“Starving,” he replies.
As soon aswe get to the house, Molly rushes out to greet us, as though she didn’t see us yesterday at our wedding.
“What did you think of the barn, Lucia? Didn’t Harvey do a great job with it?” she asks as she ushers us inside and into the large kitchen where Harvey is busy finalizing dinner.
“Yes he did. I love it. It’s beyond perfect,” I agree.
Harvey smiles to himself and I walk over to him and give him a peck on the cheek. I’ve decided that I can be nice and polite to him, even if Jax struggles to.
Jax asks Molly about her flight as they both take a seat at the table.
“Can I help with anything?” I ask Harvey.
“No, you go sit yourself down,” he insists. “It’s almost ready.”
I do as he says and take a seat next to Jax, who hasn’t even acknowledged his father’s presence yet.
When Harvey has servedup his delicious looking chicken casserole and Jax has his mouth full of food, I start talking.
I hate to eat in silence. Family dinners should be about laughter and conversation. I never had that growing up, not until I was adopted by Alejandro and Alana when I was seventeen, who are both into the whole family dinner thing. So now, I always make sure Jax, Matthias and I eat dinner at the table at home in LA, and that we all talk about something.
“Can I ask where you got that beautiful rocking chair on the porch, Harvey?”
He wipes some gravy from his chin and blinks at me before glancing at Jax as though he’s waiting for permission to speak, and it makes me feel so sad for him.
“Did you restore it yourself?” I ask another question because he wouldn’t be rude enough to go on ignoring me.
“Yes,” he eventually replies.
“It was bright purple when you bought it, wasn’t it?” Molly says with a laugh. “Gaudy looking thing.”
“Well, it’s not now. It’s beautiful,” I say with a smile. “And comfy too. Jax and I fell asleep on it this afternoon.”
“No, you fell asleep, angel,” he reminds me with a grin.
“It must have taken a lot of work?” I ask before I take a bite of the casserole.
“Not really. Once I stripped the paint, I sanded it down and gave it a few coats of wood oil,” Harvey replies. “I enjoyed doing it. Gave me something useful to do with these old hands.”
“Well, I really love it. You’ve done such a great job with the whole place, hasn’t he, Jax?” I nudge his leg with mine.
“Yeah,” he admits. I mean he can’t exactly deny it. “Did you restore those oak beams too?”
“Yup. But that was much harder work. I had to ask the contractor to help me out with those,” he admits, but there is a light in his eyes that wasn’t there a few seconds before. It’s painfully clear that Jax’s approval means everything to him.
Jax nods his head as he goes on eating his meal.
“What are you going to use that spare room for then?” Molly asks with a wicked twinkle in her eye.
“A nursery,” Jax replies without missing a beat, making me turn and scowl at him.
“A nursery?” Molly shrieks. “Oh, I’m going to get me some more babies around this place.” She clasps her hands together in delight.
“Maybe not for a while yet though,” I say before she gets too carried away.
Jax laughs softly and I roll my eyes at how sure he is of himself.
“You know what would look good in there?” he says to his aunt. “One of those old-fashioned cribs that rock.”