34. I Have Feelings #3
“Just listen,” Junie says. “You can honor your parents and their love in the place where mine never succeeded. That overrides all the negative energy there because love always wins.”
I blink rapidly just to see her through the emotion of what she’s suggesting.
“I think you can do it on a scale that will still allow us to build a small high-rise on the rest of the property. Luxury condos, even if it’s only six to ten of them, will sell for a pretty penny in that location.
We can pay off the debt, and everyone can start fresh, free.
The way we always should’ve been. And if the memorial happens to sing in the direction of Mr. Fissell’s house, even better. ”
Hudson groans as she turns to her brother with a small smile that wavers. “Is—is that okay with you, Nolan? It’s your childhood home too.”
His eyes glisten. “It was never a home, Junie. I think…” He lifts his glass in toast. “I think that’s the fresh start this family deserves.”
I raise my glass, but my gaze never leaves Junie. She still has no idea how much she gives this family every day.
“Do you agree, Mr. Whittaker?” Junie whispers at my side.
“Jesus, Junie.” My emotions are on a rollercoaster.
“Watch your tone, Whittaker, or Junie will divorce you before the ink is dry on the paperwork,” Hudson chuckles.
“There won’t ever be a divorce,” I snap.
“That’s what they all say,” Fen teases.
Not funny.
In fact, I’m feeling a little rage-y about it.
Katie, who is helping Nana Mae serve side dishes, chimes in. “Ten bucks says Cole’s been carrying a ring in his pocket for at least two months.”
I drop my fork on the table.
Nobody else seems to have noticed that I’ve stopped breathing. Junie doesn’t even look at me. Fucking Katie.
“I’ll take your ten and raise you a twenty that he’s had it for four months,” Fen says.
No one is getting out of this room alive.
“Fifty says he’s had it six months or more.” Nolan smirks.
Et tu, Brute?
Fucking traitors, all of them.
“That,” Junie says mildly, “Is the kind of thing that gets people uninvited from birthday dinners, Katherine.”
“Doesn’t make it less true.” Katie shrugs. This is why they’re best friends. They don’t allow each other to get away with anything.
“Junie,” I say, ignoring the way everyone leans in to listen. “Thank you. I love your idea and if it’s truly what you want, I—well, it means the world to me.”
She smiles sweetly. “I wish I could have known your parents, Cole.”
“They would have loved you dear,” Nana Mae says. “Katie, pass the potatoes and move on. I can only handle so many tears before my heart gives out.”
“What the hell, Nana Mae?” Nolan mutters. “I saw your bloodwork. You’re perfectly healthy.”
Nana Mae shrugs and then engages Junie in a discussion about the new dock that’s being built this week.
Nolan leans into my space and very, very quietly whispers, “I didn’t say anything.”
I whisper back. “No, but you just cheated your way into a win with that bet. You only know I have the damn thing because I did the right thing and asked for your fucking blessing.”
Fen sits across from us, clocking it all.
Nolan tips back in his chair and laughs. It’s a good sound to hear coming from him. Work or life has been stressing him out lately, and he isn’t inclined to share yet.
I go back to eating and try to mute the entire dinner and pretend that Katie didn’t just almost blow up my entire plan.
Junie kicks me under the table.
Once. Lightly. Just to let me know that she’s fine.
I tap her back with my foot.
Fen, clearing his throat, clinks his wineglass with a fork.
“Don’t,” I growl just as Nana Mae says, “Sit down.”
“I cannot sit, Nana Mae. I just have one thing to say.” He raises his glass in the air. “To Nana Mae. For being our rock—and for forgiving us, mostly, when we deserved less.”
We all raise our glasses to my grandmother.
“That was a good one, Fenway.” She takes off her glasses and sets them on the table, and eyes each of us in turn.
“You kids got me to seventy-four. I don’t know how useful I’ll be for the next decade, but I’ll always be your rock until the day you bury me with them.”
“Jesus,” Hudson grumbles.
And with that morbid toast, I raise my glass. “To Nana Mae.”
“To Nana Mae,” everyone says in unison, but she’s already scurrying to the kitchen, muttering about dessert when we haven’t cut the chicken yet.
We drink to her anyway.
While everyone else is busy with their wine, I lean in and press my lips to Junie’s. It’s a check-in. A confirmation that we’re still on the same page. A meeting of two souls that we’ve somehow perfected over the last six months.
“That was a lot,” I whisper against her lips, thankful that, for once, our family is ignoring us.
“It always is.” She smiles back at me so sweetly my teeth ache.
“Tonight.” It rumbles from me with a hint of lust.
“We’ll go slow.” She places her lips just to the corner of mine.
“As slow as you want.” It’s a promise for later tonight, for tomorrow, for our future.
And she hears it exactly as I mean it because for the first time in my life, I’m perfectly in tune with who I’m supposed to be—hers.