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"Alright, I hear the alcohol is in here," Peyton's voice declared. "What?" she asked, looking at the bemused faces of all the women. "What were we talking about?" she finished as she took my wine out of my hands.
"Submissive men," Lea supplied.
"Who like getting spanked," Fee finished.
"Who doesn't like getting spanked?" she asked, casual as could be, not a worry in the world. You had to respect that about her. She genuinely did not give a fuck.
"She makes a good point," Fee agreed, turning back to the stove to stir whatever was in the pot.
"Scotti, your brother is yummy, but his taste in movies is absolutely abysmal. So, obviously, we're over. I apologize in advance for his broken heart."
"You know," Scotti said, watching Peyton with a look I didn't quite understand, "I totally believe that that is possible."
"So, Autumn owns a sex store and steals dogs," Helen declared, smirking. "What do you do, Peyton?"
"I scare little old ladies from behind the desk at the library. And read a lot of twisted horror porn," she admitted openly, clearly charming Helen who - as I was starting to see - was nothing like your usual mom. I guessed when you raised five loansharking sons while married to their loansharking father, that kind of went with the territory.
"Well, you guys seem like you will fit right in," Helen declared, holding out two bowls. "Now get to filling so we can eat."
With that, we did.
I had never seen so much food in my life. Endless platters left that kitchen to fill the chafing dishes that ran along the sideboards from one end of the room to another. There was turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, sweet potato fries, green bean casserole, broccoli, corn, balsamic glazed carrots, peppers, onions, and zucchini, cranberry sauce that was clearly made from scratch, and three different kinds of rolls.
They were going to have to wheelbarrow me out of the damn house.
"Coop!" Charlie snapped, getting the dog's attention from where he was whining at the kids' table. To everyone's - especially my - surprise, Coop jumped up, ran over, and laid down at the man's side, silent for the entire meal before Charlie patted his head and declared, "Alright, go ahead." And he nearly toppled two kids to dive under the table and clean up the mess the kids had made of the floor.
Over dinner, conversation had been kept light - mostly thanks to Fee, Mark, Peyton, and Rush, with everyone else simply piling onto their conversation starters, keeping everything upbeat and easy, something that had Eli relaxing in his seat beside me.
Once he finished eating, his hand went under the table to give my knee a reassuring squeeze.
"Alright," Kingston said after a couple minutes of after-dinner talk. "We got the clean-up," he declared, sending his brothers and sister a hard look that had them all moving to stand.
"King, that's not..." Helen started.
"Have some family time, Helen," he demanded, voice soft, eyes wise, as he started collecting plates.
With that, the Mallick clan, sans the Rivers clan and their women, got up and moved to the living room which was decidedly smaller than the enormous dining room, but still a good two times the size of the average living space with a long gray sectional, a few accent chairs, and a collage of pictures lining one whole wall.
Squished, I took a page out of Lea's book and sat up on the arm of the couch beside Eli as the kids came barreling in and out, making conversation a bit more of a concept than an actuality.
I had never seen thirteen children all in one space before. And while Becca was more on her way to adult than child, her playing mom to the littler ones was creating just as much noise as the four, five, and six-year-olds.
It wasn't until a good fifteen minutes later, much of the cleaning clatter in the kitchen dying down, that a three-year-old came walking in, calm, quiet, looking around.
He, well, looked like a Mallick with his short black hair and light blue eyes. But as he got closer, you could actually see an odd hint of brown flecks in his eyes as well. If I had to bet, I would put money on him being Mark and Scotti's. There was just something in those eyes that looked like the Rivers brothers (and sister).
Any conversation that had been going on halted immediately as he locked eyes on Eli, then confidently made his way over, like it was the most normal thing in the world.
He climbed up in the small space between Eli and Helen who was seated next to him, then went right ahead and sat down on his leg, watching him with those unique eyes.
"I'm Eli," he said with a firm nod, like it was the most normal thing in the world.
