Chapter 12
TWELVE
AUSTIN
After Sunday dinners at the Whittaker house, everyone just sort of lounges around the living room.
It’s common decency that a person doesn’t just eat and run, but more than that, Whittaker Ranch feels like home.
June Whittaker has a way of taking in strays—Me, Theo and Callie, Tyler.
She could start a non-profit, probably. Families for the Family-less.
She looks pleased as punch as she sits in her rocking chair, surveying the living room with a smile on her sweet face. The only one missing is Colt, but Bailey’s upstairs on FaceTime with him.
Jameson snoozes on the couch, his cowboy hat covering his face and hands folded on his chest. He can’t help but go straight to sleep after eating, I swear.
If anyone calls him out on it, he’ll claim he’s not asleep, but why else would he have gotten his hat off the hook on the wall just to cover his face with it?
It definitely wasn’t because he liked the smell of his own sweat.
Maddox is sitting on a dining chair he dragged into the living room, socked feet propped up on the coffee table. His eyes linger on me too often for me to ignore, considering how just the sound of his voice saying the word pussy earlier had made mine perk up like her name was being called.
I’m squished on the loveseat with Tate and Rainy—who is taking up way more than her fair share. It’d draw attention if I told her to get down, so instead, I’m trying my damndest to keep my ribs away from her wiggly, 40-pound body.
Tyler sits on the floor between Tate’s legs, leaning back against the couch and flipping his pocket knife open and closed. She’s absentmindedly coiling a piece of his hair around her index finger and scrolling on her phone with her other hand. It’s all pretty nauseating, honestly.
Theo is next to Kenny by the fireplace, looking down at her and Callie like they’re already the family I know they’ll be one day.
Callie doesn’t talk much. She talks to Theo, of course, and she talks to Mama Whittaker when she needs to, but her mouth runs a mile a minute with ‘Miss Kenny’ and they’ve only gotten closer since Kendall started working at the feed store.
Right now, though, the little girl sleeps, cheek squashed against Kendall’s chest with her tiny rosebud lips slightly parted.
I genuinely believe some women are born to be mothers. Not all women—certainly not me—but Kendall, for sure. Come September, she’ll even be a kindergarten teacher, for Christ’s sake.
“Don’t wake her,” Kendall complains, frowning at Theo, who was reaching for his daughter. Her hand cups the back of the toddler’s head.
Theo’s eyes are fond. “I’ve gotta get to bed, Ken. The truck comes tomorrow, so I’ve got an early morning.”
“I never said you couldn’t leave. She can spend the night and I’ll bring her with me tomorrow morning.”
I cringe. I like Callie well enough, but I wasn’t great with kids. Not like Kenny is, at least. I didn’t know how to talk to them, didn’t know how to play along with their made up games.
Though, if Kenny had known I planned to spend the night, she wouldn’t have offered to let Callie stay.
I’d made that excuse up on the spot to get rid of that pitiful look Maddox had in his eyes earlier.
I’d rather anyone else in this entire room find out about the bruises beneath my clothes and makeup before Maddox did.
Theo sighs like he’s being put out, but he’s still smiling at her. “Kenny, I can’t keep asking you to babysit my four-year-old.”
“You didn’t ask. I offered. I need more time with my little sunshine and you need a good night’s sleep,” she says, pushing Callie’s hair behind the ear that isn’t resting against her chest. “It’s a win-win.”
He contemplates for a few more seconds, twisting his wedding ring around his finger. His wife’s been gone for a couple years now, but he still wears it. Kenny’s right, he looks absolutely exhausted.
“Okay,” he finally says, blowing out a breath. “Thank you, Ken.”
She beams. “If you’ll leave her booster in the back seat, Maddie will buckle it in for us tomorrow morning,” she promises on Maddox’s behalf.
I snort. It’s not like he wouldn’t have done it for her anyway, but her volunteering him is funny, especially when she spends half her time complaining about how much he hovers.
“Anything specific you want her to have for breakfast, or just whatever we fix?”
Theo shakes his head, still grinning. “I trust your choices,” he says, and I roll my eyes, letting my head fall back against the couch.
This house is so full of love—and what’s worse is that most of the occupants inside of it are thoroughly unaware of how loved they are. “Just remember, if she doesn’t have—”
“Her blankie, she’ll throw a fit. And she needs a light left on. And she has to brush her teeth in the morning, even if she pitches a fit. And I can call you and wake you up if she needs to talk to you or wants to come home,” Kendall recites. “She’s spent the night before, Theodore.”
His eyes narrow at her. “That’s not my name.”
“It is,” I interject quickly on Kenny’s behalf. “Your dad told me.”
Theo’s irritated gaze slides over to me. “Since when are you buddy-buddy with my dad?” he asks suspiciously.
I roll my eyes. “I’m not buddy-buddy with him. He just mentioned it in passing when I was there the other night.”
“Why were you hanging out at the jail?” Maddox finally speaks up. Jameson lifts the hat off his face to look over at me as well, nosy.
“Noneya,” I respond. I’d been bailing my dad out again, but I worked hard to keep that information away from the gossiping ears of Cedar Creek and I wasn’t going to go blabbing now.
Either way, in the ten minutes I was there, Deputy Walker had boasted about Theodore no less than twenty times.
Maddox grumbles at my response and I know it irritates him a little extra because it’s what Bailey had said to him earlier. He gets up from the chair and kisses his mama on the cheek. “Sleeping in the barn tonight, so if you see the light on, don’t fret,” he tells her.
“It is way too cold to sleep in the barn, Maddox Clyde!”
I snicker because that’s the second time he’s been middle-named tonight, and he shoots me a glare.
“I’ll let the heifer know to hold off on having her calf til spring then,” he deadpans on his way out the door.