Chapter Chapter Nineteen
Amy
“Weren’t you at some camp? What happened?” Wyatt asked.
Aside from Finn and Knox, I remembered him and Griffin most. I’d only met Chase and Duncan a few times.
“I was bitten by a snake yesterday. That’s why I have a bandage. And I didn’t go back to the camp because the doctor instructed me to stay off my feet.”
Several of the women in the group gasped. I’d met them at Susan and Bruce’s house on the day of Knox’s accident, and I was slowly remembering who was who.
“But I’m fine, though,” I added quickly.
“She just couldn’t spend today and tomorrow running around with the kids, so we came back to San Diego,” Knox explained. “I figured she’d love some pizza this afternoon.”
Finn cocked a brow as Knox put a hand on my shoulder.
Griffin said, “Welcome, Amy. It’s so funny. I haven’t seen you in forever, yet this is the third time I’ve seen you in, what, a little over a month?”
“That’s true. You’ve got a gorgeous place, by the way.”
“Thanks. Should we introduce you to our women again?” Griffin offered with affection in his voice.
“No, I think I remember. Hannah,” I said, pointing to one of them.
She smiled. “That’s me.”
Then I looked back at Griffin. “And you’re with Phoebe.”
Phoebe grinned. “You’re good with names and faces.”
Bruce came out of the house with Jeremy. “Hey, Knox, Amy girl. Good to see you both.”
“Uncle Knox!” Jeremy exclaimed. “Gran said you were coming back early. I’m happy. I missed you.”
He ran straight to Knox, wrapping his arms around his waist. Knox hugged him right back.
Oh, how could I do anything but melt at this view? I’d rarely seen Knox with Jeremy, but it was an adorable sight.
“Guess what? Amy and I brought your favorite ice cream.”
Jeremy took a step back and jumped up and down. “Yes, yes, yes.” Then he looked at me. “Thank you, Amy.”
“You remember me?”
He nodded. “Yes. You were with Uncle Knox two years ago at the zoo.”
I smiled. “You have a great memory.”
“Right, everyone. Why don’t we start making pizza?” Griffin suggested.
“I thought you’d already be on it,” Knox said.
He still had his arm around my shoulders. I swear, every Sterling had their eyes on us. Every time Knox moved his hand or brushed my skin with his fingers, I felt like a dozen pairs of eyes were trying to decipher what it meant. Susan just kept smiling to herself.
Oh, this family was so much fun.
“As usual, you want to put in minimal work and reap all the benefits, don’t you?” Griffin laughed.
“I’m just efficient,” Knox retorted.
“Nah. The fun part when it comes to pizza, Uncle Knox,” Jeremy said seriously, “is to make it, to decide what toppings you want to use.”
“We’ll do all that inside,” Griffin said. “Phoebe and I already laid out everything at the kitchen island. We’re going to have to squeeze everyone in, but it’s going to be fine. After, we’ll take them outside to the pizza oven.”
“You have a pizza oven too?” Knox asked as we all started toward the house.
“He does. That’s where I got the idea about ordering one,” Bruce said.
“Obviously it’s not as big. His was custom-made.
I wouldn’t want to spend that much. The one we got,”—he looked at Susan—“is very decent. We already tested it. But it’s hard to maintain the power to make as many pizzas as we’re going to make today. ”
“Hence why the party got moved here,” Griffin said proudly.
Knox lowered his hand, and I thought he was letting me go, but nope. He just moved it to my waist.
“Are you okay?” he whispered. “If you want to sit down and watch us work, that’s fine.”
“I feel perfectly fine.” My ankle was throbbing, but only a bit.
“You aren’t telling the truth,” Knox stated matter-of-factly.
I gasped, looking up at him as we headed to the island.
“Don’t ask me how I know. I just know you, Amy.”
When I looked at the kitchen island, I noticed there was a bar chair there. There were only two of them, even though the island was big.
“I’ll sit on one of those. That way I can also work on a pizza.”
“All right,” Knox said. “I’ll get that.”
Everyone shuffled around the island. “Wow, you really did prepare everything,” I told Griffin.
There were two dozen pizza doughs and all sorts of chopped veggies and toppings in the middle of the table.
“Jeremy, Griffin, Riley, and I prepared everything,” Duncan said proudly.
“Yeah, Daddy and I cook pizza every week. We’re super good at it, although we don’t have a pizza oven. Dad, can we get one too?”
Duncan laughed. “Oh, I could have bet that question would come up. We can’t because it needs to be in an outdoor space.”
“But we have a balcony,” Jeremy countered.
“Needs to be something bigger,” Duncan explained.
Jeremy pouted but didn’t insist.
Knox was on my left side, and Finn came up on the right. “So, anyone want to fill me in on what’s going on?” he asked under his breath.
“No,” Knox replied.
Everyone else was too busy grabbing toppings and pouring tomato sauce on pizza dough to pay attention to us.
Finn half turned, looking at me. “Amy, have mercy on me. What’s going on? I’m a bit confused about you two showing up here almost like...”
“Like what, Finn?” I teased because his confusion was truly adorable.
“Well, like you’re together. Come on, you two. Are we in kindergarten? Why are you making me say it?”
And what do you know? The kitchen island went completely silent.
Wow. I guess they were listening after all.
Knox looked once around the table, then shook his head, laughing. “That’s because we are together, Finn.” He emphasized the word as if he had a subtext to it too. “Anyone else have questions?”
“Dude, yes, a million,” Wyatt said.
Griffin just laughed. “I called it.”
“Yeah, you did.”
Susan just smiled. “Well, now that it’s official...”
“What do you mean? You knew about this?” Finn asked sharply.
Poor guy sounded completely betrayed. I tried to put myself in his shoes. Like Knox had said, he and Finn were joined at the hip. And yet he hadn’t known about us.
My stomach rolled with disappointment. What if the reason Knox hadn’t told Finn was because it wasn’t a big deal to him? But that couldn’t be. The way he’d spoken to me last night had almost felt like a declaration of love.
God, I was so good at pulling the wool over my own eyes. All Knox had said was that he wanted us to spend more time together and basically have sex every night. It wasn’t a love declaration in the slightest. Why was I making it into something it wasn’t?
“Of course I did,” Susan said.
“And why didn’t you say anything?”
“Can we all just focus on making the pizza?” Griffin said. “This is Knox and Amy’s business. They don’t owe anyone explanations.”
He looked at Finn with a cocked brow. Finn just cocked a brow right back. Clearly, these two weren’t on the same page.
“Amy, I hope we aren’t too much for you,” Griffin said.
I laughed. “I’m managing. Don’t worry.” I looked at Knox. “This one’s trained me. I’ve heard stories about the gang for years, but this is the first time I’m seeing all of you in action.”
“You’ve heard stories? Hell no. What exactly did you hear? We need to set you straight. Knox sometimes embellishes the details,” Griffin replied.
Knox laughed and put his hand back on my waist. I thought he was doing it on purpose earlier to keep his family on their toes, but now I realized it was an instinctive move—as if he couldn’t help himself. It made me melt.
“Take that back, Chase,” Knox said. “I do not embellish them.”
“Do you or do you not mostly turn things around to make yourself look good?” Chase asked.
“Knox, that’s right. You do make yourself look like the hero. Does it mean that none of them are true?” I gasped theatrically, shaking my head.
“Nah. I’ve told you how things really are too.”
“I should ask everyone now that we’re all together. I’ve believed you far too easily.”
Each of the brothers started to recount a story that most certainly didn’t put Knox in a good light.
The most memorable was the one where Finn and Knox snuck out of their mom’s house during high school to go clubbing, and they thought they were clever for using the railing their mom had put outside for the plants to grow on as a ladder.
The railing had sustained their weight when they came down on it, but when they went back up, it broke. Knox crushed his mom’s roses.
“Believe it or not, he actually needed a trip to the doctor because rose thorns carry bacteria, and he’d gotten a ton of them stuck in his skin.”
I laughed, turning to Knox. “The way I remember the story was that you made it to your room perfectly safe, and Finn was the one who needed to go to the doctor.”
Knox glared at his brother. “Will you stop recounting stuff from a million years ago?”
“Oh, please,” Susan cut in. “You boys like to beat your chests. Darling, both of them fell into my roses and needed medical attention. Knox had thorns all over his back, and Finn had them all over his left arm. Neither of them made it safely into their bedroom. I know because when I heard the thump and the crash, I thought we were being robbed. I nearly called 911.”
“So what gave it away that it was the two of us and not a robber?” Finn asked.
“You started bickering over who was at fault for the disaster.” She started to laugh. “My goodness, you two were quite something.”
Griffin was looking at the two of them strangely. “Why didn’t you just use the cherry tree as a ladder, the way Wyatt and I did?”
Knox jerked his head back. “That worked, and you never told us?”
“We thought you’d figure it out by yourself,” Griffin replied.
Susan shrieked. “What? You two were sneaking out on the tree?”
“Yeah. We figured you knew but pretended you didn’t.”
“Well, I had no idea,” she replied.
Wyatt looked very proud of himself as he glanced at Griffin. “Dude, we were even better than we gave ourselves credit for. We snuck down a tree for three years. These two fell into a rosebush.”
He looked at Knox, who truly and honestly seemed shocked. Oh, I was certain this wasn’t doing wonders for his ego.
God, this day was so fun.