Chuckling, I shake my head.
Rylee: Later! Now I’ve got to get up and go downstairs so they don’t think I’m hiding from them.
Sutton: Ughhhhhh, fine! Go have fun with your hunky boy-toy while I navigate the minefield that is my family. Love you
Rylee: Love you too.
Throwing the covers aside, I get out of bed and make my way to the bathroom to shower and get dressed for the day. Wanting to look nice for his family, I throw on a short-sleeved sweater dress with buttons all the way down the front. After doing my hair and makeup, I head out of the bathroom and downstairs to the kitchen.
I hear Zander and his sisters as I approach the door and can’t help but grin. They’re so close and comfortable with each other. It’s really sweet to see… and really hard not to feel a bit envious of them.
Could Aidan and I have had this kind of relationship if he’d stuck around? If Dad hadn’t taken off, could we have been a happy family like the Caldwells?
Shaking my head, I quickly push the thoughts away and continue into the large kitchen with tiled floors, maple wood cabinets, and shiny, stainless steel appliances. I find Zanderstanding at the island, chopping vegetables, while his sisters and Mom buzz around him, stirring pots on the stove, mixing salads, and prepping a large turkey.
The moment I walk into the room, he looks up at me and smiles. Zander is dressed in dark jeans and a blue button up shirt with the sleeves rolled to his elbows. Damn… he looks so domesticated and sexy. The chorded muscles of his forearms flexing as he yields that knife like he’s been hiding years of culinary skills.
“Good morning, Wildcard,” Zander greets. “Coffee? There’s also some doughnuts if you’re hungry.”
Paige, Lauren, and Rosie all look at me with bright smiles.
“Morning, Rylee!” Rosie exclaims as her green maxi dress swishes around her legs.
“Did you sleep well?” Lauren asks, shaking out the sleeves of her floral blouse.
“I’ll get you that coffee,” Paige, wearing a navy figure-hugging sweater dress, offers, moving toward the coffeemaker to pour me a cup, even though I didn’t actually say I wanted any. I do, of course. I need that sweet bean juice to function.
Michelle looks up from stuffing the turkey and gives me a wide smile as well.
“Good morning, dear,” she says, sending warmth rushing through me. I suddenly miss my mom so much my chest aches.
“Good morning,” I reply, not moving from my spot inside the door, feeling a little awkward and uncertain of where I should go or what I should do.
At that moment, Paige reaches my side with a cup of coffee in one hand and a glazed doughnut and napkin in the other.
“Here you go.” She hands them to me. “Come on over and sit down and relax.”
She directs me to a stool on the opposite side of the island from where Zander’s standing. I settle in the seat and meet his amused gaze.
“How’d you sleep?” he asks.
“Good,” I reply. “Really good, actually.”
“Glad to hear that,” he chuckles, dropping his eyes back to his vegetables.
Weirdo.
I take a drink of my coffee and am surprised that it’s exactly how I take it - a little sugar and Califia hazelnut creamer. Did they just have it, or did Zander tell them to get it for me?
The thought makes me smile, but I lower my head so he can’t see it.
As I drink my coffee and eat my doughnut, I watch them work in a kind of controlled chaos, side-stepping each other and moving around the kitchen with an ease and familiarity that seems second nature. They talk and laugh as they work, the same rapid fire chatting as the night before, and as I watch them, that feeling of envy inside me grows.
This camaraderie between the siblings is something I never had. Aiden is way older than me, sure, but he never really tried to get close to me, and then he was gone, just like Dad.
“So, Rylee,” Rosie suddenly says, pulling me from my spiraling thoughts. “When will Zander’s article be out?”
“Well, I’m supposed to submit it sometime in the next few days, and it’s set to come out first Sunday in December. They always release on the first Sunday of every month.”
