Chapter 7
LEIGH
Friday evening arrived too quickly.
I stood in front of the mirror in my room at Jasper’s house, changing my shirt for the third time and hating myself for caring what I wore.
It was just a family dinner. Casual. Nothing to stress about.
Except Dex would be there.
And I hadn’t seen him since Sunday, when he’d walked through that door and looked at me like I was his worst nightmare come true.
I finally settled on a simple blue blouse and jeans, nothing fancy but not too casual either. When I came downstairs, I found Jasper already waiting by the door while Mom was still getting ready upstairs.
“Caroline says she’ll be down in ten minutes,” he said with a small smile. “Which probably means twenty.”
“Sounds about right.”
An awkward silence settled between us. We’d been polite to each other all week, but we hadn’t really talked. Not the way family should talk. I was his daughter, but we were still strangers in so many ways.
“Want to sit outside while we wait?” he asked, gesturing toward the back of the house. “It’s a nice evening.”
“Sure.”
I followed him through the house to the back patio. French doors opened onto a beautiful stone terrace with comfortable outdoor furniture and a view of the sprawling backyard. The late afternoon sun cast everything in golden light, and I could hear birds in the trees.
Jasper settled into one of the chairs and gestured for me to take another. For a moment, we just sat there in comfortable silence.
“I used to hate sitting out here,” he said finally, his voice quiet.
He was looking out at the yard, not at me.
“Too many memories of trying to keep the peace. Of pretending everything was fine when it wasn’t.
Regina used to host lunches here sometimes, and I’d spend the whole time waiting for something to go wrong. ”
I didn’t know what to say to that, so I stayed quiet.
“But now...” He looked around the patio, something like wonder on his face. “It feels like mine again. Like I can actually breathe out here. Does that make sense?”
“Yeah,” I said. “It does.”
He turned to look at me then, really look at me. “I keep wanting to apologize. For not being there. For missing your entire childhood. But Caroline made the right choice, keeping you away from all this.”
“Jasper…”
“If Regina had known about you...” He shook his head. “She would have used you. Hurt you. Just to hurt me. Or to control the boys. She was... she was very good at finding people’s weaknesses and exploiting them.”
The bitterness in his voice was tinged with something else. Relief, maybe. Or freedom.
“No one has really told me much about what happened with her. None of you really talk about her,” I said carefully.
“No. We don’t.” He leaned back in his chair. “Your brothers are good men despite me, not because of me. I failed them in so many ways, choosing her over them, letting her poison everything. But they’re trying to let me back in now. Giving me a chance I probably don’t deserve.”
“They seem to care about you.”
“They do. More than I deserve.” He smiled sadly. “And having you here... it’s given us something to focus on besides the past. A future. Something good that came out of all those years.”
I picked at a loose thread on my jeans. “I’m nervous about tonight. About fitting in.”
“I can see that.” His voice was gentle. “But Leigh, they already want you there. The hard part’s over. You’ve met them. They like you. Now it’s just about spending time together.”
“What if I say the wrong thing? What if I remind them that their dad had an affair and I’m the evidence of that?”
Jasper was quiet for a long moment. “You want to know what Trace said when I told him about you? He said, ‘We have a sister. When can we meet her?’ Not anger. Not judgment. Just... happiness. They all felt that way.”
Something in my chest loosened slightly.
“They’ve been through hell with Regina,” Jasper continued.
“They understand complicated family situations better than most people. You’re not a reminder of my failures to them.
You’re family they didn’t know they had.
Family that doesn’t have any connection to the one person who tried to destroy everything about them.
If anything, you’re a kind of hope they didn’t know they needed. ”
“I met Delaney and Blake for lunch this week,” I said. “They were really kind.”
“They’re good women. All the boys chose well.” He paused. “Caroline seems lighter here. Happier. Have you noticed?”
“Yeah. I have.”
“She’s a remarkable woman. Always was. I think about the choice she made, raising you alone, protecting you from all this mess.
..” He gestured vaguely at the house, the town, everything that had been his life.
“She’s stronger than I ever was. At first I wanted to be angry with her, but I can see now how incredibly brave she was. ”
“She did what she thought was right.”
“She did.” He looked at me again. “What was it like? Growing up in Blue Point Bay. Just the two of you.”
I told him about our small apartment, about Mom working double shifts, about learning to be independent early.
But also about the good things. The closeness we’d developed.
The tight-knit community. My cousins who were more like siblings.
Some people might have seen them as sad stories, a childhood where we’d struggled.
But I’d never seen it that way. There was nothing about back then that I’d have changed.
Well, maybe that it hadn’t been as hard for my mom.
But for me? She gave me an amazing childhood filled with love and family.
We might not have had the money, but what we did have was a lot more than what my brothers had.
Jasper listened intently, asking questions, genuinely wanting to know. And slowly, the awkwardness between us began to ease.
“I saw you with your camera the other day,” he said. “Walking through town. You looked like you belonged there. Behind the lens.”
“Photography’s always been my escape. My way of making sense of things.”
“Your mother mentioned you’re quite talented. Blake and Delaney certainly think so.”
“Blake wants to feature some of my work in her gallery.”
“You should do it. Put down roots here, if you want to. This can be home too, Leigh. Not instead of Blue Point Bay, but in addition to it. You don’t have to choose.”
The simple acceptance in his words made my throat tight.
“There’s something else,” he said carefully. “I noticed some tension. With Dex. And I’m not going to pry, but I want you to know... you don’t have to be perfect tonight. None of us are. We’re all just trying to figure this out as we go.”
I nodded, not trusting my voice.
“He’s a good man,” Jasper added. “Been through a lot. The boys consider him family, and so do I. But whatever’s between you two, you’ll figure it out. Or you won’t. Either way, it doesn’t change that you belong here.”
Before I could respond, the French doors opened and Mom appeared.
“Sorry, sorry,” she said. “I couldn’t decide what to wear.”
“You look beautiful, Caroline,” Jasper said, standing. There was something soft in his voice, something warm that made me look at him differently.
Mom blushed slightly. “Should we go? We don’t want to be late.”
Jasper moved toward the door, then paused and turned back to me. He put a hand on my shoulder, brief but genuine.
“I’m glad you’re here, Leigh. Really glad. And I’m sorry it took so long.”
“Me too,” I said, and meant it.
#
The drive to Trace and Delaney’s farm felt shorter this time. Familiar. Several cars were already parked in the gravel drive when we pulled up, and my stomach did an uncomfortable flip.
“Ready?” Mom asked.
“As I’ll ever be.”
Inside, the house was organized chaos. Kids running between rooms, adults congregating in the kitchen, the smell of something delicious in the oven. It felt lived-in and warm and welcoming in a way that made my chest ache.
This was what family was supposed to feel like.
“Leigh!” Delaney appeared, flour on her apron, a genuine smile on her face. “You’re here. Come in, please. We’re just finishing up dinner.”
Blake waved from the kitchen, Amelia on her hip. Reece was setting the table with Cade’s help. Billie was chopping something at the counter. The women moved around each other with the ease of people who’d done this a hundred times.
I wanted that. Wanted to be part of the rhythm instead of standing on the outside watching.
“Can I help?” I asked.
“Absolutely,” Delaney said. “Come grab plates.”
And just like that, I was folded into the preparations. Blake handed me silverware to set out. Cade showed me where everything went. The conversation flowed naturally, including me without making it feel like an effort.
The men were outside, I could see them through the window. Trace at the grill, Booker beside him, Gage and Xander talking while holding what looked to be a sleeping Barrett.
And Jasper, standing with them, part of the group in a way that seemed natural now. Not tentative anymore. Real.
But no Dex.
Maybe he wasn’t coming. Maybe he’d bailed, avoiding the awkwardness of seeing me again.
I told myself I was relieved.
I was absolutely lying.
Then I heard a truck pulling up outside, and my whole body tensed.
Through the window, I watched Dex get out. He looked tired. Like he hadn’t been sleeping well. He stood by his truck for a moment, staring at the house like he was gathering courage, before finally walking toward the porch.
Our eyes met through the window.
For a second, neither of us looked away. Then he disappeared from view as he reached the door, and I heard Trace’s voice greeting him.
“Dex! You made it. Come on, grab a drink. Beer? Water? Soda?”
“Water’s fine.”
His voice. God, his voice. Rough and familiar and making my stomach flip in ways I absolutely did not want to think about.
I focused on the plates in my hands, arranging them precisely, trying to look busy. Trying not to look at him when he walked into the kitchen.