Chapter 26
Four hours later on the dot, the crunch of tires coming up his dirt drive alerted Levi to his family’s arrival.
He lowered the cover on the gas grill to let the chicken breasts cook a little longer, then made his way from his back deck, through the house, and opened the front door just as his mom climbed the last step of the front porch.
She opened her arms wide as she smiled at him in her full and infectious way.
“Levi, I’m so happy to see you’re well.” She wrapped her arms around his waist and gave him a firm squeeze before stepping back and patting his chest a few times.
“Even if I’m a little upset at you for not calling to let us know about the rockslide.
Not something a mother wants to learn about from the news, hmm? ”
Not expecting a response, she walked around him and into the house, leaving room for his dad to follow in her wake. Levi’s father was a tall man, but even still, the top of his head only came to his son’s chin. They gave each other side hugs, and his dad squeezed his shoulder.
“Happy birthday, Dad.”
“Good to see you, son.”
Dad walked into the house, and Levi turned to take in his sisters.
They had varying degrees of smiles on their faces, and Levi was unsure what they had planned.
Sometimes they’d remember they were adults and act accordingly, but other times they’d pull some sort of sibling shenanigan—especially when they were all together like this.
Yet another reason why he preferred when they visited one at a time.
Constance smirked at him. “We’re going to give you a choice this time, bro. Draw out the torture, or group hug and get the greetings out of the way all at once.”
Levi waved a hand at them. “Let’s get this over with.”
His four sisters grinned, then circled him like a pack of hyenas coming in for the kill.
He rolled his eyes while he held out his arms. Aliyah and Trinity hugged him from the front while Nova and Constance wrapped their arms around him from behind.
He let his arms fall on top of his oldest and youngest sisters’ shoulders, squeezed, then let go.
None of his sisters moved away from him. He squeezed again, then let go. They still held on.
“Okay. That’s enough.” He patted their heads and shifted his weight a little to the side, hoping they’d get the message.
Aliyah raised her face and gave him a look of mock innocence. “Oh, is it now?”
“Yes,” he ground out.
Constance poked him between the ribs before stepping back, the other three following her lead. “Still full of charm, I see.”
“And you’re still a pain in my side.” He dramatically rubbed where she’d poked him.
She shook her head and grinned.
“Do you need any help with dinner?” Aliyah asked.
“I’ve got the grill going out on the deck.”
“I’ll go check it.” She walked past him into the house.
Trinity held up a bag he hadn’t noticed before. “And I’ll go put some decorations up because I’m going to assume you didn’t think of that detail.”
At Levi’s guilty look, she laughed.
“Don’t worry about it. I got you covered.” She patted his arm as she strode past him.
Nova and Constance stared up at him, strange expressions on their faces.
“What?” he asked.
Nova narrowed her eyes. “Something’s different about you.”
“Yeah. What’s going on?” Constance took a step closer, peering at him like she was trying to solve a puzzle.
Levi wasn’t sure what to say to that. Thankfully, Trinity saved him by exclaiming loudly, “You got kittens?!”
Nova blinked. “Since when did you become a pet guy?” But curiosity of little balls of fluff overrode whatever interrogation had been about to commence as she darted inside.
Constance pointed a finger in his face. “Don’t think you’re off the hook. Something’s different, and as your big sister, I want to know what it is.”
Levi ignored her and followed her into the house.
Trinity stepped out of the laundry room with Dumpurrdore snuggled up in her arms. “Look how adorable he is.” She tore her gaze away from the kitten and gazed at Levi with eyes so round a Disney princess would be jealous.
“When did you get kittens? And where’s their mama?
They look too young to be away from her. ”
Nova popped out of the room with Harry Pawter smooshed to her cheek. “They’re so cute.”
“Someone dumped them outside the garage a few days ago,” Levi explained.
“And you’ve been taking care of them?” Constance asked incredulously. His sisters shared a look.
“We can take them back with us if you need us to,” Trinity offered.
“Why would I want you to do that?” Levi shoved his hands in his pockets to keep from reaching out and snatching the kittens away from them. Those were his cats. His and Hayley’s.
Nova stared at him, mouth slightly agape as if she couldn’t believe she’d heard him ask that question. “Because three kittens make a lot of noise meowing at all hours of the day and night. Not to mention the smell of them and their litter box. And you’re . . . you.”
Levi bit his tongue. Could he really blame his sisters for thinking he couldn’t handle the kittens? Or even want to? He’d been complaining about his Mom’s Pomeranians all his life. Yappy little devils.
“Yes, I’m me. Your powers of observation are astounding,” he told Nova with the blandness of dry toast. He met each of his sisters’ gazes in turn. “No consorting and conjuring up plans to smuggle my cats out of here, you hear me? A rescue mission is not needed. Not for them, and not for me.”
Aliyah scrunched her face. “So, you’re telling me you’re a cat dad now? I’m having a hard time processing this new information.”
Wordlessly, Levi took the kittens from his sisters and cradled all three of them along the bed of his forearm, stroking the fur between their ears.
Nova blinked. “I’m not sure I would’ve believed it if I wasn’t seeing it with my own eyes. Our brother is evolving, guys.”
Levi brushed past the quartet to return the kittens to their blanket nest. “And yet somehow you’re still as dramatic as ever.”
Nova laughed, and when he stepped out of the laundry room, closing the door behind him, it was to his four sisters’ smiling faces.
“Oh yeah.” Constance tapped her upturned lips. “I definitely see a change.”
Levi willed his expression to stone. He’d already endured the third degree because of the kittens. He needed a little break before another round. “Excuse me. I need to check on dinner.”
Blessedly, his sisters let him escape to the back deck without following him.
Both the chicken breasts and zucchini spears were finished cooking when he checked.
With a pair of metal tongs, he moved the golden meat to a plate, happy with the uniformed char marks and the smell of rosemary, thyme, and garlic that he’d seasoned the chicken with.
Trinity had just finished setting up his outdoor picnic table with a birthday-inspired tablecloth and festive paper plates and cutlery.
Aliyah and his mom were tacking up a Happy Birthday sign to the railing of the deck.
Levi put the plate of chicken on the table.
Once he retrieved the salad he’d made earlier from the refrigerator, along with a pitcher of lemonade, they could eat.
“Oh! We forgot the balloons.” Trinity rushed back through the house toward the minivan. When she came back, a half dozen balloons floated around her head. She tied the string to a folding chair Levi had placed at the head of the table. “There.”
“Need any help with anything?” Mom offered as she walked into the kitchen with Levi.
He closed the refrigerator with his hip. “No, this is the last of it.”
“I’ll tell the girls and your father to wash up.”
Levi carried the rest of the food to the table, then surveyed the buffet, making sure he hadn’t forgotten anything.
Chicken, salad, zucchini . . . oh! He’d baked some pre-made dinner rolls and left them warming in a bowl under a tea towel.
He turned to head back into the kitchen, then stopped in his tracks before he barreled into his mom, who’d planted herself in the doorway.
“Levi, why are there two toothbrushes in your bathroom?” Her voice didn’t sound accusatory as much as it did confused.
Constance and Nova eyed each other, then dashed back into the house. To look for more clues, no doubt.
Levi rubbed at the back of his neck. “Someone was stranded in Turkey Grove because of the rockslide. They stayed with me until the road opened back up.”
His mom’s eyes softened as she looked at him, her smile approving. “That was real sweet of you, hon.”
“It was a woman!” Nova’s voice cried with glee from the direction of the bedrooms. Constance marched down the hall, carrying the laundry basket full of folded clothes in her hands as evidence.
Levi groaned and rolled his eyes. “Constance, those are your clothes,” he tried to deflect. But Pandora’s box had opened, and there was no closing the lid on it again.
Dad took a seat at the table. “You girls leave the poor man alone.” He gave Levi a sympathetic look before stabbing a zucchini spear with his fork and setting it on his plate. “Sorry, kid. You being the only boy . . . well . . .” He shrugged. But didn’t that say it all anyway?
“Why do you think it was a woman?” Trinity asked.
Constance had set the laundry basket down in the living room, and now every female in his family gathered around it like it was the queen’s jewels on display.
Levi sighed and took a seat across from his dad. “Should we just go ahead and eat without them? The food’s going to get cold.”
His dad snorted. “And incur your mother’s wrath? I don’t think so. No, what you need to do is go ahead and surrender now and promise to answer all their questions if they just come to the table. You can call it my birthday gift.” He winked at him.
“I know those are my clothes,” Constance replied, “but these have been rewashed. They smell like they just came out of the dryer, and they’ve been here almost a month.”
“Oh, so you think this mystery woman had to borrow your clothes while she was here, then did laundry before she left?” Aliyah asked. “And Levi didn’t call first to ask your permission?”
“He knows I wouldn’t have cared,” Constance said dismissively. “Especially if the woman didn’t have anything else to wear.”
Levi hung his head. The muscles in his neck were starting to tense.
“I’m still trying to wrap my head around the fact he let a stranger stay with him in his fortress of solitude instead of foisting them off on someone else in town.” That was Nova’s disbelieving insight.
“Is it more or less surprising if the stranger was a woman?” Trinity posed the question.
No one spoke for the beat of three whole seconds.
“Do you think . . . ?”
“No, it can’t be.”
“Personally, I’d given up thinking it would ever happen.”
“He’s never even gone on a single date, has he?”
Everyone talked over the other, and even though his sisters and mom were inside, their voices carried, swirling like a swarm of hornets around Levi’s head. He rubbed at his temples.
His dad leaned across the table. “Sur-ren-der.” He pronounced each syllable slowly and distinctly before straightening back up.
“A woman’s mind is a confusing place for a man, and you’ve got five women in there who love you to pieces and have been speculating about your love life for so long that they aren’t going to let this go so easily.
Me?” He shrugged. “You’re an adult and it’s your life, and I think we should leave you alone to live it, but those women in there”—he hooked his thumb over his shoulder—“their love is a whole lot more hands-on. Take it from someone who’s been under the microscope of their undivided attention before. ”
Levi took in a deep breath, then let it out on a sigh. Even though he hated doing it, he raised his voice so he could be heard over the others in the house. “Come out and eat, and I’ll tell you what happened. And if you promise to take turns, I’ll answer your questions the best that I can.”
“Really?” Nova poked her head out of the doorway first. “Because I have a million questions.”
“I’m sure you do,” Levi grumbled.
Mom walked out next, beaming. She looked happier than when Dad had surprised her with a week at an all-inclusive resort in the Maldives for their twenty-fifth wedding anniversary.
Had they really been that worried about him?
Levi kind of wanted to remind them that the key to happiness and feeling fulfilled wasn’t in a romantic relationship or marriage, but with the way they were staring at him with barely concealed glee, he knew he’d only be wasting his breath.
His older sisters had both fallen in love and married service members who were currently deployed, and while his younger sisters were single, they had both been in committed relationships before.
He was the only one of them who hadn’t ever been on a single date.
His dad said a blessing over the food, and as soon as his tongue hit the roof of his mouth to pronounce amen, Constance jumped. “Well? We’re waiting.”
Levi put a chicken breast on his plate and passed the serving dish down the line to Trinity beside him. “Is everyone forgetting that the reason we’re all together is to celebrate Dad’s birthday?”
That seemed to take the wind out of their sails.
Until his dad piped up and said, “When you get to be my age, birthdays tend to be just another day. Having my whole family around me, well, there’s no better way to celebrate than this.
” He took a bite and chewed. “Although, since it is my birthday, I find I’m curious to hear this story of yours as well. ”
“The birthday boy has spoken,” Aliyah crowed.
Levi would’ve loved to have pointed out to his father that he’d just said he thought the family should leave Levi’s love life alone, but he saved his breath. He knew when he was beat. “The town of Little Creek recently acquired a bookmobile.”
“What does that have to do with the mystery woman who stayed with you?”
Aliyah pierced Nova with a knife-tipped look. “Don’t interrupt and maybe we’ll find out.”
“Girls,” Mom scolded. She nodded encouragingly to Levi. “Go ahead, Levi. A bookmobile, you said?”
He opened his mouth to continue, but a knock at the door interrupted him. His sisters groaned.
“Who could that be?” Trinity turned at the waist to look toward the front entrance.
Levi wondered the same thing as he stood to answer the door. The only person besides his family who had ever come up the mountain to his house was Jack. Levi twisted the knob, expecting to see Jack’s sweat-stained ball cap and grinning face on the other side. But it wasn’t Jack.
“Hayley. What are you doing here?”