The Usual Family Mayhem

Chapter Fifty

Celia cleared her throat. “Oh, dear.”

Gram shook her head. “A dramatic exit. Who knew that boy had it in him?”

“He’s always been very sweet. My sister lit up when he was born.”

Oh, no. They were not going to cute their way out of this. These two and their CIA-level secret-keeping skills. “You two knew. You knew how he felt and stayed quiet.”

Gram managed to groan and pfft at the same time. “It was obvious.”

I just . . . but they . . . The words piled up in my brain. I needed to shake them loose and concentrate but everything kept spinning. “Not to me.”

“He smiles when you walk into a room. He talks about you all the time,”

Gram said.

“He rushes over here when he knows you’re in town. He checked up on you and your job from afar. He lets himself get pulled around on your . . . adventures.”

Celia gathered plates and a tray of muffins while she talked. She placed the booty in the middle of the table then sat down. “He paid more attention to you at Christmas than he ever had to Anna.”

“He also acted annoyed with me most of the time.”

Where did that fit into their analysis?

“And the sex.”

Gram reached for a muffin. “I’m assuming it was good. You want it to be good. Don’t pretend it doesn’t matter.”

Gram needed to find a different topic.

Celia passed out napkins as if the conversation hadn’t tipped into OMG territory. “You both acted like you enjoyed yourselves. I mean, it happened more than once. The sex. It did, didn’t it?”

They were killing me. “Can we focus on the love part?”

“Yes.”

Gram put her muffin down and pushed the plate away. “Do you love him?”

The crescendo of noise in my head clicked off. All the activity and chaos in the room stopped, leaving that one question hanging in the air.

“We know the answer but do you?”

Celia asked.

There wasn’t any reason to deny it. These two knew everything anyway. “Yes. I had a crush on him as a teen. I’ve always thought he was kind of adorable even if he was a bit of a fuddy-duddy.”

Gram rolled her eyes. “What are your feelings for him now? As a grown woman.”

“I’ve been in love with him for years.”

The words rushed out because there was no need to hold them back. “It’s like this steady hum in the back of my head. He was dating other people here while I was in DC. I hated his social calendar, so I pretended I didn’t love him, or convinced myself I didn’t.”

Celia looked at Gram. “You were right.”

These two. “Stop doing that.”

“Honey, you love him, which is amazing.”

Celia reached out and took my hand. “He’s good for you. You’re good for him. Your differences complement each other. You lighten him. He grounds you. And the spark when you’re together is undeniable.”

It was? “Funny how no one bothered to tell me.”

Gram sat back in her chair. She looked like the queen ruling over her kingdom. “You have a decision to make.”

More adulting. I’d proven I was so good at adulting.

“I don’t live here.”

I threw the excuse out, heard it, and realized how lame it was. “But if I did and, let’s say, worked here—not baking, though—”

Celia was the one who snorted this time. “Heavens, no.”

“Absolutely not,”

Gram said.

Rude. “Okay, you made your point. Baking is not my strength. I’m much better at eating.”

But the idea of coming home, being here, trying to build a life the way I wanted and with the person I wanted, suddenly didn’t sound so scary. “Let’s be realistic about one thing. If the relationship doesn’t work out—”

“What if it does? What if it’s better than you dreamed? Do you want to throw away your chance?”

Gram asked.

Celia squeezed my hand. “You deserve to be happy. You deserve to have time to find your way and figure out what you want. If you really do love Jackson, why wouldn’t you want to learn those things with him?”

I couldn’t imagine doing them with anyone else. Now that we’d kissed and touched and lay in bed talking, the thought of dating some DC guy repulsed me.

“You two are pretty wise.”

“We’re brilliant and we love you.”

Gram picked up her muffin again. “Now go fix this.”