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“She’ll turn around. You know she always does,” Gwenn said from beside them.
The doorbell rang, and Joan opened the door for Kera, Caitlin and Fianna. Since Cait had both sisters living with her at her apartment, they’d carpooled. If it hadn’t been such a sad day for Cait, he would have laughed at her for entering the house with her sunglasses on, and her hair sticking out to all sides.
“Finally. Can we eat now?” Gwenn threw her controller on the couch and stood.
“Phsst, you know you don’t need to worry someone is going to steal your bowl of porridge if you don’t scarf it down immediately?” Fianna said.
“I was in the military, Fi. Not in prison, Geez.” Gwenn rolled her eyes as she took a seat at the table.
“Just checking,” Fi said as she winked at Bree.
He sat down at the dinner table and held Bree’s hand under the table, on top of her thigh.
Being the only guy at this flowery Christmas table wasn’t something he’d recommend to any of his brothers or friends. What a bunch of cackling, loud talking chicks. And he was being nice, because he loved them.
Seeing Bree surrounded by her sisters made him smile, though. Their babies were going to be engulfed by love. True, Joan still had to warm up to the fact she was going to be a grandma.
He was glad he could convince Bree to tell their families about the twins tomorrow.
Both families will be at his dad’s house tomorrow, supposedly for a gender reveal. Bree and him don’t want to find out the baby's gender, but they would surprise their families by revealing they were having twins. Bree had joked that it gave everyone time to amend the bets in the Baby Pool.
He also had an entirely different surprise planned, especially for Bree. He smiled as he looked over his shoulder to his love. She had no clue.
He peered across the table and studied Joan, talking with Fianna about her duties at the farm. As if she’d felt his eyes on him, she shot him a look that could make the best of man piss his pants.
After contemplating the facts that turned up today with the picture he’d got from Jessie, he now also had inside information on Joan’s history. It made him see why Joan was so adamant to teach her girls to never rely on any man.
Declan nudged Cait’s knee with his. After the day they’d had, he was glad to still be able to sit next to her. Things could have been a lot worse.
But he understood Cait didn’t see it that way. She’d shuffled through the door tonight smelling like Lucky at a Friday night. Every loud laugh made Cait cringe like her head would explode.
Cait looked up from her stacked white and ruby red plates, topped with half eaten entrees. She took the matching napkin from the linen table runner and wiped her mouth.
“I’m so happy for you both, Dec. You know I kept rooting for you two.”
“Thanks, Cait.”
“There’s one upside to all this, you know… When we’re no longer partnered up, I don’t have to listen to you calling me ‘Ryan’ all the time.”
He knew what she was trying to do, and he gave in to her need to make light of the situation. He nudged her shoulder with his and said, “Damn. Well, maybe if it’s a boy, we’re naming him Ryan. That way I can still yell at one Ryan to move it along…”
“You wouldn’t! Pfff. Ryan Ryan. That’s awful.”
He laughed. “No child of mine is having another surname than Mills, Cait. Get your facts straight.”
“I always wondered why my father had a different surname…” Cait said as she mindlessly whirled the water around in her glass.
The conversations at the table all stopped at Cait’s words.
“We’re not doing this today. It’s Christmas,” Joan said in a final tone. She picked up her plate and made a show out of picking up Fianna’s plate, sitting next to her.
“Hey! I was still eating that!”
“Ah, hush child. Your horse will thank me for this.”
Fianna rolled her eyes. “Whatever.”
Joan walked behind Fianna’s chair and reached out to take Gwenn’s plate, but Gwenn snatched it from the table and fully extended her arm in the other direction, out of her mother’s reach.
