Jake had enjoyed the family dinner, as much as he could enjoy anything. His mom’s roast had been even better than his memory, the talk lively. He’d been to Matt and Dani’s wedding, but this was his first chance to see the couple together in a post-nuptial setting. In an out-of-the-loop way, he’d been amused to think of his tough-minded big brother getting snagged by a romance writer who was afraid of heights. He was surprised to find he liked her and that she wasn’t at all what he’d expected, although he couldn’t have said exactly what he’d expected a romance writer to be. She seemed to have Luke, who called her Louise, wrapped around her pinkie right next to Matt. Mom liked her, too, he could tell, feeling like an outsider.
When Dani’d announced she and Matt were expecting an addition to
