Chapter 37
37
COLE
I yanked open the door to my apartment, not surprised to see my whole family standing on the other side. Both my dad and Bailey had keys to the garage, which meant they could let themselves in and, ultimately, get to my apartment. Luckily, I’d been smart enough to have a different key for the apartment door.
“Hey, Bro.” Harper pushed in first. “Mmm...something smells amazing. There’s no way you cooked whatever that is.”
“You can’t cook either,” I reminded her as the rest of my family moved past me.
My mom leaned in to kiss my cheek. “I can’t believe the only one who can cook out of you four is Bree.”
Bree smirked and shoved a bottle of wine against my chest when she passed. Bailey followed, and beside her was Chase.
He smiled sympathetically. “I didn’t have a choice in this.”
I laughed. “Me neither.”
Bailey looked around me when Paige walked into the kitchen. Things between us were a little awkward after last night, so I spent some of the day in the garage, and she spent most of it with Hazel. We needed to get back to where we’d been, but we’d said a lot. I wasn’t sure she was ready for what I wanted from her, not after all she’d been through.
“How’s Hazel?”
“She had the kittens,” Paige answered excitedly.
Harper squealed, “Can we see them?”
Paige nodded. “Yeah, come on. They’re so cute.”
I listened to them talking while they left the kitchen but turned my head toward Chase when he spoke. “Are they cute?”
“Nope.” I grabbed three bottles of beer from the refrigerator, handing one to Chase and Dad before twisting the cap off mine.
Chase chuckled. “That’s what I figured. We’ve had kittens born on the farm, and it takes a couple of weeks for them to even look like cats.”
“How many?” Dad asked.
“Six.”
He whistled. “Not gonna be easy finding six homes.”
“Seven.” When he didn’t reply, I gestured toward the living room. “Hazel too.”
Dad wrapped his hand around my shoulder and laughed. “If you think Hazel is going anywhere, you’re living in a fantasy world.” I frowned, but he continued, and I was confused by his quick conversation change. “Paige have any headaches recently?”
“No, not since the night we went to her townhouse.”
“Hazel’s probably helping with that.” He dropped his hand and leaned his back against the counter. “She has something to think about, something to take care of, something beyond the shit she just went through.”
His conversation shift made sense, and he was right. I had seen a change in her since we found Hazel, and that was only a few days ago. “Good point.”
“I know.” He smirked when I shook my head at his arrogance, but then continued. “It’s not gonna be easy to let something go after you cared for it for so long. Think you probably know a little about that.”
I shook my head and shared a look with Chase, who was just quietly watching us talk. I didn’t care that he was here for this conversation. He was basically a part of the family, and it was nice to have another male around when it had been just Dad and me for so long. “Don’t know what you’re talking about.”
Dad waved his hand in the air. “Don’t give me that.”
“It’s true.”
“Yeah? Tell me why that’s true.”
I shared a grin with Chase, who seemed to know just what I was thinking. “Because I have no intentions of letting her go.”
Chase chuckled. “I knew you’d say that.”
Dad grinned. “I’ve seen a difference in you lately. Have a feeling she’s responsible, and if that’s true, I hope you can talk her into staying.”
“What difference?”
“She gets you out of the garage and away from work. Heard you went to Jake’s house not too long ago to hang out. You’re having dinner with us, when, not a few months ago, you would’ve been working. She’s getting you to do what I’ve been preaching for years, which is spending time doing shit you enjoy and spending time with your family. Life can’t be all about work.”
“That’s a very Dimarco thing to say.”
He laughed. “It’s true.”
“What’s true?” Bailey walked into the kitchen and stood next to Chase, who immediately put his arm around her waist and tugged her close.
“Dad thinks I need to spend more time with family.”
Bailey grinned. “Sounds like Dad.”
“That’s enough out of you,” he joked with her.
She leaned her head against Chase’s side and lowered her voice. “Those kittens aren’t cute yet.”
“Told you,” I replied.
“Although Harper thinks they are and is already picking one out.”
“What did Bree say? I can’t believe she’ll agree to it, knowing she’ll take on most of the responsibility.”
She shrugged. “Bree seems on board, but Paige is trying to talk them into two kittens so they’ll have a playmate, and she’s very convincing.”
I lifted the bottle to my lips. “Atta girl.”
Bailey laughed, and the rest of the family walked into the kitchen, but Harper was the first to speak. “We’re adopting two of your kittens.”
“Thank god.”
“I agreed to the kittens, but I am not cleaning a litter box.” Bree stared at Harper.
Harper flicked her wrist. “That’s easy. I’ll take care of it.”
I shifted my attention to Paige, and she winked. “Four more to go.”
Laughing, we shared a look that lasted a little too long, considering my eagle-eyed sisters were watching, but for some reason, I didn’t care.
She smiled. “I think I already have Billy talked into one. He said he’ll have to talk to his landlord, though.”
“Good lord, girl, those kittens aren’t even a day old yet, and you’ve already found homes for three. You should be in sales. You’re wasting your talents.” Dad grinned.
Paige smiled at his compliment, but I also saw red tint her cheeks. The same happened when I complimented her on the work she was doing for me. It pissed me off to realize she wasn’t used to getting complimented on her work, which explained why she never felt she was good at her jobs.
“Thanks, but I like my job now.”
“Really?” Harper scrunched her nose. “You work in a dirty garage.”
“Hey.” I lifted my beer to my lips.
“It’s true.” Harper shrugged.
“You work on a farm,” Bree reminded Harper.
“I don’t work on a farm. I work in the house.” She waved her hand in the air. “And that’s only temporary.”
“I can’t believe you’ve been there as long as you have.” Bailey laughed. “I told Chase he should have a backup person for when you bail.”
Bree laughed. “I told him the same.”
“Me too,” Dad agreed.
“I’m not going to bail.” Harper rolled her eyes. “At least not without notice.”
“You just need to find what you enjoy doing,” Mom said, trying as always to be supportive of Harper’s decisions, but sometimes Harper made that difficult.
“Maybe I just want to be a mom.”
My eyes widened, and Dad choked on the beer he’d just swallowed. My kitchen became eerily quiet while Dad coughed, and we all stared at Harper.
“You better not be standing in your brother’s kitchen telling me you’re pregnant,” Dad said after he stopped coughing.
She leaned her hip against the edge of the counter. “Is there a better room to tell you in?”
I watched her closely and noticed the glimmer in her eye. It was easy to recognize because Jake always had the same one when he did something he knew would cause an uproar.
Dad pushed past me to stand closer to Harper, which made Paige move until she was beside me. She leaned her body against my arm and lowered her voice just as Dad started talking again. “She’s not pregnant.”
I snorted, not surprised Paige also caught on to what Harper was doing. “Nope.”
“Dad,” Bailey called out, taking mercy on him. “Harper’s not pregnant. She’s just messing with you.”
Dad looked between Harper and Bailey before settling on Harper. “Why the hell would you do that?”
Harper laughed, and an argument broke out, which I fully expected. I swung my arm across Paige’s shoulders and settled in for the fun. I didn’t even realize how much I was enjoying my family until I felt Paige’s gaze. Looking down, we smiled and then laughed when I heard my dad’s announcement.
“We need to set up some ground rules on jokes, young lady.”
Paige’s eyes widened, but she was giggling. “Oh no, he called her young lady.”
I laughed. “She may have taken it too far this time.”
When I felt eyes on me, I turned my head and met my mom’s stare. She smiled softly, and it was easy to see that she liked what she saw between Paige and me. My mom was a romantic, and she always said she wanted all of us to find the love she found when she met our dad.
She wanted Paige to be that for me.
I knew that without ever having the conversation.
What she didn’t realize was that I wanted the same thing.