28. Austin
CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT
Austin
The sound of Evelyn’s laughter jolts me awake. I bolt upright, my feet kicking something solid at the end of the bed.
“What the fuck?” Conrad grumbles.
I pull my feet away from where he’s sprawled across the end of the bed. Yeah, we need a bigger bed.
As I move toward my bedroom door, I see that Brooks is still passed out on the opposite side of the bed from where I slept. Hadley is nowhere in sight.
I slide into a pair of my sweatpants and a shirt.
Following the sound of Evelyn’s voice, I move down the hallway toward the kitchen. When I round the corner, I’m hit with the sight of my two girls dancing around in the kitchen, making breakfast.
Evelyn is still wearing her polka-dot pajamas. Hadley is in my T-shirt from last night, as well as a pair of my sweatpants that she must have slipped on this morning.
Their hair is equally messy and haphazardly piled on top of their heads.
Neither notices me, so I just lean against the wall and watch. There’s waffle mix scattered all over the counter and the floor, but they don’t seem to care as they pour batter into the waffle maker.
Hadley has a Taylor Swift song playing on her phone, and as soon as the lid on the machine is closed, they both start dancing around again. I can tell Evelyn wants to belt out the lyrics, but she’s holding back so she doesn’t wake all of us up.
Hadley leans down, grabbing Evelyn’s hands in hers. They lean close to each other, whisper-shouting the lyrics as the song builds to the chorus. I heave in a lungful of oxygen at the feeling of warmth overtaking my heart.
Evelyn spins around with her hand still in Hadley’s. She spots me, and her eyes light up. “Daddy!” She bolts toward me and jumps into my arms.
“Morning, kiddo,” I tell her, hugging her tight.
“Good morning,” she says with her arms wrapped tightly around my neck.
I look across the room at Hadley over Evelyn’s shoulder. She gives me a small smile that I return, feeling the utter peace of having her here.
In our kitchen, first thing in the morning. In my clothes. With my daughter.
“Did she wake you up?” I ask Hadley.
She shakes her head. “No, I was already up making coffee.”
“And now we’re making waffles,” Evelyn says as I set her down. She slides back into the kitchen at Hadley’s side.
“It smells good,” I say, walking over to the coffee maker. I grab a mug from the cabinet, pouring myself a cup.
“Evelyn, can you go grab the broom so we can clean this up?” Hadley asks her. “I don’t know where it is.”
“Oh, sure. It’s in the garage. I’ll go grab it.”
As soon as Evelyn disappears out of view, I quickly pull Hadley into me.
“Good morning,” I rush out before kissing her. The door to the garage opens, and we both break away from each other.
“Morning,” she says, looking up at me with eyes filled with tenderness and just a hint of lust.
I shake my head, smirking at her as I grab my coffee from where I abandoned it on the counter. I’ve never had the urge to kidnap anyone, but if that’s what it took to keep Hadley here with us, I might just do it.
The twins appear at the entrance to the kitchen, both wearing their clothes from last night. “Good morning,” Brooks says, stretching his arms over his head with a big yawn.
Evelyn waves her hand in the air. “Yes, good morning. You’re finally here, so we can all eat,” she says dramatically, and I have to take another sip of coffee to keep from laughing.
She points at Brooks and Conrad. “You two set the table.” Her finger turns towards me. “You get all the butter and syrup and stuff.”
I can see Hadley stifling her laugh out of the corner of my eye. “Yes, ma’am, but maybe say please next time,” I tell her.
Evelyn exhales but adds in a “please” before turning back to the waffle maker.
Conrad walks in behind her, kissing the top of her head. “You’re going to give the boys a run for their money when you’re older. Aren’t you my little firecracker?”
She nods, smiling up at him. Lord help me.
“Just the way it should be,” Brooks says, grabbing plates from the cabinet.
We all settle in at the table with the mound of waffles they made. Nova makes her way over, lying below Evelyn’s chair just in case she drops any pieces of her meal.
Evelyn doesn’t even wait until we’re all sitting down before she starts piling food on her plate. For once, she seems content to eat her food without bombarding us with a normal daily allotment of words in thirty minutes.
Until she turns to Hadley and shocks me.
“Are you dating my dad?” she asks around a mouthful of waffle and raspberry. I didn’t even know she knew what dating was.
Hadley’s fork freezes in mid-air, and her eyes nervously shoot to me. My own eyes blink several times as I try to process.
I don’t want to lie to Evelyn, though. I want her to know. I nod, letting Hadley know she can say yes if she wants to.
Hadley sets her fork back down on her plate, turning her attention to Evelyn. “Would you be okay with it if I was?”
Evelyn looks at me and then back at Hadley. Her small shoulders shrug. “Yeah, you’re awesome, and Daddy smiles a lot more now.”
Well, that was easier than I thought it might be.
Hadley’s smile is warm. “You’re pretty awesome, too. I guess we’ll get to hang out a lot more now.”
Evelyn nods, swallowing another bite, then stuns us all yet again. “Are you dating Brooks and Con, too?”
All our eyes dart around the table to one another. Wow! This is a lot of big questions for so early in the morning.
Con steps in, saving us all. “How would you feel about that?”
Her head tilts to the side as she contemplates it. “Would that mean Hadley would be around even more?”
Con nods. “I guess so, yeah.”
She looks directly at Brooks. “Are you nice to her?”
His face scrunches up in disgust and confusion. “Me?” he asks, pointing at himself. “What about these two?” He points between his brother and me.
Evelyn just huffs out a breath like the thought of either of us doing anything against the rules would be outrageous. If only she knew us back in the day.
“Of course I’m nice to her.”
“Do you tease her or pull pranks on her?”
Brooks’ eyes roll up to the ceiling like he’s replaying every interaction he’s had with Hadley.
“A little bit of teasing, but no pranks… yet,” he says, wiggling his eyebrows up and down. Great.
Hadley smacks his chest.
I look over at my daughter. “Are you okay if all of us are dating Hadley, and she’s around here a lot more?”
She crawls from her chair over onto my lap. “Yeah, Dad. That makes me happy.”
Why did I think she would be hard to convince? She doesn’t have a hardened shell around her heart from harsh years, making her jaded against the world.
She’s young and loves easily, with her whole heart. The way it should be.