Page 73 of How to Prevent a Fumble

“What does she like to cook?” Emmett asks.

Owen shrugs. “Everything. We cooked together all the time as kids. She’s part of the reason I got into cooking myself. She just does it as a hobby. I think she really loves soup and anything chicken, but she also loves a lot of vegetarian foods.”

I didn’t know that. I should have.

She hasn’t made any vegetarian foods for me, but maybe that’s just because I don’t exactly screamvegetarian!

“Okay cool. Warner, you’re making soup with her.”

“I know she likes coffee,” I tell them. “I already found that out. Got her a nice new coffee machine and she has a ton of different coffee creamers.”

“You did that when you hired her as your assistant though. We have to step up your game. Good job with that though,” Cooper tells me.

“Women like baths,” Emmett says, repeating his talking point from the previous night.

“That they do.” Cooper writes it on the list, right next to a large number three. “You’re going to help her have a bath time. Do whatever you need to do in order to get it done,” he tells me. “Look after her kid, make her a coffee or pour her a glass of wine, anything. Get her a book, just make sure that she’s happy and in the bath and that you’re nowhere near her. Don’t bother her. She’s a mom. She doesn’t get a lot of downtime. Don’t disturb her.”

“How do you know all that?” I ask.

They look at me as if I’m stupid. “We all have sisters and mothers,” Dirwin says.

And a heavy feeling settles in my gut. Of course it makes sense. But why haven’t I paid that close attention?

I know the answer though. They were too focused on my interests growing up that I was consumed by myself. I didn’t pay attention to anything else.

I’ve tried compensating for it. It’s part of the reason I paid for Isla’s apartment for so long. I wanted her to have a chance at doing what she loves without worrying, just like they did for me when I was growing up. I felt bad.

But there’s still times I realize how messed up that was, and I really should have paid more attention to them. I should have been more aware.

“Okay. What else?”

We continue the list, adding anything and everything I can do to win over Briar.

“Okay, I think the list is done,” Cooper says, looking at it as if it’s a work of art. “Keep this on you at all times. Look at it every day. Do what you must, young grasshopper.”

My brows furrow as my eyes narrow at him. “I’m not keeping this on me, Cooper. Do you know how bad her finding this would look?”

With an eye roll, Cooper starts to scribble out the title, nearly ripping through the paper with the tip of his pen.

“What are you doing?” Dirwin asks.

“Renaming it something a little less conspicuous,” he replies.

He pauses for a second, tapping the pen to his lips before writing a new title.

“There, that should work. Now unless they, you know, read the list, they’ll think it’s work related right?”

Because scrawled over the top of the paper reads:How to Prevent a Fumble.

When I get home that afternoon, I make sure the paper is safely in my bedside table. I took a photo of it to ensure I have it all the time, but I was absolutely not going to bring it with me everywhere.

“Leo!” Elara yells as she runs to hug me.

“How are you, Buddy?” I ask her as I give her a hug.

“Fantastic. Mom and I took Champ for a walk and I got a cookie!”

This may put a wrench in my plans.