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Caleb’s grin widens. “It wasn’t my fault. She did it.” He points to me, and we all laugh.
“Guilty. It’s a good name. What can I say?”
“I could use some help with the grill,” Drew’s dad says, eyeing my son. “Would you like to be my assistant?”
“Sure.” Without hesitation, Caleb joins the man and follows him out onto the deck.
“Okay, he’s adorable,” Brynna says. “And I’m not just saying that.”
“Thanks. He’s a handful sometimes, but he’s a good kid. Thank you for the invitation to dinner. You have a lovely home.”
“I’m glad you could come, and thank you.” She glances around the house and at the kitchen. “It’s been good to us. Drew, you could show her your old bedroom.”
“I don’t think she needs to see that.”
“Wait, is itintact? Like, with all of your stuff from when you were a kid? Because if so, I want to see itright now.”
“No.” Drew laughs. “No, that would make Mom a psycho. It’s just a guest room now.”
“I did save the stuff he didn’t take with him,” Brynna adds. “Because I’m sentimental like that. I never thought I would be, but he’s my baby.”
“I understand. I’ve held on to all of Caleb’s baby things, even though I know that I probably won’t have any more children. In fact, Drew told me that your daughters are both pregnant. If they need or want any of what I have, it’s all theirs.”
“That’s generous. Thank you. I’ll definitely pass that along to them. Yes, both of my daughters are going to make me a grandmother at the same time. I can’t wait. I told my Caleb about a month ago that I had baby fever, and I’ve never seen him go so pale.”
“You don’t think you’ll have more kids?” Drew asks me casually before popping a piece of green bean into his mouth.
“It’s not really in the plans right now.” I narrow my eyes on him, thinking. Doeshewant children? This is probably something we should talk about when his mother isn’t listening in. “How many cousins are there?”
“Oh, geez,” Brynna says with a sigh, leaning on the counter as she thinks it over.
“A million,” Drew says, making his mother grin. He has her smile for sure.
“Luke and Nat have four,” she begins, ticking them off on her fingers. “Isaac has two, Jules has one, Will has two, we have three, Matt has two, Mark has two, and Dom has one. So, that’s seventeen.”
“Seventeenfirst cousins?” I let out a whistle. “That’s a lot of babies.”
“It was so fun when they were little,” Brynna replies with a wistful smile. “We had so many play dates, parties, you name it. They really grew up as siblings more than cousins.”
“That’s what Drew said not long ago.” I tilt my head to the side. “And he mentioned something about a cousin compound?”
“Yes.” Brynna reaches for the salmon and begins to rub butter on it. “So, Natalie Williams, who is an honorary sister—and that’s a long story—owned a house over at Alki Beach. She’s owned it forever. I think she inherited it from her parents, but I’m not totally sure about that. Anyway, after she and Luke married, they never sold it. It just kind of made its way through the family. If someone needed a place to stay, they used the Alki house. Heck, even I stayed there with the girls when I first came to Seattle.”
“I didn’t know that,” Drew says.
“It’s true. When all of our kids started reaching college age, they’d move into the Alki house so they were on their own, but still had the safety of family. Then, a couple of years ago, the house next door went up for sale, so Will and a couple of the other siblings went in on buying it. They made a few changes, renovations and updating, and took out the fence that separated the two properties, making it one big property.”
“A compound,” I say with a smile, loving the idea. I would have loved that when I was in my early twenties.
“That’s right,” she says with a nod. “The cousins live there. I think most everyone has lived there at some point, or will.”
“Keaton never did,” Drew adds. “He was never the social type.”
“That’s right,” Brynna says, nodding in agreement. “Drew just moved out of there a few months ago when he took the job with the team.”
“I lived in the guesthouse behind the original house,” he puts in. “It was a sweet place. But I like my new condo and being close to my job. Alki would have been an awful commute every day.”
I frown. “But Lucy currently lives at the compound?”
