“I damn near lost two toes to frostbite,” Shane said with a chuckle. “I wasn’t risking that again.”
“Come on, Eli, time for punishment to start,” Helen said, dropping the baby into her father’s arms and heading into the kitchen as Mark and Becca came walking back, holding hands. And damn if little Becca didn’t walk right over to her sister and apologize.
“Guess what Grandpa got you girls?” Charlie asked, making both older girls perk up. “A clubhouse. Want to come see?” he asked, taking a hand of each and leading them away.
“Get the fuck out of here,” Mark said as soon as the kids were out of earshot. “How did you get Hunt and Fee in on this charade?”
“She really does work for me,” Fee said, smiling. “And Hunter thought it would be funny to watch Helen react. Can’t you see the gears turning in there? Priceless.”
“Lea, if you can get our eagle-eyed mother to buy this shit all night,” Mark said, casually slipping a hand into his date’s back pocket, “I owe you a couple rounds at Chaz’s.”
I felt my lips tip up. “I’ll take you up on that,” I agreed.
“Come on in,” Eli called out the door, tone resigned.
We all moved inside and I found the inside of Helen and Charlie’s house matched the outside. Helen seemed to favor clean lines and crisp colors and as much floor space as was possible. There wasn’t much in the way of knickknacks, but there were beautifully framed collages on the walls of her living room, all of her sons. And the refrigerator was completely covered by the artwork of her granddaughters. The dining room itself was massive. I imagined when they bought the house, they knew that with five sons, they would be looking at a giant extended family one day and planned accordingly. The table must have been custom made because it looked solid, no leafs in it to extend it to the huge size it was. There was no tablecloth, leaving just the flawless dark wood, giving the room a more casual feel. There was no China cabinet, but a long sidebar where the extra drinks were stored so they didn’t take up table space.
Helen moved in and insisted everyone sit and get started without Charlie and the girls. “They’ll be out there an hour,” she declared, dropping off the biggest bowl of mashed potatoes I had ever seen in my life. “He was supposed to wait until after dessert so they could burn off the sugar before they went home. If you haven’t learned already,” she said, looking at me, “you can’t talk any sense into a Mallick man.”
“Oh, I know,” I said, giving Shane a look that made his lips twitch.
Then, a seemingly endless amount of bowls and platters were spread across the huge table until you could hardly see the wood underneath at all.
My stomach grumbled louder and louder with each passing second.
“Dig in,” Helen said, taking her seat.
Then… chaos.
Arms of all the Mallick brothers, save for Eli, reached out at once, grabbing spoons and tongs and filling up their plates. Fee, obviously used to running with the big boys, elbowed Ryan’s arm out of the way as they both reached for the corn at once, making Ryan laugh and Fee shoot me a wink.
Ryan and Mark’s dates were both taken aback as well, sitting and watching the movement with furrowed brows and small smiles, plates empty.
My plate, however, was not empty. This was because Shane’s big, perfectly muscular and tattooed arms weren’t reaching for food to pile on his own plate. Oh, no. They were piling food on my plate. Before I even realized what happened, there was potatoes, stuffing, corn, broccoli, chicken, green beans, and two, yes… two, dinner rolls.
“Um…” I started to object as he reached for the gravy.
He turned his head toward me, voice low. “When was the last time you had a full meal, Lea?” Yeah, well, he had a point there. “Exactly,” he said at my silence as he poured gravy over my potatoes and stuffing before turning to fill his own plate.
“No fucking way are you eating all that,” Mark said, shaking his head as I reached for my fork.
I looked up, my empty belly reminding me it had been weeks since I had a real dinner and that I had never had a home cooked meal. “Wanna bet?”
Mark’s smile was slow and sweet. “Fifty bucks,” he said with a nod.
“I’ll get in on that,” Ryan agreed, speaking for the first time since I got there.
And, well, with a hundred bucks on the line, yeah, I dug the hell in, making both sets of eyes light up.
Across from me, Eli was piling food on Mark’s date’s plate, head ducked a little, saying something that made the dark-haired ex-con blush slightly.