Absolutely not.
“I don’t need to track you. And I’m never mad. But seriously.” I inch forward and nibble on her bottom lip. “We really need to do something about the cat. She’s mean.” And like she knows I’m talking about her, she digs her claws into my pants, scoring my calf muscle. “She’s a menace. I didn’t agree to move a terrorist into my home.”
Rose giggles, wriggling and dancing on her chair. “No.”
“Aw, ain’t this cute?” Eliza swaggers into the kitchen ahead of Billy. Troopy. Hell, even Tommy and Alana and the kids. And behind them, Chris and Fox… and Fox’s slightly swollen belly. “My big brother is in luuurve. And Rosaline Valera is still drawing pretty pictures.” Eliza wanders across to the counter and peeks at the drawing. “Your brother was hot. Just so you know. Total smoke show.”
“Eliza!” Rose exclaims. “You’re a freak.”
“What!?” She lifts the page to the left and flips backward to another drawing. Then again. And again. “You’re banging my brother. I’m allowed to look at yours.”
“Dude.” Alana groans, shaking her head. “Have some respect. He’s deceased.”
“So? I’m not saying I’d bang him, since… like… duh. He’s deceased. But that doesn’t negate the fact he was a total babe.” She flips to another page and smirks. “Excellent bone structure in the Valera family. Jawlines are good. Eyes are pretty. Skin is healthy.” She turns to another drawing—Seth and Liam together again—and snickers. “How close do you think they were? Like…” She makes a stupid face. “A trip to the Eiffel Tower close, or…?”
“Good lord!” Alana forces Hazel into Eliza’s arms and pushes them away. “She’s looking for a reaction. Worse than a friggin’ child.” Glancing down at the sketchbook, she points toward a section of beautiful cursive script and reads, “Ollie and I finished the deck together. June twenty-third.” Her eyes shift toward the massive glass sliding doors leading onto the finished deck. Then back to the book, and another page. “Ollie started rebuilding the greenhouse for me. July sixteenth.” And right under that, grinning, she reads,“Ollie blackened his thumbnail with the hammer. He didn’t shout at me. Didn’t blame me. Didn’t scare me. July seventeenth.”
Curious, Fox strolls closer to look. “Are you afraid you won’t remember?”
“No. I remember everything since the hospital.” Rose wraps her arm around my hips and lays her face on the side of my chest. “I just like writing these things down sometimes. It makes me happy to go back and revisit those memories.”
Alana flips all the way back to the beginning, her eyes softening as she reads, “Ollie bought me this book. I didn’t even ask. He just did it because he knows I like to draw. Added it to my list of things to pay him back for. February eighteenth.” And then just beneath that, “Ollie discovered my list and tore it up. He wasn’t mad. Feels good that he wasn’t mad. Made another list. February 21.” And then a little further beneath that, way back when Liam was just a pair of eyes. Wire-frame glasses. A shadow in the back of her mind.“I feel awful for breaking Ollie’s mug.Replace it!!!!!”Alana releases a gentle, sweet sigh. “You underlined and added a half dozen exclamation marks afterreplace it.”
“Oh, boohoo to Rose and her mug. You should see the shit she said about me.” Eliza muscles her way back into our space, Hazel clinging to her side, and flips forward a couple of pages. “Eliza fights for a living. WTF is wrong with her?” She moves to another page.“Eliza is a total ass. She calls it tough love and training. I just think she likes the sound of her own voice. I would pop her in the nose if I didn’t think she’d kill me for it.”
“It was a compliment,” Rose snickers. “You’re a world champion. That’s a big deal.”
“Yeah, it’s a big deal. Why don’t you try that popping me in the nose thing? See how it works out for you?”
“You stomped the imprint of your shoes into a certain someone’s face,” Billy grumbles. “You lack emotional regulation, Eliza. And you made itmyprofessional problem to fix.”
“Ilack emotional regulation?” She leans back against the edge of the counter. “Have you seen yourself in the mirror? Besides, if you were better at your job, you would’ve predicted I would do that shit and handled the scene accordingly. This was a failure onyourpart, not mine.”
“You’re cussing a lot in front of my baby sister.” Franky scoops Hazel straight out of Eliza’s grip, settling her on his hip. “Cussing is for people not intelligent enough to use their words properly.”
“It’s kinda cute how he’s got those Watkins genes, but it’s like they’re dormant,” Fox snickers. “For now. Someday, eventually,Watkinswill come flying outta that mouth and shock us all.”
“You act like those Page genes aren’t the most vicious of them all.” Tommy crosses the kitchen, laughing and helping himself to my fridge, perusing its contents, and snagging a can of soda from the shelf.Twocans, because he won’t consume a single morsel of any damn thing without first ensuring Alana has some of her own. “Add in that Hazel will know Elizaas Aunty, and Aunty Eliza won’t sleep till she teaches Hazel how to crush a man’s skull under her boots. These kids are gonna fuck some shit up.”
“Like I said…” Franky walks around the table we rarely use and places his sister on top, tugging out a chair and sitting right in front of her. Smitten, he merely grins and holds her hips while she pulls the glasses straight off his face. “Your daddy’s a regular cussing baboon. You'd better stick with me if you wanna live up to your potential.”
“Argh!” Eliza skitters away from the counter, hissing at the cat whose claws slowly retract. “Dammit, Poopy! You’re a mean street hoe.”
“Don’t call her a hoe!” Rose snaps. “It’s not her fault.”
“She’s pregnant,” Fox drawls. “Like, alotpregnant. With a lot of kittens.”
“So? You’re pregnant, too!”
“At least I know who the daddy is.”
Poopy darts forward and sends Fox squealing and scampering away.
“Watch it, hoe! I know you know we’re talking about you.” Fox turns and taps Poopy’s tail with the tips of her toes. “She knows she’s a S-L-U-T.”
“I’ve been able to spell four-letter words since I was four years old.” Franky glowers. “I know you know that.”
“Is lunch almost done?” Eliza glances around the kitchen. “I was told there’d be food.”
