Kingston Beginning's (Final Kingston Series Book)

BONUS BRODY CHAPTER 2

**(Edited)**

Brody's POV

The next day I meet Nicole at the park with Addie after school. All we do is sit down on the park benches as we watch the girls on the swing sets and jungle gym.

"So how's everything with your family? I haven't spoken to Eliza in a while." Nicole asks as I nod.

"Good." I answer as it falls silent between us. She doesn't ask anything else as she looks down at her nails and then at Elaine. And I feel like an asshole for how this conversation is going.

"So the guys were in love with you. I'm thinking that if I make you yell at them they'll actually listen." I tell her as she laughs.

"That's hilarious. They probably don't see females my age much." She tells me laughing. We watch the girls, as elderly ladies come past us and smile at us sitting next to each other talking.

"Y'all's girls are so beautiful!" She tells us both as Nicole and I look at each other before nodding. People have already said Elaine and Addie look like sisters and honestly I'm used to people asking at all the school functions if they are related.

"Thanks" we say in unison before the lady walks off. "Totally not awkward that people think that." I tell Nicole as she laughs. I haven't seen her smile in a while, and I like it.

"Doesn't help we both have on wedding rings." She tells me as I look down at my hand. I can't take it off, I refuse to.

"I'll never be able to take it off. I still think about her everyday. Especially since Addie's getting more and more like her everyday." I tell her as she smiles.

"I get it. I think about him too, I just, I want to move on. I really do, but trying to do it is hard when I feel like I'm cheating on him even if he's gone." She tells me as I nod. We're in the same boat, I feel the same way.

"I feel like that too. Even if I'm not married anymore I still feel like I am. I keep waiting on her to walk through the front door of my house and tell me she was joking for five years or come back and tell me she couldn't handle being a mom so she faked her death. I've thought about it all, but I know she's gone. I held her hand when she was dead, and I watched her die giving birth and didn't do anything. I was just holding her and the next minute she was gone." I tell her.

"Me too. With him I thought it was a joke, until his body came back and I saw him lifeless in a casket. You know what really bothered me though? He only had a handful of people show up to his funeral. A handful. And he was the most amazing man, truly, I know he was the absolute love of my life. Everything about him made me so happy." She tells me as I nod.

"I knew Gem was the love of my life too. That's why doing this, even talking to you is hard for me." I tell her as she nods.

"Brody honestly, I just want a friend. I want a man to go to the grocery store with me so I don't get followed around, I want a figure in Elaine's life who doesn't leave, a man who will teach her how to be treated the way I can't, a man to walk her down the aisle when she gets married, a father figure, and I want someone at the end of the day who I can just talk to, someone who understands it. I know you do, but asking you that, it's way to much." She tells me as I sit. My mom just got done telling me weeks ago that Addie needed a female figure in her life and she loves Nicole. I can't help but think that she's the same way.

"My mom just got done telling me a few weeks ago that Addie was turning into a little boy with me. She's good at football, sitting in a dress is a hard no, but anything about grass, football, hunting, she's got it." I tell her as she nods and smiles.