“Is that really how you feel?”
“Sometimes.” I pulled my knees up to my chest. “I know everyone’s been nice. Welcoming. But it’s weird, you know? To have this pre-made family and everyone just expects you to slot neatly into a hole that was never there in the first place. Like I’m supposed to magically know where I belong just because we share DNA.”
Jasper was quiet for a long moment. When he spoke, his voice was gentle but firm.
“You’re right. There wasn’t a hole. There wasn’t a space carved out with your name on it, waiting for you to fill it.”
The words stung, even though they confirmed what I’d been thinking.
“But that’s not how family works,” he continued. “It’s not about finding where you fit. It’s about claiming the space you want. Making room. Shifting and adjusting and changing to accommodate the people you love.”
I looked at him.
“You think the boys had assigned roles growing up? That Trace was always the responsible one, Booker was always the steady one, Xander was always the driven one, Gage was always the lost one? No. They became those things through living. Through relating to each other. Through the family unit shifting and adapting as they grew.”
“But they had years…”
“And you’ll have years too. This isn’t about you fitting into something that already exists. It’s about all of us changing to make space for you. To include you. To become a new version of family that has you in it.” He paused. “You’re not a complication, Leigh. You’re an addition. A gift. One I didn’t know I was missing until you showed up.”
My throat tightened. “I don’t know how to be a daughter to you.”
“I don’t know how to be a father to a twenty-seven-year-old woman I just met,” he said honestly. “But maybe that’s okay. Maybe we just start where we are and figure it out as we go.”
“What if I mess it up?”
“Then we’ll figure that out too.” He smiled. “Being a family isn’t about being perfect. It’s about being a unit. Supporting each other. Adjusting when things get hard. Making space for themessiness. And trust me, I’ve got enough experience for the both of us with making the mess.”
I wiped at my eyes, surprised to find tears there. “When did you get so wise?”
“Oh, I’m not wise. I’m just old and I’ve made enough mistakes to learn from them.” He hesitated, then put a hand on my shoulder. “Whatever’s got you wound up, and I suspect it’s more than just family dynamics, my advice is this: be happy. However that looks. Whatever that means. Claim the space you want, Leigh. Don’t wait for someone to give you permission. The rest of us will shift because we want to make space for you.We want you.”
Something about those words hit me square in the chest.
Claim the space you want.
I’d been waiting for permission my whole life. Permission to belong. Permission to want things. Permission to take up space without apologizing for it.
What if I just... claimed it?
What if it really was that easy?
“Thank you,” I said quietly.
“Anytime.” He stood, then paused at the door. “And Leigh? You’re not in the way. You never were. I’m soveryglad you’re here.”
After he left, I sat there for a long moment, his words echoing in my head.
Claim the space you want.
I looked at my phone again. At Dex’s contact.
I’d been so busy worrying about what everyone else would think, about keeping things secret, about not making waves that I hadn’t stopped to think about what I actually wanted.
And what I wanted was Dex.
I wanted to stop hiding. I wanted to tell the brothers. I wanted to stop pretending this was casual when it hadn’t been casual since the first night.
I wanted to claim the space I wanted in his life. In this family. In Willowbrook.
