you two argued enough for it.”

I reach for my glass of lemonade. We’re too old for blushing, and yet here I am. Maybe because this thing is new, and maybe because it’s actually old, both true at the same time. And maybe because Parker had spent last night at mine for the first time, with my mother out of town… and helped make pancakes for breakfast along with a giggling Emma. She’d dared him to flip pancakes and he’d managed beautifully, capable of winning at any sport, and earned a round of applause from her.

“I did like him,” I say. “But I never told Lily that.”

“She knows,” Hayden says simply. “You two never spoke of it, but she knows.”

“Glad we were that obvious.”

He grins and takes a swig of his beer, eyes on his son, running as fast as his bare feet can take him. There are grass stains on his shorts. “For what it’s worth, I’m rooting for the two of you.”

Maybe I would have rolled my eyes at that a decade ago. Now it makes something sting at my eyes. Having people interfere in your relationship can be annoying, and tough, and pressure-laden.

It can also be wonderful.

“Thank you,” I murmur. “So am I.”

He chuckles. “Does Parker know that?”

“Yes. You think he doesn’t?”

Hayden shrugs, eyes dropping to the laces of his old sailing shoes. He runs a hand through his dark hair. “I don’t know. But he’s given both Lily and me pretty strict orders about not saying anything to you that might sound like pressure.”

I laugh. “Of course he has. But I’m not going to spook.”