No one said anything for a few seconds, and then Duncan sighed. “Oh, what the hell. Yeah, we might have spoken on the phone before agreeing to reply.”
Chase cleared his throat. “So, Mom and Hannah were talking. We want to throw a barbecue at the inn for dinner.”
“That’s so sweet,” Phoebe said.
“Aha,” Finn said with laughter. “I feel like we owe it to you to warn you. Mom will prod you and Griffin with questions about the decision to move in together.”
Phoebe’s eyes bulged, but then she shook her head. “I wanted to cook lunch for you, though.”
Finn shrugged. “We can eat a lot. We’ll be happy if you feed us for lunch and we get barbecue for dinner. It takes forever for us to barbecue anyway.”
“That’s true,” Chase said. “Whenever we all gather for that specific purpose, we somehow end up taking a million years to do it.”
“Yeah, that’s because everyone is too busy gossiping. Like now,” I said. “Come on, let’s load up our cars. Phoebe, you need help packing what’s left?”
She shook her head. “I’m already done with that, so I’ll help you. I’ll carry the boxes that aren’t too heavy.”
“Let’s all get to work,” I said.
I appreciated that they were all going above and beyond to put Phoebe at ease. And I had to give Finn more credit. He’d picked up immediately how important it was for her to cook a thank-you meal.
I’d always enjoyed doing things with my brothers. We were extremely good at pulling ourselves together when we had a goal. The result was that we finished loading up the boxes only two hours later.
It was a good thing that all of them came over. We could barely fit everything in six cars. I’d initially wanted to load up my Toyota, too, but the engine wasn’t starting. That was a problem for another day.
“Do you need to do one more check of the house before we leave?” Finn asked.
Phoebe shook her head. “I’m good. I already checked it a few times.”
“Let’s hurry,” I said. “We’ve got another two solid hours of work ahead of us.”
Phoebe winced, though it was almost imperceptible. I only caught it because I knew her so well.
I took her hand as we walked to the car, and she whispered in my ear, “I feel guilty.”
“Trust me, they’re enjoying it.”
“Hmmm… that can’t possibly be true. But I like spending time with your brothers.”
I kissed her hand. “I’m glad.”
She sighed, looking over her shoulder at the house before we got in the car.
“I can’t believe I’m finally leaving this place. I’m so excited for the next phase of my life,” she exclaimed as I gunned the engine.
“So am I. And if my brothers weren’t tailing us the whole way, I’d show you exactly how excited I am.”
“Don’t worry, I’ve got lots of ideas. I can’t wait to finally be alone. I keep making mental notes right here.” Phoebe tapped her temple.
My cock twitched. Damn, I was very close to finding an excuse to pull over somewhere. But they were all following me, so that was out of the question.
We arrived at the house a short while later. As soon as we got out of the car, Phoebe said loudly, “Guys, we actually do have drinks and stuff here. What do you want?”
“No! Work first,” Knox said, making the rest of us pause.
Chase was staring at him with bulged eyes. “You actually said that?”
“Yeah, there’s merit to that theory. And then Phoebe can feed us. I’ve already worked up a huge appetite.”
