Chapter 23 #2
“Grey’s right,” Jack says as he and Theo join the rest of us in the kitchen. “You two—quit working. Margie, you see the back patio yet?”
“Yeah, go out to the patio,” Lucky agrees as he trots down the stairs. “See if you can draw a moose in. I still want to see a moose.”
“You’ve seen a moose,” Jack says.
“Have not.”
“You have to have seen a moose,” Decker insists.
“Nope,” Lucky repeats.
And that’s how I end up on the back patio, under a wide porch umbrella on a cushioned outdoor couch between Laney and Sabrina, with Emma in a matching chair beside us and chips and guacamole before us, and my half brothers in the loveseat and other chair rounding out the sitting area.
A massive Saint Bernard is lying on the ground behind us with a chocolate lab beside him, and Jack’s dog is resting by his feet too.
Rhys is with Zen and the husbands at the grill on the other side of the patio, their voices low and indistinct as they tackle grilling the meat while two of them now hold babies and keep an eye on the two toddlers and one preschooler playing on a very small playset just beyond the patio.
“Want all of the tea on the triplets?” Sabrina asks me.
“You spill our tea, we spill yours,” Decker says.
She dips a chip in guac and laughs. “Ooh, I’m so scared now.”
Henry runs up to her. “Mama dip?”
She pulls him into her lap and shares her chip, and soon Laney and Emma also have kids in their laps sharing food while the six of them—the triplets and the three women—tell me stories about their childhood together, with the occasional interruption from Theo at the grill anytime he’s made out to be the bad guy.
It’s easy to convince myself I belong here.
That I’m soaking up stories about family I didn’t know I had, getting caught up on their lives.
But the lie about my identity is eating at me.
Especially anytime Laney squints at me, or when Jonas shoots looks at me down the table while we’re eating the famous Hatch green chile burgers, or when I tell a lie about growing up in Iowa.
It’s honestly giving me a headache.
Even with Rhys speaking up at the other end of the table every time—every time—I have to lie or feel on display, asking questions about the retreat center or Snaggletooth Creek or about how soon ski season starts to draw attention away from me.
Finally—finally—dinner’s over, we’ve all had dessert, and the under-five crowd is uniformly melting down.
Rhys rises and stretches, then looks at me. “We should get out of their hair, Marg—”
I blink at him.
He put the hard g on the end of that.
And now everyone’s looking at him.
My face gets hot.
His is going pink.
“Margs,” he finishes.
Lucky growls. “You have a nickname?”
“I’m trying to stay neutral here, but seriously?” Jack adds.
Decker just glares at Rhys.
“Oh, grow up, all of you,” Sabrina says as she hands Henry off to Grey. “Grown-ups get to do grown-up things.”
“I love it when my friends find people who make them happy,” Emma says. “Family too, I guess.”
“Thanks, Em,” Theo says. “Appreciate being an afterthought.”
She grins at him.
And the baby in her lap makes a noise that’s followed by another noise that I don’t know well, but I can assume what just happened in that kid’s diaper.
Theo grins back at Emma. “See? That’s what happens when you make your brother feel second-rate.”
“I’ll get her, Em,” Jonas says, rising too. I’ve managed to avoid him, but he smiles at me. “If you leave before I’m back, nice to see you again. You too,” he adds to Rhys.
Rhys nods.
I murmur something that I hope sounds like nice to see you too, but my head is pounding and I want to go home.
“Won’t be saying that after next week,” Grey mutters to Theo, who gives him a death glare that makes Grey giggle.
“Stop, all of you,” Laney says. “It’s like having three extra toddlers.”
“You knew what you were marrying,” Zen replies, which has everyone else at the table laughing.
Laney rolls her eyes, then smiles at me. “Sorry for all of the inside jokes.”
“I have friends like that back home too,” I say.
It’s true, though I’m not as tight anymore with a lot of them as I used to be, and now Daphne has more inside jokes with Bea than with me.
Or so it feels sometimes.
“Don’t let these guys talk you into anything else tomorrow,” Emma says to me.
“I’m working tomorrow.”
“Ooh. Right. Getting ready for the…big event.”
I squint at her.
She shifts away to answer Bash, the almost four-year-old.
Laney’s suddenly grabbing things off the table to take inside.
Sabrina’s checking on the dogs.
Everyone except Rhys and Zen is suddenly very busy.
I lock eyes with Rhys.
What the hell is the big event?
One corner of his mouth crooks up.
He knows.
“Hope you read your contract thoroughly,” Zen mutters to me.
“C’mon, Margs,” Rhys says. “These people have kids to wrangle.”
“We don’t,” Decker says.
“Game night,” Jack says.
“At the cabin,” Lucky agrees.
“Margie has to work in the morning,” Rhys reminds them.
“What is she, fifty?” Jack says.
“Can’t stay up past eight anymore?” Lucky adds.
I rise out of my chair and reach for my plate, but Laney grabs it before I can. “I’ve got this. It was so nice to meet you. I hope the triplets are everything you ever wanted in half brothers. We kinda like them around here.”
“I can see why. Most of the time.”
Everyone around me cracks up.
Rhys loops an arm around my shoulders and steers me around toward the walkway nestled in the stone gardens that’ll take us to the front of the house and his truck.
“We’re coming for game night,” Lucky calls.
I say goodbye to Bandit and tell the triplets I’ll see them soon.
And as soon as I’m in Rhys’s truck, I slouch so deep in the seat that I almost can’t see over the dash.
Or maybe that’s my eyes closing that keeps me from seeing.
The truck shifts as Rhys climbs in too.
The console between us pops open, and then I hear a bottle rattling.
I peek one eye open.
Rhys holds out two over-the-counter painkillers. “Headache?”
“You’re really good.”
He winces. “If you want me calling you Margs for the next week.”
I swallow both pills with the water bottle he also offers me. “The nickname was a good cover.”
“I don’t usually slip.”
“I can hardly remember my own name right now.” I glance at him again. “What’s the big event next week?”
He winces again, but then he starts to grin as he puts his truck in gear. “It’s technically top secret. Need to know and all that. Not sure a housekeeper needs to know.”
“Do you have any idea how badly I’m about to kick your ass in any game we decide to play at the cabin? Headache or not?”
He settles his hand on my thigh as he steers us down the driveway. “I like your ruthless side.”
“Do you?”
“I do. No pretenses. No fear. No trying to be agreeable for agreeable’s sake. Means I know where I stand.”
“You’re standing on the edge of pissing me off for not telling me what you know.”
My head still hurts, but I’m smiling at him as I say it, and he’s actually laughing.
“What in the—oh my god. Are they hosting GrippaPeen people?” I whisper.
Because that’s suddenly the thing that makes the most sense.
Why everyone thinks it’s hilarious and Theo didn’t think they’d come and no one wants to talk about it.
He made his money doing nude videos for the site, and he’s one of their most famous success stories. The last video he posted, though, he told the world his penis was now for one woman and one woman only, and that statement made him into a complete legend.
Rhys is smiling so wide it might break his face. “Guess you’ll have to wait and see.”