Chapter 19
Chapter Nineteen
WESTON
“Welcome to another Cage family dinner, this time in stereo.”
I raised a brow at Dorian’s words and shook my head from my spot on the couch.
In the month since our world had shifted, some things remained the same while other things were vastly different.
Now I sat in Aston and Blakely’s home down in Denver, my booted leg on a pillowed ottoman, with the woman I loved sitting at my side.
When I slept, I could still hear Bella scream for me, could still feel the impact of the car against my leg.
We all had been damn lucky that William had slowed down around the curve in the rain and the only thing I had broken was my leg.
It could have been anything else, including my neck.
But I did my best not to think too hard on that.
When I had finally woken up from the first impact, I had crawled my way toward William’s voice.
I would never be able to get the sight of Bella tied to a tree and fighting for her life out of my mind.
Though, I knew that she had similar nightmares.
For all that work we had done against her panic attacks in Cage Lake, we were right back to where we started and yet completely different.
Because William was behind bars and would be for a hell of a long time.
Now it was two counts of attempted murder in addition to his stalking charges and breaking his parole.
There would be no more William in our lives, and for that I could be grateful.
However, I just truly wished none of that had happened.
“Are we taking a photo for the lawyer?” Emily asked as she walked into the large living room, a platter in her hand. Phoebe and Ford were right behind her, more platters in their hands.
We had a full house today, and I was still surprised that everybody could fit inside these walls.
“Yes, everyone move in closer for the photo,” Dorian ordered, holding up his phone.
“Do you think if all of us are in this one, it can count for like two or three dinners?” Flynn asked as he pushed James and Theo into the room.
“I’m pretty sure the will doesn’t work that way, but I can ask,” Bella said from my side, and I leaned over to kiss her temple.
“I honestly don’t mind coming to dinner because people cook for me. I’m lazy like that.”
The woman I loved rolled her eyes. “Yes, because we totally need more food with the number of casseroles we have at home in Cage Lake.”
My heart swelled at that comment because she said home.
We didn’t have everything worked out yet, but we were working on it.
Because Bella would be working remotely full-time.
She would go down into the city if she needed to for certain things, but now she would be the full-time forensic accountant for Cage Enterprises because she would be able to do things from our home or in an office that she could have on Main Street if she needed space.
And she was also the go-between for the businesses in town and Cage Enterprises.
All in all, it was working out, and I still couldn’t quite believe our luck. Not that being run over by a car and attacked by a psychopath was lucky, but I was doing my best not to think too hard about certain things. It only made the stress of nearly losing her too much.
“Everybody say cheese!” Dorian said as he snapped the photo, and I leaned into Bella. “I’ll send this over to the lawyer, and then we can actually eat and not have to deal with this crap.”
“Tell me how you really feel, brother of mine,” Sophia said as she kissed his cheek, and then went to sit on her husband’s lap. They had come back from their honeymoon early, everybody worried about Bella and me. And somehow in a matter of moments, we were all closer than ever.
The twins had been distraught, and Lance was still having issues leaving town. He wanted to keep an eye on us, however, we were all doing okay. Or at least as okay as we could be while dealing with everything that had happened.
“So what are we having for dinner?” Dorian asked, grinning.
“Italian. Tons of different kinds of Italian because I think we’re past the point of having just one lasagna,” Bella said at my side.
“And I did not help because apparently when I’m in the kitchen, even though I’m allowed to put some weight on my boot, I get yelled at,” I said with a laugh.
“Damn straight you get yelled at,” Bella said as she pinched my thigh gently.
“You’re the one who had stitches in your arm. Don’t get me started.”
I swallowed hard, remembering the sight of all that blood, and kissed her gently on the mouth.
“You two are disgustingly sweet. We get it, you both love each other. But will you please stop making out in public?”
“I think it’s sweet,” Amy said as she wrapped her arms around Dorian’s waist. “You don’t want to make out with me in public?” she asked, fluttering her eyelashes.
“Well, if you insist.” Then Dorian dipped Amy into a deep kiss, and I rolled my eyes.
“Don’t worry, bro, you’ll be able to do this once the cast and boot come off.”
“You know, we could probably find a way to break his leg. Just to annoy him,” Bella said with a laugh.
“Oh, I can probably make that happen,” Kyler drawled as he walked into the room.
“Kyler. You’re back.” Bella left me and ran across the room to go hug her brother.
Kyler had been able to come to Cage Lake and check on us after the attack but had been forced to go on tour once again.
I knew Kyler hadn’t been happy about it, but we had all understood.
Life had to go on. Hell, I was still working at my shop, and we all had jobs to do.
Kyler’s just took him out of the country.
“I couldn’t miss the Cage family dinner.” He had cleared his throat. “And I brought a guest.”
I raised a brow, expecting a date, and froze when I realized it was Constance.
“Mom,” Bella breathed before she hugged her mother tightly. The other siblings came over to hug their mother, and I met Hudson’s gaze.
When Constance had heard about the attack, she had dropped everything and returned to the small town she swore she would never go back to. And she had sat by her daughter’s side until they had run out of room with all of the Cages there.
I knew the family still had a long road to go in acceptance, but in the end, there was really only one person to blame.
Their father, the original Cage.
But he was gone, and this family was rising from the ashes. One complicated connection at a time.
While everybody moved around to start serving themselves for dinner, having a thousand different discussions at once, Hudson came to my side.
“You ready to get that boot off?” he asked, gesturing toward my leg.
“Still have a little while to go. I probably would have healed quicker, but I’d put too much weight on it.”
“I’m just glad that Dorian and I were showing up to annoy the hell out of you.” He shook his head. “I would like to think that you guys would’ve been okay on your own, but I’m glad we were there.”
I swallowed hard, doing my best not to let the worst case scenarios slide through my mind for the umpteenth time.
There was no use dwelling on what I couldn’t change.
After all, we had a hell of a lot more to think of and focus on when it came to our families and future.
And that’s all I wanted to deal with for the moment.
The group of us took two different rooms in order to fit all of us for dinner, and I found myself beside Bella and Emily. Cale and Sophia were across from us, both of them whispering to each other and looking so damn in love it was a little sickening.
“How are you feeling?” Bella asked as she gripped my hand.
I threaded my fingers with hers and leaned down to kiss her temple. “I’m good. It just always surprises me that I’m here. With all of you.”
“This isn’t what our life was even a year ago. But I don’t think I would know what to do with myself without all of these annoying brothers.”
“I heard that,” Dorian said as he went back to his conversation with Flynn.
“Are you sure you’re okay coming up to Cage Lake? We can find a way to make it work here.”
Bella gave me an odd look before reaching forward to push my hair back from my face. “I love that small town. I love those people, and I love the fact that your siblings are going to have a home to come back to. And it’s not like I will ever run out of siblings to come and visit and stay with.”
“That is true, you will always have us to deal with,” Flynn said with a sly wink.
“I really did get outnumbered quite quickly.”
“And I was the one outnumbered by Caldwells up in the mountains. So you’re just going to have to deal with it.”
“You two are adorable,” Constance put in.
I smiled at Bella’s mom before leaning down and capturing Bella’s lips again. “I love you. Just in case I haven’t said it recently.”
“You said it like ten minutes ago, but I don’t mind hearing it too,” Emily said with a laugh.
Ignoring how the others laughed at our sentimental expense, I tilted my head to kiss Bella again.
“You guys are ridiculous,” Sophia replied primly before she kissed Cale, and everybody threw rolls at the four of us.
I pulled Bella into my lap, ignoring the way her brothers groaned, and held up my glass.
“To the Cages. All twenty of you. May you forever be annoying in that small town, take over everything in your limits, and remind me that it’s okay to take a chance every once in a while.”
“When did you get so sappy?” Hudson grumbled before we each clinked our glasses, and I took a sip of my beer.
Bella wiggled off my lap, and I was grateful she did that since having a hard on in front of her family wasn’t the greatest idea.
“You’re ridiculous, but I love you anyway.
Now, we need to look at the spreadsheet for the next few dinners because I know there’s some traveling going on, and I feel like we don’t have the color-coding set. ”
“Well, I see that Bella’s back to herself,” Aston said dryly.
I glared at the man before my lips twitched, and Bella just shrugged.
“I am who I am. It’s not like it’s unexpected.”
But she was. In everything that she did, she constantly surprised me. And I would forever be grateful for the moment the ground fell beneath us, and we fell into each other.
Because I had fallen in love with a Cage. Twice in my life. And I would continue to do so every day until our last breaths.
And I couldn’t wait to finally do something that I’d yet to do.
Surprise her.
Because the ring I had picked out would look damn fine on her finger. As soon as she expected the unexpected.