8. #2
“Good grief! That was high school, Tana! Get over yourself.”
“You broke her heart, and she wouldn’t speak to me for months.”
“If I recall correctly, Aunt Freya and Aunt Sin said that just proved she wasn’t really your friend in the first place,” I reminded my sister.
“Stan is nice, Rin. I really enjoy her company, and so do the other girls. Don’t fuck that up for us,” Tana pleaded.
“I promise to be on my very best behavior, and if she does agree to go out with me and things don’t work out between us, I will do everything in my power to make sure that doesn’t affect her friendship with you or anyone else in the family.”
“I guess that will have to do.”
“You’re not looking at this the right way. You’ve got bargaining power,” the woman who had been standing there watching our exchange told Tana.
“What do you mean?”
“Obviously, you and your brother aren’t strangers to a good fight, but in this case, you’ll have me and Avi to tag into the ring when you inevitably kick his ass for breaking Stan’s heart.”
“You can’t kick his ass,” Tana said sadly.
“I’m pretty sure I can.”
“No. I can’t let you hurt him. That’s my job.”
The woman burst out laughing before she said, “What a good big sister you are.”
“I know, right?” Tana said before she reached out and grabbed my hand to pull me further into the house. “Don’t chew on the furniture, and if you need to go outside, just scratch on the door and someone will let you out.”
“I should have plugged in that toaster,” I mumbled as I followed my sister into a huge room that looked more like a living room than a resort.
The ceilings were high even though I knew there was a second floor since we had just passed a staircase with intricate wrought iron railings. With all the windows at the front and back of the room, I couldn’t imagine what the view from upstairs must be like.
I looked closer and realized that there wasn’t a wall of windows at all.
I was looking out over the deck and the mountains through an open door that was almost as wide as the room itself.
Near the front of the room was a sectional couch that could probably seat half my family, and then there was a vast open space with an expansive dining table that had at least a dozen chairs separating the living area from the deck outside.
To the right was a kitchen island that was almost as big as my living room, with a stovetop, sink, and enough stools to accommodate a baseball team.
Even with all this space, the kitchen seemed warm and cozy. It somehow reminded me of Gamma’s kitchen in Rojo. There were mason jars full of various spices lined up within reaching distance and a gorgeous vase filled with wooden utensils.
I took a quick count of how many wooden spoons I saw in that vase and then smiled to myself when I realized I was again comparing this kitchen to Gamma’s.
“What are you smiling about?” Tana asked.
The other women in the room all turned to look at me as I answered, “She’s got a wooden spoon collection that can rival Gamma’s.”
My family laughed, and I looked over at Stan to find her watching us in confusion, so I explained, “Gamma’s a sweet woman who loves us but puts up with zero bullshit. She’s not afraid to swat people with a wooden spoon when necessary.”
“Usually to stop us from fighting with each other,” Natty explained.
“Hi, Stan,” I said as I studied the strikingly beautiful woman in front of me.
Her thick blond hair was pulled back into a braid that hung down her back, but a fringe of shorter hair had escaped it and framed her face.
Her gorgeous brown eyes took me in just as I was doing to her, and when I saw heat in them, I knew she liked what she saw.
When she looked back up at my face, I said, “Thank you for hosting my crazy family for dinner.”
Stan looked around before she asked, “Is this everyone that’s coming?”
“I think so,” Natty said hesitantly. “Is something wrong?”
“I thought you were going to invite a bunch of your family over, so I cooked for an army!” Stan explained. “If it’s just the fourteen of us, we’re going to have leftovers for days!”
“We just invited the ones you’ve already met,” Tana explained.
“If you can find ten more, that would be great.”
“Seriously?” Natty asked.
“She made a mountain of pasta yesterday,” the woman who had answered the door with my sister said with a chuckle.
“You made pasta?” Dilly asked. “From scratch?”
When Stan nodded, Tana groaned and put her hands over her face before she said, “She’s a carb dealer! I knew there was something wrong with her.”
Everyone laughed, and Stan said, “Yep. My plan is to get them hooked and keep them coming back.”
“So, you want us to call and invite other people to come and get a free home-cooked meal?” Charlotte asked. When Stan nodded, Charlotte raised her eyebrows and asked, “Are you sure?”
“Most definitely. I’m ready to feed the masses.”
“She doesn’t understand what she’s asking,” Dilly said as she shook her head.
“When we have a big get-together, there are at least forty people eating with us, if not more. I planned for that many because I’ve heard you talk about the size of your family, and I was eager to meet them.”
“We’ll invite more, but not all of them because there’s no way you could feed them all,” Charlotte said as she picked up her phone. “We’ll call our siblings to see if they can come. I’m sure they’ll bring some friends.”
“Good! The more the merrier,” Stan said cheerfully before she turned around and lifted the lid on a huge saucepan. “It won’t hurt for this to simmer a while longer, so we can hang out while we wait on everyone else.”
“She has no idea what she’s getting into,” Tana mumbled as she looked down at her phone. “I’ll start a group chat.”
“That’s how all the craziest ideas come into play,” Dilly reminded her.
I smiled at Stan before I said, “Get ready to be invaded.”
Stan smiled back and replied, “I’m ready.”
When she smiled at me like that, I felt like I was ready for anything.