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I nod, then slouch, letting out a breath. “Confession time. Dale, Edgar, and Orlando died first. Stella’s passing just happened to coincide with the realization that while I was waiting for my life to finally start, it had actually been upended when Diane decided to stay in Paris, and I was going to have to move back home. But even dead, Stella was a good reminder of the life I’m working toward.”
“You want a life that grows and flourishes.” He gives my foot a squeeze and pulls it onto his lap. “Not one that’s about dying on the vine.”
Okay, I’d been thinking that I wanted a life where I had enough “me time” to prioritize keeping a plant alive. But what Axel said sounded way better. “Yep. Exactly.”
Chapter 13
Axel
“When’s your family getting in tomorrow?” Nora asks as we clean up after dinner.
I made salmon with spinach, and with Otto conked out hard after an ornery afternoon, we’re both enjoying the calm while we’ve got it.
I’m thinking he might have been picking up on some of my tension, not because my family is coming here for Christmas this weekend, but because Nora is leaving to see hers. I know she’s aching to see her siblings, but the more I get out of her about her homelife growing up, the less I like her going back, even for a visit. Not like I can really fit fourteen-plus Bennetts in here. The logistics of getting them here alone would be nuts.
I’d need to hire a party bus.
I look around what most would consider a fairly spacious kitchen, currently decorated with some fairy lights Nora strung, and wonder how big of a house I’d need to accommodate her family.
“Axel?” She pokes me with a rinsed plate.
Right. I load it into the dishwasher. “Mom’s not getting in until two, but Astrid should be here around noon. Anders, whenever he decides to show up.”
He’d be earlier if Nora was going to be around, but without her, it won’t be nearly as much fun tormenting me.
“Is your mom going to be one of those grandmas who shows up with forty-six packages for Otto and wears a pin on her coat with his picture on it?”
I smirk, shaking my head.
“Not likely. Mom is the more practical sort. She’s excited to finally meet her grandson. She’ll want to cuddle him, but she’s not really a ‘baby’ person, so she won’t go round the bend. My sister will, though.”
Nora leans a hip back into the counter. “I never would have guessed with the way she’s texting me almost as much as you do, begging for pictures and videos of him.”
“Astrid’s excited. Sure you don’t want to stick around and meet them?” They already love her, and I’m strangely bummed they won’t get the chance to spend time with her in person.
“Sorry. I would, but I haven’t seen my family since I moved out in June. Next time.” She makes a face. “If they come out again before March.”
When she leaves for Paris.
Ignoring the knot in my gut, I open the fridge and pull out a beer.
“Share one?”
It’s one of those things we’ve started doing here and there, and I don’t know, there’s just something about it I like.
She gets a couple glasses from the cabinet and tilts her head, peering up at me.
“What’s on your mind?”
“You. Your dad. I know Otto is named for him, but not much else.”
I take the glasses and pour. “My dad was the best. Don’t get me wrong, my mom’s amazing. She just had her hands full splitting her attention between trying to keep us alive and her job at the university. My dad worked construction, so at the end of the day, you’d think he’d come home and collapse. But he didn’t really have an off switch. Didn’t want to miss a minute, you know?”
She smiles, and I go on.
“I can still hear him charging in the door after work, pressing a quick kiss to my mom’s cheek and then going back for one more that always made her giggle. He coached my teams when I was a kid. Never missed a game. Had a sixth sense or something about when stuff was bothering us and knew how to get us to talk.”
“Sounds like an amazing man.”
