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Her mother opened her door quickly. “Is everything okay?”
“What?” she asked, pushing her hair out of her face.
“You just screeched. I thought you were sick and I came running.”
“Sorry,” she said. “I didn’t even know I was talking out loud. Lily just sent a group text that Poppy had her daughter last night right before midnight. It was a fast delivery.”
“That’s wonderful,” her mother said. “What did they name her?”
“Holly Reese. I find that very sweet. Holly after their mother and then Reese, her husband.”
“That is a nice way to honor your parent,” her mother said.
She threw the covers back and got up. No reason to try to go back to sleep now. It was past seven and longer than she normally slept anyway.
“It is,” she said. “Those girls have been through enough. Rose is pregnant now too. She’d let everyone know last week.”
“That’s great,” her mother said. “Glad those girls are settling down. Maybe one of my kids will someday.”
“Look to your sons for that,” she said, grabbing her clothes to go into the bathroom. “They are older than me.”
“They say there is no way right now. No one wants to deal with their schedules or the fear of their jobs. Not sure why they both had to do what they did. But I understand that. I’m not thrilled with those things either.”
Heather had been upset herself at first but then saw how much her brothers loved their jobs and to her that was the most important thing.
And because there was part of her that figured she might end up in a relationship with someone in law enforcement, she had to get over that fear too.
“If you love someone enough, then you have to respect their choice,” she said. She walked past her mother with her clothes and went into the bathroom. She didn’t want to hear what her parents might say to that.
Hours later, her brothers were at the house filling their faces with food. She’d made a plate of snacks and went to sit down. Her mother was in the kitchen checking on the ham with the potatoes cooking. Her father helping out.
“So what is going on in your life, Heather?” Gavin asked. “Any man I need the name of so I can run a background check on them?”
Her brothers laughed, but she didn’t find it any funnier now than she did for the past few years. “Nope,” she said.
No way she was bringing up Luke’s name because there was nothing to say. And her brothers wouldn’t find anything bad anyway since he had a great military career and was soon to be a state trooper. Just about two more months or so. More than halfway there.
“Good thing,” Noah said. “We don’t like you there and us here. Not sure why you had to move.”
She’d heard this enough times in her life. Her parents said it to pile on the guilt. Her brothers to bust her ass.
Both annoyed her.
“To get away from you two,” she said. “I’ll never find a man with the way you two hover around.”
“Heather needs to find a nice gentleman that she deserves,” her mother said. “And it’s better that you two don’t scare them off. I thought for sure she’d have someone by now, but it’s starting to look like I’m bound to be grandchildless.”
“I’m only twenty-eight,” she said. “Give me a break. I’ve got plenty of time to find a man and have kids.”
It never seemed to end. “I know, darling,” her mother said. “It was more for your brothers, but you too. I had all three of you kids by the time I was twenty-eight.”
She’d heard this before. “Times are different, Mom,” Noah said. “Not many are even getting married by the time they are thirty. I’m in good shape. Pick on Gavin. He’s the old one of the group.”
Noah was thirty, Gavin thirty-three. Neither of her brothers was even dating anyone that she was aware of and hadn’t had a serious relationship in years.
She’d met women they’d dated in the past but could tell right away it wouldn’t last when she talked to them. They didn’t get her brothers.
Heck, she barely understood her brothers half the time.
