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“God no,” he said.
“Oh. I thought the house was big.”
“It is. Talia has living quarters in the basement. There are two other wings that have more than one room in them. Laken will take one. I normally take another, but I’ve got you with me. The newly engaged couple stay in our old house.”
“Old house?” she asked.
“Yeah. Big brother bought the house we grew up in after my father died. He had the ranch renovated and now it’s there for anyone to use when they visit. But he gets first dibs. If he isn’t going, then we’ll stay there. Foster will stay with Elias who lives an hour away. Rowen and Nelson normally get a hotel because they go out and party and don’t want our mother watching them, but they could stay in one of the wings too which is why you and I won’t.”
“You just don’t want us sleeping together under the same roof as your mother, right?”
He laughed. “Nope. She knows we are sleeping together, but for a woman who has eight kids, she’s never condoned that. Regardless of our age. Though, I found out recently that she was pregnant before they got married. We just thought she was early with the first kid.”
Lilian started to laugh. “No one did the math in your family?”
“Hey,” he said. “It was close. Like a few weeks. She could have gotten pregnant on the honeymoon.”
“Sounds like your parents had a great marriage even though they didn’t spend a lot of time together.”
“They did,” he said. “One of the best considering their situation. My mother, she’s the strongest person I know.”
They pulled in front of her apartment. Braylon told the driver to wait while he got her bag out of the back.
He carried it up for her. “I think you’re a Mama’s boy.”
He shrugged. “It’s been said before,” he said. “I don’t know that I am as much as I just wanted to take care of her.”
“Like West,” she said, unlocking the door.
She knew he didn’t like to be compared to his brother and that wasn’t what she was doing. Or hoped he didn’t think that.
“We all want to take care of her. We do it in our own way. West has always had so much on his shoulders to provide financially. For me, I think it was keeping West in check and being the go-between with our mother and him. He didn’t always talk to her.”
“Ahhh,” she said. “She reached out to you to make sure he was taking care of himself.”
“In a manner of speaking. While he was taking care of everyone else, he was putting himself last. I just made sure I was there if he needed me.”
“I know you two are close,” she said.
“We are. I don’t know that West ever let anyone get too close to him. Even me. I think meeting Abby just changed him.”
“So the past few months are different?” she asked. This was news to her.
“Yes and no. The West you know is the one that existed before our father died. For years, he lost a bit of himself. He’s got it back. I feel like I do too.”
“I didn’t know you lost anything,” she said.
“I think we all lost sight of the important things while trying to put profit and caring for others first. Not just West, but me too. But then I met you and I know the important things. I saw it this weekend too.”
Her heart was racing. “I can say the same. I was looking forward to going home but then even more to leaving. I love Quinn, but the house is chaos. She’s always been the little mother looking out for her younger siblings too. To me, she deserves a good life and she’s getting it.”
“She seems to enjoy being a mother and wife,” he said. “I know it’s not for everyone.”
“It’s not,” she said. “But as I said, she’d taken the role on really early. She was Max’s nanny first. I don’t say this to anyone. Ever. And I know it’s probably stupid and silly and their business.”
“What?” he asked.
“Max never stopped paying Quinn as his nanny. It’s not that he treats her like that. It’s that she’s always been independent and never wanted to rely on anyone. He feels like what Quinn does is a job whether she loves it or not. It was her job and career before she met him. He didn’t want her to feel as if she had no source of income.”
