“Who is she?”
He waves me off.“This is not about me.”
The sounds of muted conversation reach us.The back door slides open a moment later, and I can tell without even looking that Mom and Piper have shown up.
“What’s going on back here?”Piper asks.“Is this the beginning of a surprise party?”
“Not exactly,” I croak.
Piper flounces into the chair next to me.My mom appears behind me, squeezing my shoulders.
“How are my boys?”she asks warmly.
“I’ve been better,” I admit.
“I can tell.”She pats my chest.“You haven’t gotten the hourglass down in years.”
Leave it to Mom to notice those details.I sigh, turning the hourglass over in my hands again, watching the ashes.
“I came over because I was hoping Dad could help me figure out what to do next,” I say.“Casey moved out yesterday.She asked me if we could try for a relationship and I…nixed that idea.”
Piper gasps.“You did?”
I nod, sighing heavily.
“You two were on your way to beingmarried,” Piper goes on.“Why on earth would you let her walk away from you?”
“We weren’t—come on.Piper.You’re being dramatic.I never even said I loved her.You think I proposed to her before saying ‘I love you’?”
“Well,doyou love her?”Piper demands, her voice nearing a squeak.
I don’t even hesitate.“Yes.But I can’t give her the time and attention she deserves.And more than that…I already love her so much that the thought of losing her keeps me up at night.I don’t think I should go further than this.”
“Oh, honey.”Mom squeezes my shoulders.
Piper huffs and crosses her arms but doesn’t say anything else.
Asher is watching me with a smirk on his face.“But you brought her to game night.You don’t think you should go further, but you already went all the way.”
I dip my chin, leveling him with a look.“All right, you’ve made your point.”
“We should give Griffin a break from the pestering,” Mom declares, patting my shoulders again.“Let’s go inside and shift gears.”
“I’m going to look for the safe combination again,” Piper announces.“Now that I won’t be getting the sister-in-law of my dreams, I need to distract myself.”
“Oh my god,” I mutter.
We file inside.Mom and Piper dumped some bags when they showed up, so I help Mom put the groceries away while Piper and Asher poke around in the kitchen drawers.
“I remember writing it down and then putting it on the table,” Piper mutters.
“How many times does Mom need to have a psychic burst of inspiration before you’ll keep track of the damn numbers?”I ask as I put the bananas on the hook.
Piper levels me with a glare.“Not funny, sister-in-law ruiner.”
“Next time, put me in charge of the magic numbers, please,” I continue, secretly enjoying the back and forth.Piper is easy to rile up, and this is my job as her older brother.
“You’d have been in charge last time if you weren’t so distracted by your ‘roommate,’” Asher says with exaggerated air quotes.