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I could tell he was not a fan of being in the house. None of them were. I hoped that changing their perspective on the place, letting them see it in a new light, would help them move past hating the guesthouse. It was a special place and I couldn’t help wondering if being in a place their mom had painstakingly put together could start to heal some of the anger they all seemed to hold for her. They’d been so young when she died that I doubted they’d truly gotten to know her, but you couldn’t help but learn about Maggie Hawke while existing in the guesthouse. She was everywhere.
“Go on. I’ll be right out.”
He stopped just outside of the door and grinned at me. “You’re barefoot in the kitchen and knocked up. I think there’s a joke in there somewhere.”
I fought a laugh, but seeing his smile killed my resolve. “Get out, you idiot.”
Not even ten minutes later, he was probably wishing that he’d gone out the other door. The silence stretched on as they each tried to cut their pork chops and chew them. The chewing was the worst. The meat never gave up. In that short amount of time, the water pitcher I’d put out was empty and every glass on the table was dry.
Wells coughed and made a choking sound while reaching for his own empty water glass. I watched as his eyes widened in panic and gasped. I ran into the kitchen and grabbed more water from the tap, but by the time I got back outside, he was fine.
I looked between them and narrowed my eyes at the guilty looks on their faces. I was confused about what was going on until I looked down at their plates and saw that they were empty. My mouth fell open and I planted my hands on my hips.
“I know y’all didn’t have Wells pretend to choke so you could throw my food away.” I moved around the patio looking for their uneaten scraps. “I’m going to find this food and shove it down your throats.”
I must’ve gotten close because Boone’s arms wrapped around me and lifted me off my feet. I wiggled uselessly and slapped at his arms. “Y’all are jerks! I can’t believe you made me think I’d killed Wells. I should kick your butts.”
He settled with me on his lap and held me close. “I’m sorry, love. You’re the most beautiful woman I’ve ever seen, you’re smart, and you make Remy laugh, which isn’t easy, but your food would’ve killed us all if we ate it.”
I crossed my arms over my chest and pouted. “I was nervous. It’s not my fault.”
“Why were you nervous, sweetheart?” Remy pushed his plate away from himself and shuddered. “Was it to eat the food?”
“Not funny, Remy.” I relaxed into Boone’s embrace and sighed. “I know y’all don’t like being here, but you were willing to come anyway. I wanted it to be perfect. I thought if I could make it better, maybe y’all would consider staying here sometime. The big house scares me and this house depresses y’all. Should we just put a bed in the maze?”
Wells smiled softly at me. “You want to have sleepovers?”
I knew I was blushing, but I did want sleepovers. Having to leave them and sleep alone at night when all I wanted was to cuddle sucked. There was no other way to put it. It sucked. “I do.”
Boone pressed a kiss to my neck. “Then we’ll do sleepovers.”
Grinning back at him, I wiggled excitedly. “Really?”
He grunted. “Careful, love.”
“Too heavy?” I tried to stand, but he held me tighter.
“Not too heavy. You’re dancing all over my dick, though, and unless you’re ready to be spread across this table, I suggest you be still.” He let out a dramatic sigh when I stopped moving around. “I know I asked for this, but I’m still sad it stopped.”
“Should we order a pizza? Since I botched dinner and y’all probably killed Carter with my cooking.” I saw the confusion on their faces and pointed to the place where I’d arranged stones leading up the side of the fence. “I call the cat Carter. He wants to be back here with me but he doesn’t like coming inside. I might’ve tried that. Twice. It didnotgo well. I thought that jumping over the fence over and over again might hurt his old man bones, so I built him a little ladder. You probably just fed him my cooking, though, and he’ll probably run away when he finds out what a failure I am as a chef.”
As if I’d called him, Carter appeared at the top of the fence and froze when he saw the guys. One of his ears was half gone and he had a large scar that kept part of his head bald, but I thought the little guy was adorable. All black with bright green eyes, he would’ve been the perfect cat for a halloween party.
When Carter hissed at the guys but strutted down the stairs and over to me anyway, I reached down and scratched behind his ears. He jumped on the table like he always did to get his loving and walked over to the plate that still had my pork chop on it. He sniffed it and then gave a big, dramatic gag.
“Hey! That’s rude.” I got up from Boone’s lap and reached inside the door to get his food. “I don’t gag when I open your wet food. How did I end up surrounded by four males who have no manners?”
Remy stared at me with an unreadable expression as I dumped Carter’s food onto a plate and replaced my plate with his. He watched as Carter stooped over to eat his food at the table and then looked back up at me. “You have a cat?”
I rolled my eyes. “No.Youhave a cat. He’s a stray. Well. Hewasa stray. He hangs out back here most days now. Sophie delivers his food with mine and Jake is bringing over a cat tree that his friend is getting rid of.”
“Everyone knows about the cat?” Remy looked at his brothers. “Did you two?”
Wells shook his head. “Not a clue.”
Boone stared at the cat and tilted his head to study it. “You have an entire life back here, don’t you? All those weeks you hid away from us, I thought you were all alone, but you created your own family, didn’t you?”
I shrugged. “You have really great people here. My brothers aren’t here and for the first time in my life, I found myself with nothing to do during the day. I didn’t have the excuse of being overwhelmed and too busy to avoid making connections with people. I like it.”
