Lila’s smile turns uncertain.
And then Jonah says, eyes round under his glasses, “Your hair is pink.”
“Sure is,” she agrees. She gives him a big smile. “You must be Jonah. Your uncle has told me so much about you.”
He nods. “That’s right. I’m gonna have an auntie with pink hair. That is so cool.” He beams at her. “Are you a mail order bride?”
Her eyes widen.
“That’s what Uncle Tanner said,” Jonah explains. “Also, what is a mail order bride?”
I glare at Tanner as he chokes back a laugh. Walker, who was in the middle of sipping his whiskey, plunks the glass down and sends a glare of his own Tanner’s way.
“You’re a bad influence,” he growls at our younger brother.
“Lila,” I say, “This is Jonah, Walker and Sadie’s son. And that’s Sadie, my sister-in-law.”
Sadie grins at her from across the table, one baby propped on her knee, the other working on destroying a breadstick. “I can’t tell you how nice it is to have another woman at this table. With Mari and Anne here, and now you, we’re finally starting to balance the scales.”
Lila’s eyes drop to the babies and her whole face changes. “Oh my goodness,” she says, really studying the girls now, a wondering smile on her face. “They’re absolutely beautiful.”
“Do you want to hold one?” Sadie asks.
Lila’s face lights up. “Can I?”
Sadie transfers the nearest baby—Mari, I think, though honestly I still mix them up sometimes and Walker would never let me hear the end of it—into Lila’s arms.
She settles Mari against her chest and the baby immediatelygrabs a fistful of pink hair and holds on, giving her a toothless, gummy grin. Lila laughs, delighted, and lets her.
Sadie asks Lila, “Do you want kids?”
Damn. So much for softball questions. Sadie’s as blunt as my brother sometimes.
Lila looks up from Mari’s face, still smiling. Something wistful moves across her expression. “Someday,” she says softly. “Yes. Very much.”
Tanner leans back in his chair with a grin that tells me I’m not going to like what comes next. “You’re in luck,” he says. “Slade will give you as many as you want. Ain’t that right, bro?”
The table goes momentarily quiet.
Because every single person at this table, except Lila, knows I’ve said I’m never having kids. Not that I don’t like them—I love my nieces and nephew—but kids of my own? Too much risk. Too much potential for heartbreak and loss. I made my position very clear to anyone who asked. No marriage, no children.
Except now my fiancée is sitting next to me holding my baby niece, Mari’s tiny fist gripping her finger, and those set-in-stoneneversappear to be made of sand.
Key word being:appear.
Because nothing has really changed.
Lila glances at me uncertainly, obviously sensing the tension. I don’t want her thinking she’s the punchline here. This is my family giving me hell, the way they always have, the way they always will. She’s sitting at this table because I put her here, and I need her to know I’m always on her side.
I rest a hand on her knee in reassurance as I lean close to her. “He’s just giving me shit,” I explain quietly. “Nothing to do with you.”
Tanner raises his whiskey glass at me, unbothered. “I’m calling it right now. Y’all will have three boys and girl, just likeMom and Dad did.” His green eyes find mine over the rim of his glass. “These things tend to repeat themselves.”
“That,” I tell Lila, pointing to Tanner, “is my idiot brother, Tanner.”
He flashes a bright white grin. “He’s just jealous because I’m the good-looking one. Howdy, my lovely future sister-in-law.”
I point to Walker next. “That’s Walker, my asshole brother.”
