Page 159 of The Route to You

“That’s different,” she said, her cheeks turning pink. “We weren’t living together then. They didn’t know we were having sex.”

He grabbed her boobs. “I’m pretty sure they were aware but just looked the other way.”

She wiggled against him, then set the knife down and turned toward him, sliding her arms around his neck. “You really shouldn’t cause jerky movements while I’m holding sharp objects. Is the grill lit?”

His lips grazed hers. “What grill?”

“You know, the one we’re using to make food for your family?” She kissed him, a smile in her eyes that made him want to pick her up and carry her back to the bedroom.

Maybe grinding against her in the kitchen wasn’t the smartest idea after all, though he couldn’t seem to summon the will to care.

“I’m happy to light a different fire⁠—”

“Listen, grabby hands, go get the patties out of the fridge before your family comes in here and finds you all over me.”

He groaned and pushed away, then crossed toward the fridge. Sloan returned to the tomatoes, but her shoulders bunched with tension. “I do worry that your family isn’t going to forgive me like you have. Your sisters have been sweet to me every time I’ve seen them, but it’s definitely . . . cautious.”

Kyle found the plate of hamburgers in the fridge and straightened. This wasn’t the first time Sloan had expressed her worry about that—and he couldn’t entirely blame her, given the way Elle had reacted when he’d first told her about Sloan being in Nashville. Not that he’d ever tell Sloan about that.

Granny had always said that some truths didn’t need to be shared. The older he got, the more he realized which ones they were.

So, he told her the truth that needed to be shared. “My family is good at forgiveness,” he said, balancing the plate on one hand as he reached for some hot dogs. “Even when people get hardheaded or stubborn, that usually only lasts a couple of days at the most before they find a way to apologize or look at things from a different point of view.”

“I wish my family were like that,” Sloan said, grabbing a pair of grill tongs and a spatula out from a drawer and handing them to him. Her face settled more peacefully now. “But I think we turned a real corner. For the first time in a long time, I’m really excited about the future.”

Kyle held his breath, his stomach clenching with guilt as he kissed her again. “I’ll send a few people in to help take the food out. Stop hiding in here.”

He headed back toward the deck. She was happy. Excited. And he loved to see it. After the hard separation she’d been through, and Penny’s cancer, seeing Sloan bravely battling through a second time, confronting the same horrible disease in her family, gave him hope.

They’d spent so much time the last two nights talking long into the night about Penny, her dad, and her mom. She’d cried about everything that happened eight years earlier, and it had helped Kyle understand their breakup better.

Sloan had felt so . . . abandoned and lost and alone. She hadn’t had the emotional maturity to turn to Kyle back then, which wasn’t a huge surprise. She’d been so young. And he probably wouldn’t have had the emotional maturity to be what she needed. But Kyle found that understanding why Sloan had broken up with him all those years ago made it easier to forgive her. To move forward and love her freely.

Except for the fact that they’d been so focused on her healing that he hadn’t spoken a word to her about Blue Ridge and the SkyRun.

Maybe because he was a coward and didn’t want to say anything that might deflate her happiness.

Or maybe because he just didn’t know how to.

Either way, he needed to tell her. Tell his family.

But what if he was wrong about this?

Granny’s letter had been haunting him since he’d read it, especially the part where she’d said, “Take care of your body. I’m not joking. You only get one body. And when you’re my age, you’ll wish you’d taken better care of it. There is bravery, and then there is stupidity dressed up in confidence.”

As usual, Granny’s keen insight into him had been spot-on. She’d practically predicted the Jet Ski accident with that line, and he couldn’t help wondering if he’d have taken that risk in Cabo if he’d laid Granny to rest in Vail. And therefore, read her letter. But what if he still wasn’t listening?

He moved back outside to the grill and opened it, then put the hamburger patties on, appreciating the sizzle on the clean grates and the smoky heat in the air. Leaving them there, he walked toward the rail again. Quinn and Elle had gone back down with the rest of the family. “Hey, you all, come on up. Dinner will be ready in a few minutes.”

They made their way up the deck stairs, and Kyle sent his dad and Quinn inside to help Sloan bring the food out while he manned the grill. He didn’t see Liddy and Callum, though. “Hey,” he said, glancing at his mom. “Do you know where Liddy and Callum are? I have a little announcement I want to make before we eat, and I want them here for it.”

Mom and Elle exchanged a look. “Announcement?” Mom asked.

Oh no . . . not what I was going for. “It’s not about Sloan and me,” he said flatly.

Mom relaxed, visibly. “Oh thank goodness. I love Sloan, you know that. I was just worried⁠—”

“What, that I knocked her up already?” Kyle asked, quirking his brow.