42. Chapter Forty-Two
Chapter Forty-Two
Luna
Khloe and I are signing to each other as Lily folds clothes at the end of the bed when a ruckus rings out below.
Loud footsteps thud up the stairs and the twins run by the room, pushing and shoving each other. They’re so loud, even Lily hears them coming.
“Hi, Mom,” they say in unison, and then continue on down the hall.
“Carson, Cole,” Khloe yells, jumping off my bed and hurrying after them.
They growl. She squeals. And then there are giggles and bursts of laughter.
“Did they have bags with them?” Lily asks as she rises from the foot of my bed.
Before she gets to the door, they are running back by. Cole has Khloe on his back. Their heavy boots bang against the steps.
“What is going on?” Lily asks as she heads to their old room. I follow because I’m curious to see what it looks like.
The second I step in I smile. It’s your typical boy’s room. Posters of girls, not as naked as the ones Cole has back at the cabin, adorn the walls. There are a couple of shelves with trophies and medals hanging from them.
“They must plan on staying,” Lily says, noting the bags on their beds.
She looks at me to gauge my reaction.
“Is this okay with you?” she asks.
Loud and rambunctious laughter filters up the stairs, and Lily sits down on one of the two beds in the room. “I will miss that sound,” she says, but she’s not necessarily sad, because she’s smiling.
I lower myself on the bed across from her, listening.
“Mom, Kelsie’s picking on me,” Carson yells up the stairs. Their other sister must be here too.
“I am not. Carson drank all my iced coffee in one gulp.”
Lily’s smile widens, and tears fill her eyes.
We listen to them fight, Cole joining in. Little Khloe just giggles.
“Goddammit, get your asses in the kitchen, you got stuff on the stove,” Dan yells.
It sounds like everyone scrambles.
“You didn’t learn a damn thing, did you? I know I’ve told you a hundred times not to walk away from the stove when you’re cooking. It’s a good way to burn the house down,” Dan continues.
Lily covers her mouth, trying not to laugh.
I do the same.
“It sounds like they’re having a lot of fun down there. Are you sure you don’t want to join?”
I sigh, because I know this is Carson’s way of telling me I need to make a move.
And he’s probably right.
Reluctantly, I let her lead me down the stairs.
“Oh, something smells good,” she says, walking right up to the boys who are both standing at the stove.
“Luna, do you want to color with us?” Kelsie asks. She and her son are coloring with Khloe on the living room floor. Tuffy is lying right in the middle of them, happily wagging her tail.
Both boys turn toward me. Cole jabs Carson in the ribs and winks.
“Yeah, sure,” I say, shifting away from them, and lowering myself to the floor beside the girls.
When I look over my shoulder, Cole is patting Carson on the back. I’m sure he’s been worried about me. It’s just … I like it here, and I feel safe with his parents. I want to stay … for now.
The rest of the evening is nice. We eat, talk, and laugh.
“Movie. Movie. Movie!” Khloe begins to chant, wearing an empty popcorn bowl on her head.
“Did your brothers send you out here to say that?” Dan asks her, plucking the bowl off her head.
“Daddy,” she whines.
“It’s your bedtime.”
“Oh, come on, Dad,” Carson chimes in. He picks up Khloe and makes the cutest puppy-dog face with her. I don’t know how Dan could say no to that.
“It’s Friday night, old man,” Cole yells, banging the door on the microwave. A few seconds later, popcorn starts popping.
“Don’t forget the em-me-ins,” Khloe yells out to him.
“One M&M popcorn coming right up,” he hollers back.
Dan sighs and falls into his recliner. “I give up.”
Lily laughs and drops onto his lap.
Carson and Khloe sit directly in front of the TV and argue over the movie. I look up the stairs, wondering if I should go to bed and let them have their family time, but someone knocks on the door.
“Now who the hell could be at the door this late?” Dan mumbles.
“Could you get that?” Carson asks me.
“Yeah, sure,” I say, looking away from the stairs.
It takes me a few seconds to realize what I’m looking at. “What are you doing here?”
“Well, I heard my baby sister could use a big brother right now.” He nods toward the car. “You want to help me get Mila and our bags out of the truck?”
“But … but you were just here, and then you went home. Why are you back?”
Cole steps behind me and nudges me aside. “She doesn’t listen very well sometimes. I’ll help you grab your things.”
“Yay!” Khloe says, pushing against my backside to run around me. “Mila!”
“The girls have become best friends over the past year,” Chance explains, chuckling.
I guess I’ve been so wrapped up in my own shit that I hadn’t really taken a look at their dynamics with the club. Carson’s family has become my brother’s. Neither of us had this growing up.
Dan and Lily also come to the door.
“Rage, how was the drive up?”
Mila and Khloe giggle as Cole and now Carson chase them around the front yard under the stars.
“Uneventful.”
“That’s what I like to hear,” Dan says.
Mila spots him and Lily in the doorway and squeals, changing her direction and running into the house. “Papa!” She holds her arms high and he scoops her up.
Lily rubs her back as Dan holds her. “Cole just made some popcorn and we’re getting ready to watch a movie. You guys made it just in time.”
Again, I’m struck by how much she looks like me. I take a step back, and then another.
I don’t see my dad at all. Her smile is kinder than his. Her dark eyes are not cold. Could it be this is what Chance sees when he looks at me?
Everyone continues hugging and teasing each other as I slowly melt into the woodwork. It’s as if I’m watching through a screen.
Is this what it looks like to get everything you’ve wanted?
Rage, my little sister, Carson, Cole, Khloe, Dan, and Lily. And if that’s not enough, there’s more. An entire group of people that will come running if asked.
Carson notices I’ve backed away from the group. He walks me to the kitchen and backs me against the wall. “Take a deep breath,” he says calmly.
“I didn’t know. I didn’t know.” I feel so incredibly stupid. How much time have I wasted? Chance has shown up for me not once, but twice in a very short span of time.
“What didn’t you know?”
“That Chance didn’t see him in me.”
“Luna, is that why you’ve been avoiding me?” my brother asks.
I turn my head, finding him and Dan standing a few feet away from us.
He rushes toward me and Carson backs away.
Chance takes my face in his hands. “Luna, I’ve never seen him in you. Never.”
“But I thought because I looked like him, and then I saw …” I stop because I’m crying so hard. Chance was the only thing that got me through some of the visits I had with my father. He protected me as much as he could. He was a child himself.
“You saw Mila,” he says, finally understanding.
“I’m so glad you’re both here.” I wrap my arms around his waist and hug him tight.