I stared at him. “Chase, you set up a fake company to invest in your girlfriend’s business. You’ve lost the right to say anything is wrong or stupid for eternity.”
He nodded. “Fair enough.”
Knox pushed his chest forward a bit theatrically. “I’m proud of you. I didn’t think you had it in you.”
“Let’s continue the gossip session at Mom’s house,” Finn said. “I do want details, but I also don’t want us to get there late. Last time, Mom said she might starve us if we didn’t show up on time.”
“I’m sure she meant you two.” I pointed between him and Knox.
Finn laughed. “Well, I can’t argue with that because you’re right.”
After we left the meeting room, Hannah joined us. She was one of our best employees. We were lucky she was on our team. I had no idea how she managed to run an inn and hold a full-time job, but I had mad respect for her. She first started working here because she needed money to repair the inn, and now she was somehow doing both.
“How did it go?” she asked Chase.
“Well, we’ll consider adding more green companies to our portfolios of managed funds. How was your day?”
“Productive. Although, I’ve gotten a few cancellations at the inn for next month.”
We all drove separately to Mom’s house. I got there first, and my brothers arrived as I inspected her garden. We used to drop by more often, taking turns fixing whatever she needed around the house. Lately, Dad kept stopping by more often than we did. As I was about to head to the front door, I heard Mom’s and Dad’s voices filter around from the backyard. They were both laughing.
“Oh, come on. You know the kids will like this,” he said.
They came around the corner, and Dad froze. He had an arm around Mom’s waist that he immediately dropped. I wanted to wash my eyes instantly.
“Hi, Mom.” That was from Chase.
“Hey, I didn’t know you were here already.”
“Clearly,” Duncan said.
I chanced a glance at the other three. Wyatt was looking at me, nodding as if to say,“Yep, you called it.”Knox and Finn were just perplexed. We were all glad that our parents were getting along. They hadn’t officially announced that they were back together or dating, but I had a hunch that it wasn’t going to take long. Still, it had taken us the better part of our adult lives to get used to the fact that they were divorced. Seeing them back together was… an adjustment. I figured it was probably weirdest for Knox and Finn. They’d been very young when our parents split; I wasn’t even sure they remembered them being together.
“Jeremy’s already inside, setting the table. Your dad was helping me with the irrigation system. I always manage to mess up the digital console,” Mom said, but she wasblushing.
Shoot me now.That was a lie. Mom wasn’t good with stuff like repairing a sprinkler or something, but she aced digital systems. But we all pretended we believed them as we walked inside the house. As she’d said, Jeremy was already setting the table.
“I figured Riley would be here too,” I said, looking at Duncan.
“Nah, she’s going to join us later.”
I shook my head. “Damn, they’re running her ragged.”
“I know,” he replied. “But it’s her career, and I respect that she wants to climb the ladder.”
Riley was a hardworking woman. She’d been Jeremy’s nanny for a few months in between graduating law school and starting at a law firm. She was working late into the evenings most of the time.
Jeremy looked at each of us as we entered, grinning at Knox and Finn in particular. I had to learn some tricks and tips from my brothers if I ever wanted to get that level of admiration.
“I already set the table the way Riley and I practiced, Dad,” he said.
Duncan went to him, ruffling his hair. I remembered when Ifound out my brother was going to have a kid. It seemed like such a strange concept. Over the years, I’d realized I wanted kids of my own, but somehow that had never worked out. The combination of work and my lifestyle just wasn’t conducive to having kids. And as with all things in my life, I wanted to do it right. If I couldn’t be a good parent, I’d rather not have children at all.
“I made a chicken casserole and my famous goat cheese salad,” Mom exclaimed. The salad was already on the table. “I’ll take out the casserole after we eat the salad.”
Mom’s house was rather small. After the divorce, we’d lived with her in a slightly bigger one three blocks away. But as soon as Knox and Finn were in college, she sold that one and downsized.
She insisted on having a big dining area, though, so we could all gather here. We didn’t do it very often, unfortunately, but it was a treat whenever we all came over.
