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When Summer excuses herself to use the bathroom, I’m met with twenty questions from my sisters until Mum comes to the rescue.
“Bugger off, girls. Leave your brother alone. It’s rare that he comes to visit me.”
“Fine!” Cassidy harrumphs, shooting me a look that tells me she’s far from done with her line of questioning. “Come on, Lys. Let’s check on the girls.”
Alyse narrows her eyes at me, before following Cass.
Two down, two to go. And I have the perfect bait up my sleeve.
“Cass?”
She turns back, shrugging her shoulders. “What?”
“Bella’s there with Ford if you’d—”
I’m cut off by the sudden movement of Bree and Rachel jumping to their feet, mumbling something about wanting to see Bella before speeding in the direction of the playground.
Mum chuckles beside me. “You are naughty, Caden Atticus North.”
My chest rumbles with barely restrained laughter. “Well, we all know their weakness is checking out my head of security. Even their husbands are aware, so you can’t blame me for using their flaw to my advantage…” I trail off and shrug, glancing around in search of Summer.
Mum places a quelling hand on my knee. “She’s at the window in the kitchen, helping your father clean up.”
I swivel in my seat to see just that. Dad and Summer standing side by side at the sink, laughing at some shared joke. My heart is simultaneously full yet empty at the same time.
All that missed time.
As much as I hate to even think it, I can’t help letting the questions as to her whereabouts for the past fifteen years taunt me. And as much as I want to know, there’s a part of me—currently, it’s the bigger part—that is too afraid to ask.
Too afraid of the answer.
Too afraid that she has demons bigger than mine just waiting to come into the light.
Mum squeezes my leg with the hand still resting there and brings her free hand up to shove my hair back over my forehead.
“Caden. Baby.” She exhales a heavy sigh before continuing. “To pretend that you can go back to the way things were before she left…well, baby, it’s unhealthy. Not to mention impractical.”
“I know why she left, Mum. It’s not as…cut and dry as you might think.”
She nods slowly, glancing over my shoulder and smiling at whatever Dad and Summer are doing inside the house.
“I’m so happy that she’s back. And that you’re in a good place. I just can’t stop thinking of the decade after she’d vanished, baby. You were vacant. There’s no other way to put it. You filled your time with travelling and God knows what. You weren’tyou.I just want to be surethatversion of you won’t make a comeback if she leaves again.”
Any chance of a reply is cut off when Dad’s voice bellows from behind me.
“Pizza’s here!”
* * *
I’m altogether not sure which is more full–my stomach, after all that pizza, or my heart, from seeing my heart’s desire back where she belongs.
My family welcomed Summer back into the fold with open arms; it was like she’d never left.
After being introduced to my eight nieces and discovering Alyse was due my ninth one in three months' time, Summer sat back in her seat with wide eyes. “Wow! You guys have beenbusy.”
The girls laugh good-naturedly, and Alyse speaks up. “I’m having another two at the very least!”
“Rather you than me.” Cass, mother of one and done, speaks up. “Girls are hellish. I can’t deal with Rhiannon’s mood swings.” Her eyes blow wide dramatically. “And she’s only five years old, for Christ’s sake. Her teen years will be merciless, for sure.”
