“Chill out LJ, you’re going to make him think our family is crazy.” Mabel admonishes her little sister but I can tell it is all in jest. “Going to?” I tease back. Mabel winks at me as she and Lola sit down at the table. Lola sits next to me and Mabel across the table from her.
“Oh, I knew I was going to like you. Patrick, guests always get served first, come make yourself a plate.” Donna joins the three of us at the table, bringing a loaded plate and placing it in front of herself. I stand and walk over to the buffet style layout.
My stomach growls as I take in the options. Cinnamon rolls, fried eggs, cheesy scrambled eggs along with bacon and sausage. It all looks incredible and I load up my plate with a cinnamonroll, scrambled eggs and a couple pieces of sausage. I would be tempted to take more, everything looked delicious but I was the first to dish up and we all needed the fuel for today.
Not long after Lola and Mabel fill up their plates and return to the table, Jude walks in to join us. His eyes zero in on the back of Mabel’s head but he doesn’t say anything. He does stop at Donna’s chair and wraps her in a one arm hug, kissing the top of her head. “Good morning Mama D.” Donna wraps her arms around Jude’s gigantic forearm. “Hey Judey baby, how are you doing?” Jude makes a non-committal noise as he rises to his full height, nodding at Lola and myself in a welcome before making his way to the smorgasbord.
Yesterday, on our walk back to Elle’s office, I got some back story for Jude. Apparently he has been working for the Farm in some way since he was 16. He started as a summer farm hand and now he was the right hand man of Lola who was the owner of everything Warren Farms and Apiary. With over 10 years of working with the family, it made sense he would be like another family member to the Warrens.
From my understanding, Lola was the owner and all the other siblings held majority stock claims or something like that. Business never made too much sense to me but I could tell that the Warren’s made taking care of their employees a priority.
“Got word from some of the others, I don’t think any other employees are going to make the hike. Sounds like that bug is going around.” Jude’s deep voice rumbles out. I’m slightly disappointed because I was excited to get associated with more of the employees.
“What the fresh fucking hell is this?”
Five pairs of eyes whip to Elle who is standing in the space between the foyer and kitchen, red faced with her arms crossed in front of her chest. I try not to focus on the swell of her breasts as her forearms press against them but apparently I’m still theworld’s biggest creep because I can’t move my focus to anywhere else.
That is until Donna drops the biggest bomb and blows my mind. “Elspeth April Warren, you do not use that type of language in my house!”
Chapter Thirteen
ELLE
Ihope Paul isn’t too attached to our sisters because I am about to commit sorocide. I would never kill my mother but maybe I would wait to add her to my list of visitors for a year or two as punishment for sharing my full name with Jude and Patrick.
I was so mad I could spit.
I attempt to take a deep breath and calm myself. Trying to remember that I wouldn’t want Henry to go through the trauma of visiting me in jail. Hell, Anika would more than likely refuse to let Henry visit and I would be forgotten by my favorite person in the world.
No, no. I couldn’t have that.
Mabel and Lola were damn fucking lucky my love for Henry eclipsed the anger I was feeling in this moment.
I let out a quick huff—Mama couldn’t say anything about swearing in my motherfucking damn ass thoughts. “Oooooooh, Elle’s in trouble!” Mabel’s voice rings in the silence after our mother’s admonishment.
I stick my tongue out at her as Mom turns her head to Mabel. “Mabel June, you knock that off right now.” Jude tries to hide hislaugh behind a cough but fails. That earns a scowl from Mabel that rivals my most lethal.
I’m slightly impressed.
Only slightly.
I was still fucking pissed.
“Sorry Mama.” I grumble as I fully step into the dining area. I step behind my mother’s chair and give her a quick peck on the top of her head before heading over to the spread. I make quick work of making selections and make my way back to the table. I overheard Jude’s comment about no one else making it when I was walking in.
It makes me want to grind my teeth, the table is still set up to accommodate a bigger group but there is no way I can go sit at one end of the table when everyone is all huddled together.
No, combine something like that with my outburst when I walked in and found my Intruder sitting across from my mother and my whole family would be fixing to tie me to my chair until I confessed what the hell was wrong with me.
There’s nothing to confess but Mom would definitely read into something that absolutely isn’t there.
I take another deep breath and make my way to the chair next to my baby sister. Lola is completely focused on her plate but by the pinkening of her cheeks, she knows that I know she was behind this and we’d be having a conversation later.
Chapter Fourteen
PATRICK
Elspeth.
