Page 130 of His Wounded Heart

“I’d put one in my house,” I say.

“Yeah, well after tonight, I’m considering it. These Avery girls,” Zarek sighs. “After I get Chloe, I’m taking her to the Whispering Pines Hotel.”

As soon as he says that, I remember Renzo. Why it took me so long, I have no idea. “Sounds good, Zarek.”

“Aiden, I’m thinking you and Evie should get back to your house, get the girls out of the safe room, then arm your house like the fortress you say it is. In the meantime, I’ll have Renzo come up here for backup. I think it’s overkill, but I like to have a contingency to my contingency plan.”

“That’s why both Gray and Mason have always had good things to say about you,” Aiden says with a smile. “Evie and I will wait here until Renzo gets here.”

I give him a grim smile.

“What about Maddie and Zoe? Shouldn’t they be let out of the safe room as soon as possible?” Trenda asks.

“Hell no,” Evie answers. “I have that room setup sweet. I always check the battery on the laptop, it has plenty of movies stored. It has sugar and salty treats in a cute little basket and all the prices listed. Just kidding, it has a mini-fridge. I’ve got two recliners in there that recline all the way back for sleeping. I thought that was better than cots. Plus, I have books in there. They’re set.”

“Shit, how big is that thing?” I ask Aiden.

“Too big, but Evie insisted. She’s the one who wanted us to have a planet-killer of a house. And there she is barely five feet tall. Doesn’t make any sense to me,” he grins indulgently down at his wife.

“Asshole.”

“Aunt Evie. I get two dollars from you. And Mr. Simon, I get eleven dollars now from you.”

I look over at Trenda. “She must ace all of her math classes.”

I hang up the phone, still laughing.

“It’s not nice to laugh when Aiden is five minutes away from locking himself into the safe room,” Simon says to me.

“Your sisters are loco,” Renzo says, then goes back to reading his book.

“No wonder Drake is the way he is,” Simon says from the dining room table, “if it’s that bad when just three of you get together.”

“Hey, he didn’t have it that bad. When he left, the twins were just seven years old. He missed them as teenagers, so he has nothing to complain about.”

“How about Evie, did he suffer through her teenage years?” Simon asks me.

“Nope.” I answer. I look over at Bella sitting on the couch, missing her gerbil, and try to form my question without alerting her to what I’m asking. “How much longer do we all need to housesit for Bernie? Do you think that your trip to Nashville worked?”

He looks over at Bella as well. “Forty-eight to seventy-two hours is my guess.” He looks like he wants to say more, so he mouths the word ‘later.’

“Thanks for the info, Simon. So, what do you gentlemen want for dinner?” I ask Renzo and Simon.

“Your kind of lasagna, Mama.”

I raise my eyebrow at my daughter, and she sits back down on the sofa. She knows better than to answer when I’ve asked someone else.

Renzo looks over at Bella. “Are you telling me that your mom makes homemade lasagna, Cariña?”

“Sweet Pea, Bernie doesn’t have a pasta maker here, so I can’t do homemade pasta.”

“You actually make homemade pasta?” Simon asks. He looks at me with an impressed expression and I feel my chest swelling with pride.

I give him a big smile and nod.

“That’s too bad,” Renzo says. “Do you have store-bought noodles? That’s what my mom used to use, and I still thought that was the sh—” He stops himself before he has to owe any money to Bella. He and Simon have a bet to see who can last the longest without owing Bella money. I think it’s cute.

I go to Bernie’s cupboard to see if he has lasagna pasta shells, and he does. “Okay, lasagna it is. We still have a head of lettuce that looked good, for a Caesar salad.”