Gavin was next. Then Luca slowly stood enough to pull me down into his lap. He rested his head on my shoulder, and I settled against him.
“I missed you,” he whispered before gently kissing my temple.
“I missed you too. All of you.”
“Did you have fun? Do anything naughty?” Sky asked, and I remembered the bag in my car. I knew my face was going red, so I turned away from him.
“Yes, I had a lot of fun. No, we didn’t do anything but watch movies and talk.”
“That can be dangerous,” Noah grumbled.
I reached over and shoved his leg. “Be nice.”
“What? It’s hard thinking of Gwyn and CeeCee as people you’d want to be friends with. I have to reconcile who they were with who they are now.”
“Work on it because I like them, and I have a feeling we’ll be spending more time with them.”
Luca shifted under me. “What’s that mean?”
I told them about the boarding school and what Gwyn’s dad said about the council not wanting to put together an activity for all of us to meet.
“Huh. So that is a real option.” Gavin sounded worried.
“Is that a bad thing?” I asked.
“Well, if the other option is to stay here with the risk of being attacked or getting separated, I guess I’d rather go to a school in Montana.”
“Montana?” Vince asked with a gruff voice. He cleared his throat. “What’s in Montana?”
I caught him up while he stretched and finally sat up to face us. Then, I told them what I thought about the move solving the Juliet problem.
“Ave, no,” Luca said while holding me tight. “You can’t let your dad be with that woman. Not without telling him the truth. He deserves to know.”
Gavin nodded. “If you tell him and he decides to still be with her . . . well, we’ll deal with that if it happens, but you can’t go away to school and leave him ignorant.”
“But without me there, her association with AS doesn’t matter. He’s not a member. He doesn’t have any abilities or anything to hide.”
“Ave,” Vince raised his brows when I looked at him. “He has you. He has to protect you. And your ability and what you have to hide.”
My shoulders slumped, and Luca rubbed his hand up and down my spine.
“I know you want a solution where everyone ends up happy, but I don’t think it can happen. That’s not your fault. It’s Juliet’s,” Gavin said. “Whether you live here or Montana or Australia, he’s still your dad, and she still lied to him.”
Dammit. I wanted to use this as an easy escape. I didn’t want to be the reason my dad’s heart broke, again. I wanted him to be happy and loved. He deserved that and so much more.
“He’ll be okay,” Noah said quietly, as if he could read my mind. “It’s going to hurt, but he’ll survive.”
Those words felt so ominous, as if they applied to all of us, not just my dad. I hoped that wasn’t right.
“Let’s make breakfast.” Sky jumped up and held out his hands for me. I stood with him, and we went to the kitchen.
“Pancakes?” I asked.
“Of course,” Luca called.
“And bacon!” Vince shouted.
“Please,” Noah added.