Chapter 28
TWENTY-EIGHT
WORTH EVERYTHING
I was a girl on the go.
It was me.
It was how I rolled.
There was a time to rest.
But if there was a time to do anything else, I was in that time.
That said, by the time Knox and I walked through the jungle in front of my parents’ house, I was dragging.
I could tell Knox was too.
Necessarily, due to him still healing (okay, this was somewhat due to me nagging, and three texts to him from Marjorie reminding him of this fact), he could not do all the hefting the other dudes could do in picking up and then returning all the stuff that was rented for the wedding. But he got stuck in how he could.
We had a ton of people to help, but it was still a ton of work.
It had also been a wedding. So, obviously, I’d danced myself dizzy and imbibed a drink (or many).
Therefore, I was glad my mom and dad were how my mom and dad were. They’d sense we were exhausted, feed us and set us on our way.
I shouted, “We’re here!” when we got inside.
Knox dropped Jacques into the melee of dogs that came to greet us and walked me in, holding my hand.
No delay in making our statement, then.
I smirked with satisfaction, but only inwardly.
The thing was, when we got to the living room, my parents weren’t around but Dream and Byron were cuddling on the couch.
We stopped and at least I stared at them (since I was staring at them, I didn’t know if Knox was…I asked later, he was).
“Your dad and I are in the kitchen! Be right out!” Mom shouted.
“Ohmigod, you’re coming out too,” I whispered.
“It isn’t to steal your thunder or anything,” Dream said warily.
I ignored her. “Have they seen you? Have you already come out?”
“Mom nearly started crying,” Dream said.
I smiled huge at her.
She examined me like she’d never seen me.
“I hate your mom disappeared in Mexico, bro,” Byron said to Knox. “But, don’t think I’m a dick, I’m glad to know that’s what happened and I’m not losing my touch.”
Bro?
“I get it. No problems, man,” Knox replied.
“You get a hug for your help in a minute,” I told Byron instead of giving him shit for calling Knox “bro.”
I did this before I skirted the coffee table (and the dogs that followed me and Knox in) and pulled Dream out of the couch.
I then dragged her to the foyer (and some of the dogs came with).
“Luna, what on earth?” she asked.
“Have you done it?” I whispered.
She rolled her eyes.
“Well?” I pushed.
“He hasn’t left my house since Wednesday.”
“Ohmigod,” I panted.
“So yes, we’ve done it. And he has strong fingers due to all that keyboard action.”
I scrunched my nose.
“He also has a very attractive penis,” she declared.
I made a gagging noise.
She studied me.
Then she gave me a quick, awkward hug.
“Oh, my beauties!” Mom, who’d snuck up on us, cried right before she horned in on our hug that had ended, but she made it begin again.
She bounced away, declaring, “I knew you two were sorting your differences. A mother’s intuition. I see it’s worked!” she said gleefully.
“It’s not that big of a deal, Mom,” Dream said, but even she, who could be dry to the point she was crackling about anything, sounded like she was lying.
“We’ll talk when Feather and Harmony are in a tiff,” Mom retorted.
She had her there.
Mom didn’t beleaguer it.
She said, “I knew I should have bought that fancy gluten-free, vegan cake from that bakery. I had a feeling. Now that feeling has come true because it seems we have a lot to celebrate!”
After delivering her exclamation, Mom walked back into the living room.
Dream and I exchanged a look before we followed her.
“You’re looking so much better, little lumpkin,” Mom said, patting Knox’s shoulder as she walked by him where he sat in an armchair. She stopped and gave him an overall perusal before declaring, “I’m so happy to see it. I’ve been worried.”
Knox’s eyes came to me.
I understood the look in them.
His mom worried in an unhealthy way that included recruiting his sister to try to get him to become part of her partner’s drug cartel and ambushing his woman to ascertain she had his back.
My mom patted his arm.
And called him “little lumpkin.”
I’d give him shit about “little lumpkin” later.
In the now, I went to him, sat on the arm of his chair and grabbed his hand.
“Uh, we have an announcement,” I said. “Knox and I, I mean.”
Mom was frozen, staring at us as we sat, holding hands.
Dad, his fingers around the necks of two beer bottles, entered the room, and he froze too.
“Knox and I got together some time ago,” I shared. “We broke up. When he got shot, we realized what was really going on and we got back together. As soon as Harlow can organize my closet, he’s moving in.”
Mom turned to Dad. “I should totally have bought that cake.”
Dad handed Mom the beers and said, “The bakery is five minutes away. I’ll go get it.”
“You don’t have to get a cake, Dad,” I said.
Dad looked at Byron. He looked at Knox. He looked at Dream. He looked at me.
Then he walked out of the room.
“It’s a dad thing,” Mom explained, moving to Knox to give him his beer. “They worry their daughters will get hooked up with jerks. You two didn’t get hooked up with jerks.”
Oh, how cute.
Byron was blushing.
“Don’t read anything into this,” Dream warned Byron. Then, lower, “You know we’re connecting.” After that, she said to Mom, “Remember, Mom, we’re very new.”
Mom shrugged and sank into the other chair. “When you know, you know.”
That was the truth.
I checked Byron out to see how he was handling this.
He’d gotten over the “not a jerk” compliment (sadly, a low bar not very many men cleared, so I got Dad’s worry) and was sucking back some beer, though he was doing it looking mighty pleased with himself.
Maybe Dream had strong fingers (or the equivalent) too.
Ulk.
No.
Nope.
Not gonna go there.
That was when I checked Byron out because I’d never seen him drink anything but dirty chais.
“How was the wedding?” Mom asked.
“It was…um…” I looked down at Knox to see him smiling even as he put the bottle to his lips and drew back a pull.
Welp, I guessed that was that on the “I’ve met the love of my life” discussion.
Sure, I didn’t share he was the love of my life (I’d tell Mom later, when we were getting pedicures, so she couldn’t dance around and get too loud—for someone who was all about bucking the establishment, she was pretty traditional when it came to wanting her daughters to settle down with good people (FYI, I blamed Dad being so awesome for that)).
But Mom and Dad knew there’d be no meet the parents if this wasn’t real.
Though, apparently, this was a big enough deal for cake, but not to make an otherwise big deal of it.
That was fine by me. We’d had enough drama to last us for a while.
“The wedding was really beautiful, Mom,” I finally answered. “Jacob and Alexis were really happy.”
“That’s just so lovely,” Mom enthused, then added, “They’re good kids.”
I tried to wrap my mind around beefy Jacob and delicate Alexis, who were so in their own world, they’d done a variety of soft porn performances in the pool at the Oasis, being “kids.”
My mind sluggishly attempted to process this, spluttered and failed, and that wasn’t due to my exhaustion.
“I’m getting wine,” Dream declared. “Luna, do you want wine?”
“If I drink wine, I’ll pass out,” I told her and turned to Mom. “The wedding was awesome. Beautiful. But I’m shattered.”
“Oh,” Mom replied. “Okay, we’ll feed you, have cake and then you two need to go home and rest.”
Told you.
Dream got some wine and brought me a sparkling water.
I made Byron get up so I could give him a hug for all his work on the Cynthia Chambers thing.
I also told him a whole day’s worth of dirty chais were on me.
Byron told me that wasn’t necessary. I didn’t get into it, because I had the power to Dimitri that sitch and not present him with a bill.
After that, we all shot the shit. Dad came back with the cake. It was ridiculously fancy. We sat down to lunch. Byron shocked me again by getting into a convo with Dad and Knox about the Suns, and it sounded like he knew what he was talking about.
So maybe that “bro” was an authentic “bro.”
Throughout this, I reveled in the fact that this didn’t suck. My guy fit. Dream’s guy fit. Dream and I were getting along.
And Knox had another extension of family.
Watching him, I saw he was not only comfortable in it, he not only fit, it fed him.
I couldn’t say he blossomed under Mom and Dad’s attention, but there was a set to his shoulders that told tales. Happy ones.
So yeah.
Doing lots of reveling.
After cake, which was also ridiculously delicious, Dad requested, “Men, Louise and I need to talk to our girls quickly. Do you mind?”
They didn’t mind because Dream and I both got pecks before Byron and Knox (and about half of the dogs) went to the living room (in case you were wondering, Jacques went with Knox—see? totally defecting, for that, I blamed the human food thing).
“Okay, your mother and I have discussed it,” Dad started.
“But it appears some things have changed. So now you both need to decide whether you want to leave your money with us, where I’ll manage it and do my best to make it grow, and then, when they happen, we’ll see to your weddings.
Or if you want us to give it to you, so you can do with it what you wish, we’ll just give it to you.
” He turned to Dream. “And we won’t be deducting anything from yours, sweetheart.
I was out of line suggesting we would. It’s our job to look after you when you need it.
Your mom explained that to me, and I apologize I lost sight of it. ”
Right.
It was weird I was watching Dream sit there, looking like she was fighting tears.
But it was also cool.
Her gaze came to me.
“I don’t want you to pay back what you owe me either,” I said. “Because if I needed it, you’d do the same for me.”
Her eyes got squinty.
“Stop being awesome,” she groused.
“You stop being awesome,” I returned.
“You’re so annoying,” she said.