Total pages in book: 75
Estimated words: 77857 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 389(@200wpm)___ 311(@250wpm)___ 260(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 77857 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 389(@200wpm)___ 311(@250wpm)___ 260(@300wpm)
“I understand why you want to go.”
“Do you?”
“Of course I do. Even though it has to do with… Actually, what does it have to do with?”
“It’s family stuff. More family bullshit. And I will tell you everything.”
“Still,” I say, “it’s a trip to London. Which in its own way is kind of an escape from everything else that’s going on.”
“Bingo.”
“I’d love to go with you. I’d love to see London. But will there even be time for that? You’re going on business.”
“Sweetheart, I will make the time to show you all the sights in London. That I can promise you.”
“All right. Jesse’s going to kill me.”
“Why? Because you’re doing the whole push me, pull you thing?”
“Push me, pull you? Is that from Dr. Doolittle?”
“Yep. One of my favorite books as a kid.”
“You’re kidding. Mine too.”
“Makes total sense for me because I love animals. Why for you?”
“I love animals too. Dogs especially. Why do you think I want to be a mom so bad? I love babies of all kinds.”
He smiles then. My God, he’s so good-looking.
“You are perfect in every way, Aurora Maureen Pike.”
“And you, Brock… What’s your middle name anyway?”
He rolls his eyes. “Promise you won’t laugh.”
“Oh, no. I do not promise that at all.”
“It’s Alistair. After my mother’s grandfather.”
“That’s not so bad,” I say. “I was thinking you’d say Eugene or Maurice or Aloysius or something.”
“Nope. Still, it’s not something I advertise. I don’t even use my middle initial. My signature is simply Brock Steel.”
“Well… Brock Alistair Steel, you are amazing and magnificent, and I’m completely in love with you.”
His features soften. My God, he’s even more beautiful.
“Anyway, the push me, pull you thing,” he continues. “I’ve been feeling that since I kissed you that night of Uncle Talon’s welcome home party. Something was pulling me toward you, and I was trying to push you away. I was feeling more than I wanted to feel, even then.”
“And now?” I say.
“Now I’m all in, Rory. I’m not going to try to push away these feelings any longer. I’m all in.”
I warm all over. “I’m all in too, Brock. And yes. I will go to London with you.”
“You’re fucking kidding me,” Jesse says.
“I’m really sorry.”
“For Christ’s sake, Ror. I should be mad as hell at you, but I can’t be. I wish I could go to London.”
“You will, Jesse. Someday. I’ll make it happen.”
He scoffs. “How exactly are you going to make it happen?”
“I don’t know, but I will. In the meantime, I’m making an executive decision.”
“What’s that?”
“Brock and I are producing a recital for me. It’s going to be sometime before Christmas at the cinema in town.”
My brother furrows his brow. “Say what?”
“I don’t have all the details yet, but when I do, I’ll fill you in. I’m going to need your help with sound and lighting, and…I want you to sing with me.”
“You want the band at a Christmas recital?”
“I don’t want the band, Jesse. I want you.”
“I don’t sing opera, Ror.”
“I know you don’t. But you have a beautiful voice for musical theater. We can do some duets. I was thinking ‘A Little Priest’ from Sweeney Todd. ‘The Song That Goes Like This’ from Spamalot.”
“As long as you don’t make me sing ‘Baby, It’s Cold Outside.’”
“Gross. We’re brother and sister.”
“Exactly.”
“But yeah, we can find some arrangements of holiday duets as well.”
“Rory, I’ve probably wrecked my voice over the years singing rock and roll.”
“I’ll get you into shape. I’m a voice teacher, by the way.”
“I know that. But Ror…”
“I’m not taking no for an answer. In fact…”
My mind is racing. Brock has connections, right? Maybe he could get some agents to come to the recital.
“What?”
“I can’t make any promises yet. Just trust me. You want to be part of this, Jess.”
“So you’re bailing on me for a gig, and now you want a favor?”
“Yes, but in the end, I think you’ll realize that I’m doing you a favor.”
He scoffs again. “Okay. Send me the material as soon as you’ve got it. When is the recital?”
“I don’t have a date yet. Brock set it before Thanksgiving, but we’re going to change that. First of all, I don’t have time to get something together by then, and second of all, he doesn’t want to interfere with Ryan and Ruby’s big Thanksgiving anniversary thing.”
“Their anniversary is Thanksgiving?”
“Apparently.”
“All right. Send me the information. And Ror? Don’t you dare call me back tomorrow and say you want back on the gig.”
“Dude, tomorrow I’m going to be in London.”
Enough said.
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
BROCK
The Steel family doesn’t own a private jet.
The cost outweighs the benefit. We’re ranchers. We do most of our business in the USA, and mostly in the West. So we fly commercial—first class of course, but commercial.
Rory’s eyes are as big as dinner plates when we board the British Airways aircraft and sit in our first-class pods with lie-flat seats. Last-minute airfare was exorbitant but of course pennies to my family.