“That’s nice. Are they going on a trip to celebrate?” Tori asked.
“Yes,” Brody responded with a heavy sigh. “It’s a milestone year. Apparently they’ve booked a three-week Mediterranean cruise.”
“That sounds wonderfully romantic,” she said.
Brody shook his head, unconvinced. “Not for me.”
“Agnes is Brody’s connection to the outside world,” Wade explained. “Without her, he’s helpless as a babe.”
“I am not helpless. There are just some things that I can’t do from my office. Or that are easier to have her handle. Like picking up my dry cleaning.”
Tori couldn’t imagine living in Brody’s world without contact with other people. From what Wade had told her, he had a housekeeper who worked at his home during the day while he was gone, but she always left before he got back. And he had his secretary. Aside from family visits, that was it. He lived in seclusion. “What are you going to do when she goes?”
“I don’t know,” Brody said. He put the last of his eggs in the curled-up nest of the garden hose. “I’ve been trying not to think about it. I’ve got months before I have to make a decision.”
“I’m sure you can hire a temp from a local agency to come in while she’s gone.”
Brody frowned at her. “I don’t like new people.”
“I’m new, and you like me.”
“That’s because I realized Wade was hopelessly in love and there was no getting rid of you.”
Wade came up behind Tori and wrapped his arms around her waist. She curled against him, seeking out his warmth in the chilly night air.
“You have to keep yourself open to the opportunities around you,” he said to his brother. “You never know what you might find. Great things can show up where you least expect them.”
Brody looked at the two of them and shook his head. “People in love are disgusting.”
“Disgustingly happy,” Wade countered, placing a warm kiss just under Tori’s earlobe. The touch sent a shiver down her spine that made her want to dump her basket of eggs and drag him back to the Airstream.
“Happily ever after,” she agreed.