Kol rescued the dog and tucked him under his arm. “Almost there,” he said, and Doc slobbered all over Kol’s chin.
Piper was keeping herself so busy in the kitchen that she didn’t even glance at Kol when he came in, but her grandmother called him out to the den to help watch the toddlers anyway. He was hesitant, but it turned out babies enjoyed fetch as much as dogs did, they were just significantly slower at it. He sat on the floor and kept the children occupied until there was a commotion at the front door, shrieks of “Daddy!” and “Piper!” filling the hall.
“That sounds like Michaela,” Grandma Tilda chuckled, and then whispered to where Kol sat on the floor, “Piper is her favorite cousin, and I think the feeling’s mutual.”
Kol gave the littlest children a nervous look, but they were so worn out from chasing Doc’s ball that they’d fallen asleep against the couch. Grandma Tilda went on to explain how Michaela was Russ’s only daughter—to which Kol held his tongue despite wanting to blurt out,What god allowed him to procreate again?—and how Michaela’s mother dropped her off for only one or two nights every holiday. A short while later, a blonde girl of maybe seven came out into the den and brightly greeted Grandma Tilda before turning to Kol.
Her mouth drew down and her eyes narrowed on him from his spot on the floor.
“Piper says you’re her boyfriend.”
That brought a grin right to Kol’s face. “That’s me.”
She continued to assess him with painful scrutiny until he felt about two feet tall, and then she shrugged and pulled her rolling suitcase around to lay flat on the floor. “Who do you want to be?” From her messy pile of clothes, she produced four dolls, each dressed in mismatching clothing with hair in varying states of disarray.
He glanced sidelong into her bag and eyed a purple-colored pony. “Can I be the horse?”
“Horses don’t talk.”
“I assure you—”
“They don’t. You need to be one of the sisters.”
Kol sighed and picked out the doll with bangs that Michaela herself had clearly cut, and for the next few hours took on the role of Princess Tiffany Bananafish which was a bit of a relief since he was more than a little exhausted with being himself.
When everyone was finally called to dinner, Kol sat at the massive table, and relief crept into his veins when Piper finally slipped into the chair at his side. She flicked a quick look at him, her lips quirked up, and fireworks burst inside his chest.At least she’s not mad.
There were two steaming pots of herby-smelling stew on the table being ladled out for the youngest by their parents. Kol relaxed back into his chair as a wave of something like sleepiness hit him, gaze wandering over to Piper again. On her other side, Michaela was hugging her arm and telling her how good everything smelled, and Piper’s dark eyes had softened, her lips had softened, everything about her had gone sosoft. He wanted to reach out and wrap his arms around that softness and keep her like that, but Michaela was doing a better job than he probably could have.
Piper went to stand, reaching for the abandoned ladle, but Kol saw his chance, quickly superseding her and snatching up the utensil and her bowl. “Sit,” he said with much less bite than he usually mustered, and served her first.
She stayed where she was, anchored by her young cousin, and she gave him a wide smile that made him wish he had so much more to give her than just soup.
“I want to know how Piper and Kol met.”
Kol placed Piper’s full bowl before her and then fell still, gaze pinging across the table in hopes no one else heard, but of course they did, Aunt Deb was the loudest of the bunch.
“Oh, yes!” Aunt Mindy chimed in. “I bet it was so romantic.”
Piper coughed out a laugh and shook her head. “No, no, nothing like that!”
Aunt Deb scoffed. “You haven’t ever brought a man to a single family gathering, so this one’sgotto be special. Fess up!”
“Yeah, I’d like to know too,” said Presley, frowning deeply and taking the ladle from Kol with way more force than needed, “considering she’s never mentioned you before.”
“We just met in the forest, no biggie.” Piper waved her hand as she told a technical truth albeit the most simplified, boring version. “He saved me from a moose.”
Okay, that was a lot less boring.
Various sputtering and exclamations filled up the dining room, but Presley was quick to rebut, “No one gets saved from a moose—moosealwayswin.”
“It wasn’t a moose,” Kol said just as quickly. “She’s just kidding. It was a—”Don’t say fehszar, that would be bad. “A chipmunk.” Well, shit, that might have been worse.
“A what?” asked a voice from the table, and all went quiet, waiting.
“The sun was low, shadows were long, you know.” Piper stuffed a spoonful of stew into her mouth and glared at Kol.Oh, damn it, not more glaring.
“I thought you were in the woods?” asked someone who remembered things far too well.
