Page 32 of Sweet Oblivion

“Two years, I think. My niece Rosie is eight going on twenty-eight. She’s going to love Tori. She has a laundry list of allergies. Bad ones. We’ll have to go over them before she comes over.” He stuffs a piece of chicken parm in his mouth and groans. Legit groans.

Noted. This man likes food, and his face lights up when he talks about his niece.

Well, that’s endearing.

“How about you? Do you have any family you talk to? Besides Ashton?”

“Not anymore,” I tell him, surprised he didn’t already know that, and immediately feel uncomfortable talking about my own family, even though I’m the one who started with questions about his. “What’s your favorite food?”

Ryker stares at me, like he knows I just pivoted on purpose but he’s going to let me get away with it this time. He holds up his fork. “We’re eating it. Well, kind of. Nonna’s is my uncle’s restaurant. Most of the recipes are my great-grandmother’s.” I watch his throat work as he takes another bite of food. “Her soup cures all ailments. All her food is the best. But the restaurant is a close second when you can’t get it straight from the source.”

“Wow. You’re so lucky to still have her.” I mean, Ryker’s in his late twenties. I can only imagine how old his great-grandmother must be.

“Oh, just wait. She’s going to love you too. Although she may try to fatten you up. Her words, not mine, so don’t shoot the messenger. She’s always giving Mav’s wife a hard time about that.”

The hand holding my fork freezes as a thought paralyzes me. “Ryker... How big is your family?”

“Uh...” He looks like he’s unsure how to answer. “Family, like Sunday night dinners, or family, like Christmas dinner?”

“Both.” Why do I think however he answers, this is going to be bad?

“My immediate family is the seven of us. My parents, who you met, Nonna, my brother’s family, and me. And I guess soon, you too.” His grin falls, and I’m not sure if it’s from including me in that equation or— “Christmas dinner is probably closer to fifty people. Maybe more at this point. My mom’s side of the family is massive.”

“Did you say fifteen?” That’s not that massive. Bigger than mine ever was. But not?—

“Fif-ty,” he emphasizes, and a little piece of me dies inside. “And that’s not counting the babies.”

I’ve heard of the Kingstons. You don’t grow up as close to Philadelphia as I did and not know of them. But seriously. “Fifty?”

“They’re great though. And you already know Lexie and Dillan. Lex is married to one cousin, and Dillan is engaged to another. So...” He breaks off a piece of garlic bread and pops it in his mouth. “They won’t all be strangers. And we’re rarely all together these days. Everybody is busy with their own things.”

When I don’t say anything, he sits back in his chair and watches me, contemplating. “You change your mind yet?”

I slowly shake my head, wondering how I’m going to navigate this world.

“You’re looking a little pale, Lane.”

“It’s a lot to take in.” Understatement of the day.

Ryker twirls a strand of pasta around a fork, and my eyes catch on his split knuckles.

“How bout we ask each other one question a day. It might not be as overwhelming that way.”

“I think that’s a good idea.” What I don’t add is because I. Am. Done. It’s all too much. This day. The way my body hurts. The headache that won’t stop. The fact that there’s a man in my space, even if it’s one I told to stay here. It’s just too much. “You want to watch TV?”

“Yeah, Lane.” He swallows like he knows I’m deflecting. Or maybe just shutting down. “Let’s watch TV.”

The bells over the doors jingle a few minutes after ten the next morning, and I look up from behind the register of Love in Bloom. Mondays are always slow, and I’m typically alone for the majority of the day, with my boss, Genevieve, popping in to check on everything and getting us set up for the week. But it’s too early for those bells to be her.

I’m not at all surprised when Ashton, Dillan, Kaleigh, and Lexie walk in with coffees in hand. Well, coffees for them and tea for me. Ashton’s might be decaf, but it’s still coffee. I learned quickly that my sister is a coffee snob. Her body might be made up of more of it than water.

Tori pops up from her bed in the corner of the room and makes her way over to Lexie, who bends down to give my girl all the loving and a cookie she makes specially for Tori. It helps to have friends who are Michelin-trained pastry chefs. Lexie works at the bakery and coffee shop at the other end of Main Street. Dillan and Kaleigh are at Dillan’s book shop, Hopeless Romantics, and my sister teaches baby ballerinas at the ballet studio on the corner.

They started popping in for coffee a few times a week as soon as I got this job. Ashton warned me it would happen and to just accept it because these ladies are amazing at forcing their friendship on you. She wasn’t wrong.

They don’t really take no for an answer. But I kind of appreciate it. Just a little. The rest of me still wants to pull away, hard and fast. But I keep trying to remind that girl this is normal. This is healthy. This is what I’m supposed to be doing.

If I keep saying it, maybe one day I’ll believe it.