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Chapter One ~ Reardon

I sighed as I watched the family of ducks waddle into the pond fros Pond I often crossed the street from my law office in the afternoon to eat lunch and enjoy soet out fro other than paperwork and my computer

Usually, the pond had a cal fro to do ork

It was one-hundred percent due to Chloe Zahn

Gorgeous, smart, independent, complicated, Chloe Zahn

I’d first seen Chloe the night she hooked up with my cousin, Gabe, at his first Super Bowl party about fourteen years ago Neither of us saw her again until last summer, when she came to Gabe’s summer camp to tell him that the boy who’d just spent a week at his camp, was actually his son

If that wasn’t shocking enough, Gabe had, fortunately, or unfortunately depending how you looked at it, fallen for her sister Zoey, and Chloe’s declaration caused a whole lot of confusion and turmoil

Luckily, things had worked out between Gabe, Zoey, Chris, and Chloe, and now they were one big, but weird, happy family

Things got even s their ho quickly, so everyone would be settled and have plenty of ti up in four short weeks

Why was I in a badwas obviously going ith the soon-to-be blended family? Because I’d wanted Chloe since the second I saw her across that s, dorky law student, and she’d walked straight into the arms of my cousin

In ot away

Little did I know, all the years I’d been re what could have been, she was raising her and Gabe’s son alone, never thinking twice about me I wasn’t even a blip on her radar

Tossing the last of my corned beef on rye to the ducks, I stood tall and stretched, then turned to head back tothe way

Cherry Springs was the kind of place where everyone knew not only your name, but who you had a crush on in eleot that cut on your upper lip (Bike accident)

I loved everything about it

“How’s your momma, Reardon?”

I paused outside the door totoward me from the coffee shop on the corner

“She’s doing really good, Mrs Dingle, all ready for the Easter Parade,” I replied with an easy s here was the people, and as the only lawyer in town, I always thought it was part of my job to take the time to stay on friendly terms with everyone

It had drivenus to talk, expecting us to spend ti back to the city and hitting up the hottest new restaurants and clubs I et married and settle down here, but I’d definitely considered asking her

Thank God I came to my senses before I did

“Wonderful,” the much smaller wo over everyone, and Mrs Dingle was probably a flat five foot “I know Annabeth is over the nant, too I’randbaby so boy like you shouldn’t have a hard ti a woman to settle

doith”