I’d been able to close myself in my room for most of it under the pretense of studying, but my mom hadn’t felt comfortable leaving him alone. I had a feeling she’d called Aunt Callie and that’s why Uncle Grease had shown up before my mom completely lost her shit. Hopefully, he’d be able to snap my dad out of the pissy mood he’d been in.
“Where are we going?” I asked, adjusting the beanie I’d thrown over my hair in our rush out the door.
“Callie’s. She’s having the girls over for lunch.”
“What girls?” I was in sweatpants and a paint-splattered hoodie of my mom’s, but I wasn’t really worried about it. I’d known all of my mom’s friends since birth, so it wasn’t as if they hadn’t seen me in my pajamas.
“Brenna, Amy, Molly, Hawk, Trix, and Rose. I’m not sure who else.”
“So pretty much everyone.”
“Yeah,” Mom said with a smile. “We usually don’t have the time, but for some reason, none of them were working today.”
“Sweet. I need to talk to Rose, anyway.”
“Getting ready to head back, huh?” Mom asked.
I nodded. My professors had been cool about me taking the week off as long as I got my assignments in, but I was pretty sure their lenience would disappear if I tried to stay longer.
I was being pulled in two opposite directions. I’d done well in New Haven. I’d found the place where I fit, and I’d become content there. But the thought of flying back across the country made me nauseous.
During the week, I’d been able to hang with my cousins and their spouses. I’d watched Charlie play basketball and had driven her to school. I’d hung with my nephews and kicked their ass on the old school Nintendo. I’d helped my mom with shit around the house and I’d been able to take some of the load off her shoulders with my dad.
If I was completely honest with myself, I felt happy for the first time in years. I don’t know if I’d just been too young when I left, or if I’d changed, but I was coming to realize that I was a homebody. I liked hanging with my family and spending time at the clubhouse. I liked knowing everyone and feeling comfortable even in my pajamas.
“Your sister’s coming home tonight,” my mom said as we pulled into Aunt Callie’s packed driveway.
“What?” I turned to look at her, my mouth hanging open.
“Yeah.” She shrugged. “She called this morning and said that she was getting in at nine tonight and asked if someone could pick her up.”
“Not it!” I practically yelled, startling her.
“Don’t be an ass,” she chided.
“I am not picking her up,” I said shaking my head. “I’m an adult now, and you can’t make me.”
“Oh, you think?”
“Mom,” I whined.
“Lucky for you, Cam said he’d go grab her.”
“Good. He can do it.”
“She’s changed, you know,” Mom said as we got out of the car. “A lot.”
“I literally haven’t talked to her in years except when she calls on Christmas morning,” I pointed out. “She hasn’t changed that much.”
“Well, it’s not like you act like you even want to talk to her,” she called over her shoulder as I followed her to the house.
“She freaking left!”
“And what exactly did you do, two and a half years ago?” she asked, raising one eyebrow. My mouth snapped shut as she swung open the front door without knocking and walked inside.
It was different, I told myself as I followed her into my aunt’s kitchen. Cecilia had taken off and hadn’t come home. I’d come home. I’d made sure to talk to Charlie and my parents and Cam at least once a week. I hadn’t cut them out of my life the way she had. I hadn’t made my parents wonder how I was doing because my phone calls were so vague that it bordered on insulting. I’d—
My thoughts all flew out the window as I saw all the women standing in the kitchen, their hands flying around as they gestured and laughed and talked. Hawk was making some sort of lewd gesture that made Molly blush and slap her, and Trix was laughing so hard that she was bent at the waist, bracing herself with one hand on the counter. Old Amy’s eyes were watering as she laughed at Molly’s reaction, and the bracelets on her arms jingled as she patted her back consolingly.
Brenna and my Aunt Callie were looking at something I couldn’t see beyond the counter. Then Brenna bent over, and when she came up, it was like the entire world stopped.
I couldn’t see or hear anything but him. I couldn’t breathe, or speak, or move.
He was tiny, but I’d already known that. I’d seen Leo holding him in the club, and he’d looked even smaller then, but he’d been asleep. When I’d seen him before, I hadn’t known how his little hands moved, patting and gripping Brenna’s t-shirt as she talked to him. I hadn’t seen how long his eyelashes were, or how they framed dark brown eyes exactly like his dad’s. I hadn’t been able to tell that his hair was long, sweeping his shoulders in soft curls, or the way he impatiently brushed it out of his eyes so that he could watch Brenna worshipfully.