“Don’t you think it’s time y’all were a bit more practical?” Richard asked. “Now that you’ve got a family to take care of, y’all both need steady work instead of the hobbies you’ve been focused on. I’m sure Will or Mac would be happy to line you up with a job down at town hall, Nat.”
She huffed out a disbelieving laugh. “What part of my personality makes you think I’d be happy workin’ at town hall? And thosehobbiesare doin’ just fine for us.”
“Richard, we’re not gonna rehash this same argument every time your daughter comes home,” Caroline said as she fed Owen his bottle.
Richard held up his hands in surrender. “I’m not rehashin’ anything. Just didn’t see them doin’ those jobs now, is all.”
“Well, Daddy, we’re a little busy tryin’ to keep things as normal as possible for June, while fielding social worker appointments and waitin’ to make sure another rich family doesn’t get their way simply because they have money. You might know a little something about that, though. Been makin’ sure you got your way for years. Unfortunately, we can’t buy our way out of this one.”
She’d gone rigid beside me, her anger over her daddy using his power to get out of situations nothing new. It’d weighed on her back when the three of us would get into trouble together but only Nash and I ever got stuck with any charges. Apparently, Havens didn’t do the whole court thing.
I put my arm around her and tucked her into my side, pressing a kiss to her temple. “You’re lettin’ him bait you,” I said in her ear. “And you’re gonna let him undo all that hard work I did this mornin’ makin’ sure you started the day relaxed.”
She slid me a look out of the corner of her eye, her lips tipped up in a way that told me she was recalling exactly how we’d spentour morning—namely my fingers getting her off while my cock ached for her pussy. Hadn’t been time, though. Not when June was an early riser and didn’t have qualms about waking us at the ass-crack of dawn.
“Well, we won’t need to worry about that,” Caroline said, pulling me out of my thoughts. “I have no doubt y’all’re the best fit for these kids. You’re who Aubrey and Nathan wanted, and Judge Seville will see that.”
Yeah, I’d thought so, too. Or hoped, anyway. But the more days that went by, the more unsure I became.
I’d bet everything I had on this working out. Had poured myself into it, had begun to settle in and get comfortable in this life I wasn’t sure I’d ever wanted.
One good thing was, that wasn’t a question anymore. I’d grown to love this life in the few short weeks I’d been living it. Which meant it was only going to hurt that much worse if it was all taken away.
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
ASHER
A few days later,Owen’s babbles woke Nat and me along with the sun. The early hour came far too soon, considering how late I’d kept us both up.
Nat groaned and smashed her face into her pillow. “Why do I continue allowin’ you to keep me up till all hours of the night?”
I smiled against her shoulder before pressing a kiss there, recalling her breathy moans ordering me to give her more. “Funny, I never hear you complain while I’m doling out orgasms like candy.”
“Wow. How’re you gonna walk out of here with that gigantic head?”
“Which one?”
“Oh my God,” she said on a laugh as she jabbed her elbow back into my stomach. She threw off the covers and climbed out of bed, completely unconcerned with her nakedness. And I certainly didn’t mind watching the show.
She slipped on a pair of leggings—sans panties, I couldn’t help but notice—and slid one of my too-big T-shirts over her head. “I’ll take one for the team and grab first point on Mr. Pee Pants this mornin’. And you should probably figure out why Miss Junie B. wasn’t the one wakin’ us up,” she said over hershoulder as she strolled out of the bedroom and toward Owen’s room.
“Can’t exactly greet her like this,” I mumbled, closing my eyes and willing away my seemingly ever-present erection. Or ever-present when it came to Nat, anyway.
Once I got myself under control, I slipped on a pair of sweatpants and finger combed my hair out of my eyes as I padded out into the hallway in search of June. I smiled as the sounds of Nat mimicking Owen’s babbles floated out from his room, not quite believing how seamlessly she’d slid into this role.
As much as she had, I knew she also must have been twitching to get away, something I’d been thinking about more and more after my talk with Gran.
This had been the longest Nat had ever been stuck in one spot since she was eighteen, and I had no doubt the itch to flee was crawling under her skin. We might not be able to escape to Barcelona or Peru, but maybe I could figure something else out. Something we could do in or around Havenbrook to give her a taste of the adventure she craved.
I poked my head in June’s bedroom, my heart lurching at the sight of her empty bed, panic like I’d never known seizing me.
“Junebug?” I called.
Pulse hammering, I glanced into the living room and kitchen before spinning back around. I released a long, relieved breath when my gaze locked on Aubrey’s bedroom at the end of the hallway, the door opened a crack. With trepidation, I made my way to the end of the hall, pushing open the creaky door and glancing around the space I still hadn’t been able to bring myself to step into since I’d been back.
Christ, it still smelled like my sister. The scent swept over me as I stood there, assaulted by memories of her smile and her laugh, the way she cut the crusts off her pizza and saved them forlast, and how she dreamed of traveling to California but hadn’t ever gotten around to it. That invisible fist that’d left me alone reached into my chest again and gripped my heart, painful and unavoidable.
It might have been weeks since she’d died, but I still hadn’t been ready to go in there. But as my eyes landed on my niece, curled up in the middle of her parents’ king-sized bed, I realized this was about far more than what I was comfortable with.
