Dad’s pride shines in his eyes. “You know who will want to see those paintings.”
“Uncle Nix! I brought my sketch book to show him.”
“He’s in the greenhouse with Mimi.” Dad nods toward the back door. He barely has the sentence out of his mouth before Lauren jumps off her stool and rushes outside with her sketchbook clutched to her chest.
“I’m ready now. You can smell my hands.” Leah races back into the room with her hands held out.
“I believe you. Hop on up here. I need you to sprinkle flour on the dough when I say.”
“Got it. And we only use a little at a time ’cause the dough will get too dry.”
“That’s my girl.” Dad winks at her. “What new thing are you working on, son?”
My self-control.I don’t say that out loud though. It’s killing me not to ask Gia to spend time with me every day. It’s as if the days are flying by in a blur. The upside is, I think she’s feeling the same way. We text almost every day, and if I’m not asking her to come over for dinner, she’s asking me to get coffee or go to lunch.
There have been several lunches spent not eating actual food, and I swear every time I get that woman naked, I become this insatiable man I don’t recognize. I kind of like it, and Gia seems to benefit just as much.
“I’m learning new things about myself.”
“Does this have anything to do with the cute little blonde I’ve been hearing you’re hanging out with lately?”
“That’s Gia. She’s so nice. She had a sleepover with us.”
Dad raises an eyebrow at me.
“She got stuck on the side of the road in that snowstorm we got during the Ice Festival, and the girls and I picked her up. She didn’t have anywhere else to stay, so she stayed with us for a few days.”
I swear, Dad’s shoulders drop in disappointment. “Well, that was nice of you.”
“We’ve hadluncha few times since then,” I emphasize the word to key him into my relationship with Gia.
Dad’s face lights up. “That’s wonderful, son. Did she want to come out here with you guys?”
“Aw, Daddy. We shoulda inbited her. I coulda showed her my tree house.”
That tree house was built when I was a kid, and yet it’s sturdier than ever. Dad regularly checks that none of the boards have rotted and that it’s safe.
“I believe she had other plans today,” I tell Leah. Gia didn’t actually have plans today. She asked what we were up to, and when I told her we were coming out to the farm, she seemed a little disappointed. I wanted to invite her right then, but that would’ve been way too much for our temporary relationship.
Fuck, every time I think about this thing ending, my stomach knots. I don’t want it to be temporary. I want her to stay, but that’s insane. She’s only been here for three weeks. It’s not possible to have this strong of feelings for someone I barely know.
I dodge Dad’s narrow-eyed stare. It’s the one that my brothers and I always hated. We swore Dad could read our minds when he looked at us like that.
Before he can needle out what’s on my mind, Gage and Xander walk into the house.
“Hey, Holty!” Gage grins at me. He gives me a tight hug, and I hold on to him until he lets go. It was one of the thingsMom always did with us. She was never the first person to let go when we needed a hug. Sometimes she’d hold us for several minutes when we were really needing a cuddle.
Gage is the baby of the family at twenty-eight. With his blonde hair pulled back into a man bun, he looks like he’d fit in on a beach better than the mountains.
Behind him is Xander, the second youngest of the Basil clan at thirty-three. As a mechanic, he always smells like fresh soap with a hint of motor oil. It doesn’t matter how many times he washes his hands with that orange shit—they’re still stained with grease.
“You doing okay?” I ask Xan as he gives me a quick hug after Gage walks away.
“Yep.”
“Verbose as ever,” I tease. He rolls his eyes, having heard the joke too many times to find it funny anymore. In a house packed with people, Xander always seemed to fade to the back. We did our best to ensure he felt included, but he preferred to read while the rest of us played board games or wrestled when arguments broke out over who was cheating.
Mom and Nix come inside with Lauren behind them, jabbering a million miles an hour. Mom has her gray-streaked hair pulled back in a clip today. She’s got dirt smeared across her face that Dad immediately tries to wipe off as he lovingly grins at her.
