I put this phone call off for most of the day, terrified my sister wouldn’t answer or, worse, that she would tell me she wanted nothing to do with me.
When I offer Knox his cell phone back, he refuses it. “Keep it in case your sister calls you back or you want to talk to her.”
“Don’t you need it?”
He shakes his head. “If I do, I know where to find it.”
“We’ll have to double for a few days,” Hunter says, eating from a bowl of cereal as he steps out of the house.
Knox stares at Hunter when he leaps down the porch steps and sits cross-legged on the ground in front of us. “Dude. Youjustate a sandwich.”
“I’m still hungry,” Hunter says and returns to his bowl.
“I’ll bunk with him,” Elias says with a tired sigh, sitting beside Knox on the porch step. “I already regret it, but I will take one for the team.”
“Maisie can bunk with me,” Wyatt says.
“Why do we need to bunk?” I ask.
Hunter points his spoon at me. “When your sister and her family come to stay. We have one spare room, but no one can use it. Now there are two. A room for your sister and her husband, and another for your niece and nephew.”
I bounce my gaze between them, confused about what’s happening here. “Why are you all preparing for my sister to come to town?”
“Because she’s family,” Wyatt says, yawning.
I smile up at him. “Were you falling asleep?”
He squeezes my shoulder. “I was resting my eyes.”
“You rode him too hard, baby,” Elias says, waggling his eyebrows suggestively. “Guy hasn’t been the same ever since.”
I blush. “How’d you know about that?”
Hunter swallows another mouthful of cereal. “He gave us a lift to work.”
Horrified, I press my hands against my hot cheeks. “His truck smells like sex.”
“It does not smell of sex,” Wyatt rumbles. “I left the windows down and aired it out all night, sweetheart. You can’t smell a thing.”
Elias, Hunter, and Knox explode into laughter as I bury my face in my hands. “Ah! Stop making it sound like I skunked up your truck,” I yell, prompting more laughter. I peel my hands from my face. “Wait. How did you know I rode him?”
A slow smile stretches across Elias’s lips. “I didn’t. But I do now.”
“It’s nothing to be embarrassed about. He will never wash the inside of that truck again. Neither would the rest of us.” Hunter, finished with his cereal, uncrosses his legs and gets to his feet. “Time to start dinner.”
We all look at the empty bowl in his hands.
“It was a snack,” he says. “Nowit’s time for the main course. What are you feeling? We have salmon or chicken that we've gotta use before it spoils. I can make the teriyaki salmon you all like, but we’re low on soy, so it won’t be as good.”
We get to our feet, Hunter throwing out suggestions we all yay or nay on our way back into the house. I’m smiling, amazed that I didn’t even have to ask to invite my sister to stay, and they were already making plans for it.
Wyatt leans against me and puts his mouth to my ear, whispering as the others walk inside. “Hunter is right. I’m never washing those seats again, darlin’. I had the ride of my life, and I never want to forget it.”
I’m blushing when Elias turns around. His eyes slide from me to Wyatt. “What are you two whispering about?”
“Sports,” I blurt out, my face hot.
I feel Wyatt looking down at me.
