“Not today. I wanted to see the helicopter.”
They continued to chat as Ben unpacked, then TJ followed him back downstairs. After a quick search, they found his parents in the solarium.
“Everyone will be here for dinner tonight,” his mom said as Ben sat down next to her.
TJ took his Lego box over to his grandpa to show him, and Ben had to smile at his dad’s excited response. He’d taken to being a grandfather like a duck to water.
“What are we having?” Ben asked.
Their former cook, Mrs. Stevens, had retired the previous year, leaving the cooking and running of the household to her daughters, with Connie being the head cook.
“I believe they’re preparing a prime rib dinner for us,” his mom said.
Ben relaxed back into his seat. “It will be nice to see everyone.”
“I’m happy to finally have all of you here,” his dad said. “It seems to be a hard task to get everyone in the same place at the same time these days.”
While Annie, Angie, Kiara, and Jude rarely traveled, Cole and Julian were gone sporadically, and of course, Ben was rarely around.
“Are you here for the whole summer?” his mom asked, hope in her voice.
“Most of it,” Ben told her. “But I might have to leave periodically.”
If he needed a break from life on the estate.
It wasn’t long before the house was filled with the sound of children’s laughter and adult conversation. They all greeted Ben enthusiastically, then they headed into the dining room for their first family dinner in quite awhile.
The large table was at its biggest setting, and even so, they were elbow to elbow in their seats. There were eight children joining the nine adults, which meant the meal was lively and loud. The formality at meals that had existed when he’d been growing up was pretty much a thing of the past.
Ben found that he enjoyed being surrounded by his family. It was interesting to see his siblings as parents, especially Julian.
“Are you dating anyone, Benji?” Annie asked as she wiped the face of her youngest, Carter, who hadn’t even turned one yet.
“Not at the moment.”
At one time, he’d tried to dodge his sisters’ questions about his dating life, but eventually he’d just given up. Beaten down by their persistence.
“What happened to your last girlfriend?” his dad asked. “I thought you were getting along well with her. She seemed very nice when we met her in New York last year.”
Ben hadn’t anticipated his dad getting in on the questioning. “We decided to go our separate ways.”
“Why, darling?” his mom asked.
“It just wasn’t working out. We wanted different things.”
“Like what?” Annie seemed determined to get to the bottom of that breakup, making Ben rethink how happy he was to be with his siblings.
“She envisioned a life that was different from what I wanted,” Ben said. “She wanted to attend all the fashion shows and the movie premieres. To be in the spotlight. On the red carpet. And you know that’s not me. Plus, she’d already decided she wanted to use a surrogate for any kids she had because it would be easier on her.”
“I can see why you chose to move on,” his dad said.
“It kind of came to a head when she found out I’d been invited to an event and had declined. I didn’t know that she wanted to go, so I hadn’t refused the invitation intentionally, but she seemed to think I had. She accused me of not supporting what she wanted in life.”
“Perhaps if we’d raised you in New York, you’d be more interested in that type of life,” his mom said.
“I’m glad you didn’t,” Ben told her. “I’m happy with how I’ve chosen to live my life. Mainly out of the spotlight.”
Word had eventually gotten out about him and the twins being Burkes, so they were invited to a lot of events that they might not have been otherwise.
