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I thought she’d have something to say about that, but all she ended up doing was taking my face and kissing me. I picked her up, hugging her, and I got a slap on the head that made me whirl around and nearly deck one of my friends.
“Parents,” edged out of Wells’s mouth just in time for me to spot Brielle coming out on the veranda. I didn’t think either her or my god dad had issues with me seeing their daughter, but that didn’t mean they wanted it in their faces. Basically, Sloane and I were keeping what we had on the DL, but I did keep my hand in hers when Brielle poked her head out of the glass veranda.
“Dinner’s in ten minutes, so whoever is staying better be at the table in five.” She eyed all of us. She pointed. “I mean it. Your butt’s not in the seat, no food.”
She let the door close behind her, a smile on her lips, and it was rare not to see her with one these days. Hell, who wasn’t smiling since Sloane had come back?
It was especially nice to see that on Ramses and Brielle lately. They made accommodations in both their schedules to be around, around for Sloane, Bru, and Wolf. They were home every night and available each morning, weekends free and clear. It killed Wolf’s hookup social life, but who was that fucker kidding?
He’d been smiling too.
He even went right after his mom after she came to get us, hugging her. There’d been periods in the past where Wolf definitely knocked heads with his parents, but those days seemed to be long gone. He appeared to be trying to get the jump on his seat at the table, and out of nowhere, Thatcher yelled after them.
“Sure thing, Mama Bri,” he called, shocking the hell out of us all. He’d been grounded and strictly told to be home before dark. He extended his arms at us. “What? You didn’t hear your boy’s no longer grounded!”
This had Wolf rerouting back down the stairs. He picked Thatch up and yelled, “Hell, yeah,” before smacking Thatcher’s ass repeatedly. Wells joined in when he punched at the rest of Thatcher. Fucking jokers.
Even still, I joined in too, and it seemed things really were getting back to normal.
Again, it was nice.
Chapter Twenty-Five
Sloane
My brother texted all through dinner again that night. It wasn’t like it was a thing, but no one else did it.
Maybe it wasn’t a thing because he did it.
I admit I was still trying to figure out the ways of the land around here, but texting in front of people was generally rude. Especially when we were all at dinner. Ramses and Brielle had gotten us new phones, and since then, that seemed to be all he was doing.
Picking at my food next to him, I allowed it. He’d been really withdrawn lately. Not really talking to me, and when I did see him, he was doing homework in his room. Of course, when I asked about this, all he claimed was that he wanted to actually move on with the rest of his class to his senior year. I did too with mine, but honestly, we hadn’t had to do much to catch up in school. Ramses and Brielle got us tutors on top of picking up our tuition.
“What do you think about that, Sloane? Sound fun?”
The entire dining room was looking at me, and that was a lot of people. Thatcher, Wells, and Bow had stayed after my epic fail in the backyard with Ares. The motherfucker couldn’t even give me one goddamn win and was arrogant as shit. He didn’t have to run backward when he got ahead of me.
“We were wondering what you felt about a gathering to meet the other families.” Brielle, the one who’d spoken, exchanged a glance with Ramses on her other side. He had her hand, giving it a kiss before Brielle tilted her head. “Knight and Greer and Royal and December you’ve of course met, but Wells’s family would like to meet you, and LJ and his wife Billie.”
I’d heard about them all, so many people in the Legacy bubble. Bow had explained to me LJ was in the parents’ friend circle as well.
“And I know you’ve met my mom and my stepdad James, but not officially in person.” Ramses looked at Brielle, his smile widening. “Brielle’s parents would like to fly in from Jersey as well.”
Because that was where they were from. Brielle was originally from there.
I was still trying to play catch-up in this life and with this Legacy family, but before I could speak, the couple fixed a warm gaze to the person on one of my sides.
“We’d like it to be a little bit of a birthday party as well,” Ramses continued. “For Bru?”
When his name called, my brother shot his head up.
Ramses chuckled. “We heard you had a birthday right before you moved here, and it’d be nice to celebrate that.”
My brother’s lips parted, mine too. Bru looked at me. “Yeah, but that was months ago.”
“Believe me. None of these folks need any reason to gather.” Ramses laughed, Brielle too beside him. He nodded. “But it’d be nice to celebrate you in all this too if you’d let us.”
That was so fucking nice, and I looked at Bru. “That okay?”
