Page 97 of Juniper Hill (The Edens 2)

Poke around. I hadn’t poked around at my parents’ house and it was the house I’d grown up in.

“Oh, good. You’re finally here,” Anne said as we walked into the kitchen, drying her hands on a towel before pulling me into a hug.

The moment she let me go, Lyla was there to take her place. Then Eloise joined us from the living room with her famous smile, the one that never failed to make me smile in return. Mateo wandered into the room with an older man I’d learned was Harrison’s brother, Briggs. And finally Winslow and Griffin came from a hallway, having just put Hudson down for a nap.

“What are you working on?” Knox asked Anne, walking over to the stove and pulling a lid off a pot.

“Don’t touch that.” She swatted his hand. “I’m experimenting with the cranberry sauce.”

“Want some help?”

“You’ve been cooking all day.” She shooed him away until he stood beside me on the other side of the island. “Lyla and I are doing dinner.”

“Can I help?” I asked. “I’m not much of a cook, but Knox has been teaching me a few things.”

Our cooking lessons were infrequent and infused with foreplay. Whenever I’d stand at the counter, Knox would come up behind me to toy with my hair or drag his palms over my ass. But I’d learned how to make more than boxed macaroni and cheese.

Anne glanced past me to where Eloise was talking to Griffin. Then she nodded to the Ziploc bag of cookies on the counter. “If those accidentally found their way to the trash can in the garage while you went to grab yourself anything from the fridge out there, that would be fine.”

“Are they really that bad?”

Anne and Lyla shared a look.

“Cookie disposal. On it.”

“Thank you,” Lyla mouthed, then went back to peeling potatoes.

The front door opened and shoes stomped on the floor. Then Talia breezed into the room in a pair of teal scrubs. “Hello! Am I the last one to get here?”

“Yep.” Knox moved to kiss her cheek but she ignored him and threw her arms around me for a hug.

The Edens had more than blue eyes and chocolate hair in common. They all knew how to give a hug that made me want to cry.

They hugged without hesitation. They didn’t stiffen like my mother. They weren’t worried about their makeup rubbing off like my sister. They weren’t averse to general human contact like my father and brother.

The Edens hugged.

And with every one, I realized just how lonely my life had been.

“How’s my little Drake?” Talia took him from Knox, kissing his cheek. She’d gushed and fawned over him at his checkup earlier this month. And when she’d declared him perfect, I’d immediately agreed. “Look how big you’re getting.”

“Don’t be a baby hog.” Harrison waltzed into the room and lifted Drake from Talia’s arms. “Come on, buddy. Let’s watch some football.”

Drake let out a string of babble and drool, loving the attention.

“I’m not a baby hog.” Talia reached for an olive from the snack tray on the counter. “Where’s Hudson?”

“Asleep.” Knox plucked up a pickle and popped it into his mouth as Griffin and Winn joined us.

“Hopefully with a nap he won’t be a terror through dinner,” Winn said. “He was exhausted.”

“Because he wakes up before dawn,” Griffin muttered, pulling out a stool. “My boy’s a morning kid.”

“Not mine.” Knox pulled out the stool beside his brother. “Mine’s a night owl.”

The entire room went still as my breath caught in my throat.

Mine. One short word, four simple letters, and if there’d been any doubt that I was in love with Knox Eden, it vanished.