Page 110 of That Rush

Dad appears behind Mom with a dish towel over one shoulder. “You’ll be pleased to know I personally counted everyone in the house. Ten people plus one toddler. No cousins.”

Axel looks around the doorway. “We hid the cousins in the basement.”

“Ignore your uncle,” I tell Josie.

“Which one?” Paige asks.

Dad grins. “Aiden made me swear no one else would wander in.”

“He threatened to confiscate my phone,” Mom adds.

“I said I’d screen your calls,” I say.

Paige looks up at me. “Should I be worried that I find this level of enforcement reassuring?”

“No.” My thumb moves once against her back. “I promised you ten people plus a toddler.”

Josie lifts the book she has protected all evening and rushes into the living room.

She holds the book up. “Everybody look. Paige picked this one for me because she knows exactly which stories I like.”

Poppy lifts her head from the rug the instant Josie makes her announcement.

“Which book?”

Josie holds it out. “The princess one with the bunnies.”

“I told Uncle Aiden that one was good before he even met Paige.”

Paige looks at me. “You came with references?”

“I conducted extensive research.”

“You asked two children and still required professional assistance.”

Josie drops beside Poppy, and they open the book between them. Poppy points out her favorite illustration, and Josie leans in to warn her, “But the cute bunnies eat everything.”

“I understand that struggle,” Axel says. “Poppy used to hide snacks under her bed.”

“I was saving them,” Poppy says.

“For winter?” Sadie asks.

Poppy considers it. “Maybe.”

Paige laughs, and the caution she carried through the door begins to dissolve.

Dinner is loud, but when I glance at her, Paige isn’t flinching from the chaos. Mom seats us around the dining table before anyone can suggest adding another leaf, then assigns Dad to the far end with Silas because he claims he has superior toddler negotiation skills.

Silas disproves that by throwing his spoon at him.

Dad catches it against his chest. “He respects me.”

“He’s testing your reflexes,” Scotty says.

“Same thing.”

Adrienne wipes Silas’s hand while Scotty retrieves the cup he shoved to the floor. Axel passes Poppy the potatoes without her asking. Sadie takes one look at the amount he served her and moves half onto his plate. Mom reaches for Josie’s empty milk glass, but I am already filling it.