“Like you always do,” her mother said.
“But it’s hard. He’s making the effort to stay on the island. He’s going to talk to someone at Bond Realty this week for a place to rent for six months.”
“That has to make you feel better,” Avery said.
“Very. You heard him when Grayson asked his plans.”
“Clearly.”
Arik said he had no intention of leaving the island in the near future for anything more than a day trip on the ferry.
He had nowhere to go, nothing to do other than fill his time, or win her over.
The last had to be a joke, but no one laughed.
No one but her.
Her family turned their heads to see her reaction, the blush filling her cheeks faster than throwing a can of red paint against the wall.
“Dinner is just about ready,” her mother said.
“We’ll finish setting the table,” she said. “Avery, it looks as if your son is down for the count.”
“And Arik doesn’t appear as if he wants to give him up.”
Avery left the kitchen and made her way to her boyfriend. “You’re going to take him from me, aren’t you?” he asked.
“She’s mean that way,” Carter said. “But Luca should probably lie down. He’ll sleep longer.”
“Sorry,” Avery said, reaching for her sleeping son.
“Mom doesn’t let me play with Luca as long as I’d like either,” Josie said.
“He’s not a doll,” Avery said. “And he needs his sleep just like the rest of us.”
Natalie brought the plates out to set the table and Arik stood up. “I’ll help.”
“You don’t have to.”
“I want to,” he said close to her ear. “I’ve been sitting for an hour. I should do something.”
“You’ve been doing something,” she said. Winning her family over without even trying.
“Guess I have my answer on babies,” he said. He picked the plates up and set them around the table.
There was a tiny part of her that feared Arik would look down on her childhood home or family.
She didn’t know why she’d thought that when no one looking at him would think of the wealth he had.
Even the money he had growing up.
Their childhoods were so far apart they might as well have been a mouse and an elephant.
Yet he settled in quickly, talked about cars with Carter as if he had worked on them as long as her brother had. Probably just one of those hobbies he had or research he’d done in his free time.
Then he switched over and spent a good thirty minutes talking about investments, stocks, and mutual funds with Grayson.
All of it went over her head. She gave a percentage of her salary to her brother to invest for her each year and thought nothing else of it after.
