Chapter 17 #2
“They moved it up for a scheduling conflict. I don’t know, but the team looks to be out of sorts, and the fans are all grumpy because some of them are coming in late. It’s a mess. The commissioner is pissing me off, and I don’t even know the man.”
“Are you grumbling at those two without even letting them walk inside?” Mom asked as she came forward and leaned down to kiss me on the cheek, then did the same with Callum.
“Come inside. And you did not have to bring wine, Callum.”
“It felt right.”
“Well, you’re family.” She paused and gave me a look. “Okay, well, our family’s getting a little close in some aspects, but it’s fine. Maybe I’ll marry off one of the boys to Teagan and make it a full, interesting web.”
“Mom.”
Callum had frozen at the word marry, at least, I thought it was that word. Maybe it was the idea of Teagan with one of my brothers, but we weren’t there yet. But hell, I wasn’t even sure Callum wanted to get married again.
An odd feeling settled in, my stomach tightening at that. I didn’t know what Callum wanted. He had already been married, but maybe he didn’t want a future or children or anything like that. It was just one more thing we needed to speak about, but I was afraid I didn’t want to know the answer.
After all, we had kept this thing to ourselves for so long that speaking of the future seemed farfetched. Perhaps not that farfetched.
“We both know that Teagan would eat your sons for breakfast. Just saying.”
“I would take offense at that, but it’s true,” Dad said with a laugh. “Come on, let’s go watch Atlas kick some ass.”
“Of course, he’s going to kick ass. He’s our son. And the best goalie in the NHL.”
“As long as you stop saying that in front of him, we’ll be fine,” Rune said with a laugh. He lifted his chin up at Callum, and I figured that was a good thing. It was normal. He didn’t punch him, at least.
Then, of course, Rune looked at me and narrowed his eyes. “Well, you’re here.”
“I’m going to sic Teagan on you,” I said quickly.
“I might not be able to take Teagan, but she’d be on my side in this.”
“And what side would that be?” Callum asked, an odd warning in his tone.
“Stop it. Both of you. Yes, this is different, but it’s good.” Mom looked between all of us, brows raised. “And if you fight in this house, I will ground you all. Including you,” she said to her husband.
He held up both hands, attention on the game.
“Excuse me, but I’m watching my son, a bright light of my life, stop pucks going far too fast. I’m not going to get into a fight with the others.
Because Callum knows if he hurts my precious baby girl, we can bury him somewhere in the forest around here.
This way, we can hide all of Felicity’s suitors who wrong us. ”
“And how many suitors would that be?” Callum asked with a laugh.
“You guys are ridiculous,” I said as I threw my hands in the air. “I’m going with Mom to help with dinner.”
“Yes, a woman’s place is in the kitchen,” Rune said as he squeezed Callum’s shoulder, none too lightly, and they headed into the living room.
“Aren’t you the one who cooks dinner usually?” Callum asked.
“Gosh. Let’s get the womenfolk out of here. Since you’re dating my sister, now I can’t even talk about certain things with you.”
“And what things would those be?” I asked.
“Yes, son, what things would you be discussing about women that you can’t say in front of us?” Mom asked, sing-songing.
“How we respect women, and we enjoy their company, and they are amazing?” Rune asked, fluttering his eyelashes.
“Ridiculous. All of you.”
“If you think that’s bad, just imagine how annoying it is when you have all of my siblings in one place,” Callum said with a sigh.
“At least you only have these two in the house right now. It’s worse when you add in all of mine.”
“Well, we’re just going to have to do that soon, aren’t we?” Mom said with a shrug as we stood behind the kitchen island, still able to hear everything from the living room.
“What do you mean?” I asked, handing over a block of cheese so she could finish the cheeseboard.
“Well, you guys don’t know it yet, but next week, we’re going to be having an Ashford and Carter family dinner.”
I froze. “What?”
“What do you mean, ‘what’? We always used to do things like that. And ever since you moved back to town, and well, since the others have started their own businesses and you’re all adults and moving on, we haven’t had a good dinner with the whole group. So we’re going to do it.”
“How are we going to fit everybody in this house, Mom?” Rune asked with a shake of his head. “The Ashfords outnumber us more than two to one.”
“You can have it at mine,” Callum said with a shrug. He wasn’t even looking towards us as he paid attention to Atlas on the ice, and I blinked.
“You’d do that?” I asked, confused.
“Of course. That’s why I bought the big house. Not just to show off my football winnings but because I needed to fit the whole family in there. It’s not like we’d go to Dad’s.”
There was an awkward silence as Callum went out of breath. “Sorry, I hate bringing him up. It just happened.”
“No, your father’s an asshole, and he deserves whatever’s going to come to him next,” Mom said simply, and Callum snorted as Rune and I just stared at each other.
“Well, that’s just great. Having it at your house will make sure we can fit everybody, and I want to see the babies.” She gave me a look. “At least somebody’s giving me babies. Even though they’re not my grandkids, I’m claiming them.”
“Mom,” I gasped as Callum nearly dropped his beer, an Ashford brew, of course.
Rune threw his head back and laughed. “Oh, this is going to be fun.”
“Darling, you’re older. I’m going to bother you about babies soon too. It’s just what I do.”
“Well then, I’m going to go hide in a closet with a bottle of wine,” I said dryly.
“Callum, darling, do you think Briar is coming to town anytime soon?”
“No clue, but I’ll ask. I want to see my niece. And we can try to make it work where it’s the weekend that Finnian gets the twins.”
“Well, if not, we can invite Promise as well. I love that girl. I’m sad that she and Finnian didn’t work out, but they’re so much better as friends, don’t you think?”
I stood back and watched as my mother led us from conversation to conversation as if nothing had changed.
And I knew that she was doing it on purpose, showing everybody in this room, and then later the town, that nothing had changed. We were still the same, though irrevocably altered.
Or perhaps I was just looking too far into things.
By the time dinner was over and we had already planned the next meeting, Atlas had won, though he had let two goals in, as the starting forwards for the opposite team were some of the best in the NHL.
I was going to have to text him later to make sure he knew that he was amazing. He took each goal harder than the last.
After we said our goodbyes, and were walking out the door, Callum said, “Hey, I need to head to the brewery real quick. I’m going to drop you off at the house, and then I’ll be back, okay?” Callum kissed my temple, and I frowned.
“I can go with you if you want.”
He shook his head. “I have to deal with some of the machinery, and you can’t go back there.”
“Oh, that makes sense. Okay. I’ll just get some work done, and are we staying at my house or your house tonight?”
“Whatever you’d like, just know that you’re not sleeping alone tonight.”
“I kind of like how growly you got just then.” I smiled.
“Oh, good. You decide where we’re sleeping, but I need to go fix this.”
“Is everything okay, really?”
“It should be. There’s just a weird alarm going off.”
He dropped me off at the front door, kissed me soundly until my knees went weak, and didn’t drive off until I locked the door behind me.
That was it. I was in love with Callum Ashford, and there was no returning.
I moved towards the kitchen, turning on the light as I did.
And if I hadn’t, I wouldn’t have been able to duck out of the way in time. A shadow moved forward, and as I opened my mouth to scream, a hand went over my mouth from the side so I could see the man nearly in front of me.
Bradley smiled at me, that same look on his face from all those years ago.
“Hello, Felicity. It’s been a long time.”