“So you think she’s not holding back?”

“I’m not in a relationship with her. I can tell you what my observations are. She’s reserved. She’s not going to discuss favorite sexual positions with Erin and Elise. At the same time, she understands family. She sees it the way we do. She has that with her friends. I saw it firsthand when we went to the lunch at Mary’s last month. I also saw Miles with them. They’re his family just as assuredly as we are. So of course she wants the boy to keep that and you should too.”

Adrian knew all this, but it helped to have Brody say it. Gave him some clarity.

“She tells me she’s working through the moving-in-together stuff and I believe she is. I believe she wants to and I know I do.”

“So what’s the problem? Huh? You admit she’s not the kind of woman who will be buddy-buddy with strangers right off. And yet she is working on it and she does fit in just fine. You admit she loves you and that you love her. You say she’s working through the geographical issues, which you and I both know are a bigger deal than you’re admitting. She’s good for you. You’re good for her. Miles is great for you both.”

Brody looked at him carefully as the sound of Rennie’s laughter and Elise’s voice came from the other room.

“Why can’t it be easy?”

Brody barked a laugh. “I don’t have the answer to that one. I just know that nothing worth having or doing is easy. Nothing.” He paused. “Do you trust her?”

Adrian took a moment to think, because it wasn’t an easy question to answer. But there was only one and it was utterly clear. “Yes. I do.”

“You’ve seen her several days a week for months. And you’ve gotten to know her as a mother as you’ve found your own way into being a father. It just occurred to me that you’ve gone backward with your lovely Gillian.”

Adrian paused and then laughed along with Brody as he realized the truth of it.

“For an old guy you have some big brains. Yeah, that’s it. I need to date her. Stuff that’s just the two of us. Stuff you all did when you first started out with your husbands and wives, too. Like the tavern.”

“Exactly. You know how much we love Miles. Elise and I would love to have him overnight. He and Rennie get along. We’d totally have a great time. You know Erin would love the same. God, they’d jam for hours. The point is, you have lots of options between us and I’d bet her friends too. Go on a date. Take her to dinner and a movie. Whatever. Just normal things. You both need it. To have that part of a relationship.”

The worry eased. “I was telling her that I never fought with women before. Because mainly I didn’t care for any of them enough to bother with it. But with her, with that, that—”

“That holy-hot-wow thing you and she have with the little battles of will you play? You two have chemistry, man. You cannot pretend it. It’s not something you can fake.”

Adrian nodded. “Yep, that’s it. Little zings of electricity between us. When we fight it’s never about things we totally disagree on. It’s about things we agree on but the problem is the how to get there. But it never feels dire or disrespectful. And yes, yes, it makes me hot when she loses that smooth veneer and shows me the side I know only I see. That is intimate and it blows me away.”

“That’s trust, dude. For a woman like Gillian to open up the way she does with you? Do you know how she looks at Miles?”

Adrian smiled as he pictured it. “Yes. Awesome, isn’t it? It’s how Elise looks at Rennie and Marti.”

“She opens up and all those reserves fall away and she just can’t not show how much he loves him. She looks at you like that. With that same open joy.”

She’d shown him over and over how special he was to her. But somehow hearing that just sort of set him back on his heels.

Brody snorted. “Exactly. We love Gillian for who she is. But even if she wasn’t a really cool woman, we’d love her for the way she looks at you. Dumbass. We have no problems with Gillian and how she is. She fits in just fine. You’re worried, but no one else is.”

“Pizza’s here,” Rennie called from the other room.

Adrian stood and rubbed his hands together. “Just in time. I am suddenly totally starving.”

Brody stood, shouldered his brother from the way and all was right again.

21

It had been a very long time since she’d been on a real date. She looked at herself in the mirror again. Daisy had shown up with an armful of packages full of clothes the day after Adrian had asked Gillian on that date for pool and beer with him.

A chic pair of tapered-leg pants and a black, boatneck blouse that was positively vintage. Still, the pants seemed to hug her butt just a bit more than she was sure worked.

It was Jules who was doing the pre-date Gillian-sitting that evening. “I think you look so lovely. That outfit Daisy gave you for your birthday is humina-humina hot.”

She looked back at Jules. “Do you think? It’s very . . . snug.” She ran her palms down her waist and over her thighs.

“It’s vintage. Boatneck so you can’t even see a hint of your dirty pillows. The only skin you’re seeing is arms and yours are gorgeous. You’re going to wear a sweater over it anyway. As for snug, that’s the way it’s supposed to fit. You don’t look like a sausage. If that’s your worry. You look absolutely gorgeous. Feminine. Classic. I promise.”