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“Your doctor brother?”
“That’s the one.” I nod. “He’s in town for my nephew’s birthday party. He’s probably pissed that I’m not there today.”
Her mouth drops open. “You’re missing your nephew’s birthday party?”
I try not to laugh at her expression of horror. “No, that’s tomorrow. But Holden came for the weekend. I’m guessing it’s one of his rare times off.”
“Then you should go be with him.”
“I want to be with you.” I’m not going anywhere. Not today, anyway. I’m going to nap and fuck and maybe eventually the two of us will get up. “Anyway, the party’s tomorrow. I’ll see them all then.”
“That’s nice.” She smiles. “I bet they’ll be happy to see you.”
I stroke her hair. “Come with me.”
Mackenzie blinks. “What?”
“Come with me to the party. Meet my family.” It’s weird how much I want her to say yes. I want her there with me. I want her to meet my brothers and their wives. She’s becoming important to me. I don’t want to hide this thing away anymore.
“I want to.” She doesn’t look sure though. “But won’t I be intruding?”
I laugh.
“What?” she asks.
“You haven’t met my family. It’s one big intrusion.” It takes me five minutes, but I manage to explain how Myles, Liam, Holden, and I have one mom, while Brooks and Linc have another, and then we have a little sister from my dad’s latest wife.
“And your mom and your dad’s other wives are best friends?” she asks. “Seriously?”
“Seriously. They go on vacations together. They celebrate holidays as one big happy family. It’s weird.”
“But also nice. You don’t have to choose between them.” She draws a circle with her finger on my bare chest. “All my friends with divorced parents hated the holidays. Being shuttled from one house to another.”
I look at her. “How about you? Do you hate holidays?”
“I love them. They were the one time of year that we were all in the same place.”
“You said that in the past tense,” I point out.
“Well, for the last three years, I’ve kind of worked through the holidays. We had this huge project and most of the other consultants have families. I volunteered to cover things while they traveled home.” She doesn’t look unhappy about it. “Brad and Johnny barely get time off during the season, anyway. And Mom and Dad and Isabella have been busy with their Holiday specials for the last couple of years.”
I keep forgetting her parents and her sister are on TV. I so rarely watch it. I make a note to check it out. I’m curious about them all.
“Well you get to spend one day with my family,” I tell her. “That should put you off holidays for good.”
She laughs. “I’m looking forward to it.”
The weird thing is she sounds like she means it. The even weirder thing is that I’m looking forward to it as well.
“What do you want to do about my family?” I ask her.
She blinks. “What do you mean?”
“You want to pretend we’re just friends?” I don’t like it, but I’ll do it for her if I have to.
“No.” She shakes her head. “Let’s do this right.” She looks at me. “Whatever this is.”
“You know what it is,” I say, tracing her jaw with my fingertip.
