“Same old, same old, I guess.” I shrugged.
He pulled his lips into a straight line and nodded. A sadness dimmed his eyes at my lack of sharing before he looked down at his plate.
“Blake and I are kind of… on a break,” I hedged. I hadn’t made any decisions yet, so technically, we were still together, although I wasn’t sure what version of him awaited me when I returned. If I returned. “It’s complicated.”
“It doesn’t have to be. I knew I wanted to marry your mother the moment I met her. Not a day has gone by that I haven’t loved Rebecca with everything I have,” he said. That was the thing though. The whirlwind romance, the declarations of love… they didn’t always mean that a happily ever after was on the other side. “I know hurt when I see it, Lydi-bug. You can talk to me if you want, but I won’t pressure you to. Just know, there will always be a place for you around this table, in this house, and in this family. Doesn’t matter how long you’ve been away. That bedroom down the hall will always be yours.”
Annoying tears prickled at the corners of my eyes before I blinked them away. I wasn’t going to saddle my father withthe shitshow his only daughter had managed to turn her life into, not when his life was finally looking brighter.
“Thanks, Dad. I’m fine though, really.”
“Okay. If you say so.”
He took our empty plates, putting them in the sink, and started cleaning the kitchen.
“I can get that. You did all the work already.”
“Eh, don’t worry about it. I’m usually on dish duty anyway, cleaning up after Sheila.” He rinsed the plates before adding them to his ancient-looking dishwasher. Drying his hands on a towel, he turned to me, his back against the kitchen counter. “What time are you taking off?”
“Um, I’m not sure. I thought maybe I’d hang around for the day. Maybe swing by Wyatt’s and play with girls for a bit.”
A smile tugged at the corner of his lips, looking so much like my dumb brothers. “Hang around as long as you want, Lydi-bug. No need for you to rush on back.”
“We’ll see, Dad.”
* * *
A few more days had passed, and I was no closer to making any sort of decision about my life. I sank down on the couch, the same spot where I had been rotting away for the past four days, when the noise level ratcheted up to twelve in the space of half a second. Wyatt strolled into Dad’s house, wrestling a screaming toddler. He had Jane in a football hold as she flailed her arms and kicked her legs. Behind him, his fiancée, Maeve, bounced their youngest, Veda, as she too screamedher pretty little head off.
My brows winged up at him.
“Don’t give me that look,” Wyatt grumbled. “She’s pissed that she had to wear socks, but it’s fucking freezing out there, and she has tiny feet. The cold will eat through her in an instant.”
“Then what’s her problem?” I asked, jutting my chin out to the wailing infant.
“She’s teething,” Maeve said with a shrug. If I had sharp shards of enamel cutting through my gums, I would be pretty pissed too. I could understand that.
It was crazy to me to see my oldest brother settling down with a family of his own, two mini monsters with their powerful lungs and grubby hands. Cute monsters… but still.
I hadn’t heard a car pull up over the cries of Wyatt’s girls, so when the door opened again, my head snapped to look over my shoulder, a pit forming low in my stomach. Luke and Scarlett waltzed in next, Scarlett’s belly showing the slightest signs of the tiny terror growing inside of her. I let out a slow breath and looked around to see if anyone noticed, but no one was looking at me.
“Hi, guys. Hey, Lydia,” Scarlett smiled. Luke’s girlfriend was friendly and warm, her smile as bright as her copper hair, so different from his ex-wife. I was glad to see him with someone who brightened his life instead of darkening the heavy rain cloud over his head.
“Hi,” I greeted them.
Wyatt put Jane down, and she ran to my father, her eyes red and puffy from crying, her pleading gaze begging to be comforted from the injustice inflicted upon her by socks.
Last to arrive were the newly wedded Mr. and Mrs. Reidand Claire Wilder.
“Hey, everyone,” Claire called, hanging her floor-length puffy coat on the hook by the door.
“Hey, if it isn’t the newlyweds.” Luke grinned at them.
“Lyds, you’re still here.” Reid smiled and wrapped his arms around my neck. I squirmed, trying to get out of his hold, but he wasn’t the teenage little shit that he was when I left anymore.
“Get off,” I griped, pushing at his chest until he let me go.
I hadn’t been to a regular Sunday night dinner in ages. The couple of times I would come down here were always for holidays. These last four days were the longest single stretch I had been in town since the day I packed it up and got the hell out. It was strange to be back here again.
