Page 142 of Carson

The door behind us opens, and the scent of pizza wafts outside. It confuses me for a second, because shouldn’t the smell be coming from …

I spin around, finding Luna standing in the doorway. “The pizza is done.” She waves big, looking over my shoulder. I turn around to see who she’s waving to. My little sister is running across the lawn, my parents just now coming around the bend. She’s a tiny bit faster than them.

Cole and I exchange another one of our looks. Carver pushes past me, heading into the cabin.

“Damn, honey, that smells divine,” he says, kissing her on the cheek as he passes.

My brother pats me on the chest before heading inside himself.

And then my little sister barrels past my legs. “Pizza time!” she cheers, raising her little arms in the air.

“Are we on time?” Mom asks.

I shake my head, because I have no fucking clue.

She just laughs along with my dad, and then they head in for pizza.

Luna leans against the doorframe. “What are you waiting for?”

“Um.” I scratch my head. “Why are we eating here?”

“Well, your parents and I talked, and we decided that we should take over pizza night. I mean, it only makes sense. I’m “the pizza girl” after all.”

I smile, remembering that day. “Not just the pizza girl. The cutest darn pizza girl I’d ever seen.”

She ignores my compliment, continuing. “Kelsie and Tank are doing Taco Tuesdays. Isn’t that fun! I love tacos. And your mom and dad are doing …” She pauses with a dramatic flail of her arms. “Get this … they’re grilling steaks on Friday nights.” A finger goes up. “And we get to stay over to watch a movie. If we want. It’s not required though. They don’t want us to plan our entire lives around it.”

“Steak?”

“Yeah, isn’t that your and Cole’s favorite?”

“Yeah, but, Jesus, Dad is sharing his steaks? Did he win the lottery or something?”

“Maybe he just wants to make you guys happy.” She thumps me on the forehead.

What the fuck is this? It’s a different sort of playfulness I’ve never seen from her before. It’s new, and I kind of like it. She’s bantering with me.

I laugh. “Is that what he told you?”

She puts her hands on her hips. Luna looks sexy as fuck. I swallow hard when she bends forward, getting in my face.

“It is,” she says with a tiny bit of sass.

“No, ma’am. He did this for Mom. He knows Cole and I can’t refuse a good steak. We also can’t refuse Kelsie and her taco night. We never refuse her anything. Well, almost anything. And we’ve always done pizza night. Always. So, the way I see it, he just gave her two more nights of guaranteed family time.”

Her eyes widen. “Oh, you’re right. He did do all of this for her.” She shakes her head. “He’s the sweetest.”

I just chuckle, because I like that she loves my parents. Especially my dad. They went through a stressful event together. One her mother predicted. I know that’s bonded them. Plus, she’s never had a chance to experience a good father. Now she does. And someday she will officially be his daughter-in-law.

It makes me happy that I can give her something to counteract the most traumatic part of her life. I’ll forever be grateful to him for that.

“So, does that mean we’re moving back home?”

“I think so.” She bites the inside of her cheek. “Yes. Yes, we are home,” she says more confidently.

“We can always go back,” I assure her.

I never want Luna to think that taking a step back, or even two, is a bad thing. It’s going to happen.