I laugh as she pulls me to my feet. “Yes, let’s eat. Before everyone else gets here.”
.
Chapter 47
Rhea - Elvis?
“Ican’t believe you guys convinced two separate people to sell to you just so you could have a big property at the lake,” Ryder says. “But I think even with the two properties that Denise and I still have you beat for lot size.”
I look around the open concept design of the main floor of our house. There are boxes on every flat surface, plus more boxes stacked neatly against the walls. We’re lucky that they delivered our furniture yesterday, because now our guests at least have somewhere to sit. Aiden also unpacked the dishes so we have something to serve food and drinks with. Maybe instead of a housewarming party we should have planned an unpacking party. Not sure I really want all these weirdos going through our stuff, though. Not telling what sorts of things they’d find, or leave, if we let them.
“I’m sure you do have a bigger property. Gran was smart to hang on to that lot all these years,” Aiden says. “We just wanted to make sure we had something a little larger than most of the other houses out here offered. Plus, no one was selling anyway. I figured if we were going to offer to buy places that weren’t even for sale, we may as well see if we could get what we actually wanted.”
“Your realtor must have huge lady balls,” Denise says, “to go around the lake making tentative offers on every property.”
I laugh. “Oh yeah. Finley definitely should walk bow-legged because her lady-balls are enormous. Travis recommended her and it wasn’t until we’d sent her out to make those offers that we discovered we were her first clients.” I look around the house, scanning all of our guests. “I actually sent her a message and told her to come by tonight. We got these properties all thanks to her. The least we can do is invite her to the housewarming party.”
We’re waiting for the last of the guests to arrive so we can announce our engagement. Everyone is coming for what they assume is a housewarming party, but we’re going to surprise them with the engagement, too.
Just then, a swarm of about twenty kids runs through the house, chasing each other and screaming loudly. Before I can ask where they came from, since I’ve never seen them before, they start yelling at each other.
“You’re it.”
“No, you didn’t tag me.”
“Uh huh, I did. Mom. Braden says I didn’t tag him, but I did. He’s cheating.”
“Mom. Sarah is lying, again.”
“You guys are both lying. We weren’t even playing tag. You were just chasing me.”
“Shut up, Austin.”
A piercing whistle cuts through the noise, and the herd of kids stops in their tracks. Turns out there are only three of them.
Huh.
Who would’ve thought only three kids could make that much noise?
“Braden, Sarah, Austin. That’s enough. Come over here and wait for your mom to get inside.” Travis, apparently the source of the whistle, calls the kids over to the couch. “I’m sure you know better than to run around screaming in a stranger’s house. At least wait until you meet the people that own the house before you start acting crazy.”
The kids walk over and sit beside Travis.
“Sorry, Travis,” they say in unison.
Wow. Travis must spend a lot of time with kids if he’s able to wrangle these guys that easily. Or else he spends a lot of time with these kids specifically.
“Guys, where did you go?” Finley comes running in the front door, her head swivelling until she sees the kids sitting with Travis. “Oh, hey. Travis. I didn’t know you would be here tonight.”
Interesting.
“Yeah, um, I do some work with Aiden sometimes.” Travis runs his hands over the back of his neck. “The kids were just waiting for you to come in and introduce them to Aiden and Rhea.”
Travis gets up and walks over to see Gran and the rest of the titty club. They’ve adopted Cathy into their little group, but they’ve been having trouble thinking of a new name to account for the fact that there are four of them now. I keep trying to tell them they should keep the titty club name, because they won’t get a better cheer than ‘go titties’, no matter what name they choose.
“Fin,” I say, “We’re so glad you could make it. We were just telling our friends, Ryder and Denise, how huge your lady-balls are.” I point to Ryder and Denise, and Finley laughs and says a quick hello. “How come you never told me you have kids?”
“What? oh, um, yeah. Three kids. Braden, Sarah, Austin. Say hello to Rhea and Aiden.” The kids mumble hello and the one named Austin also waves to us. Finley finally turning to face me. “They’re supposed to be with their dad tonight, but… well, it’s complicated. I just wanted to stop in and congratulate you on moving in. We won’t stay too long. I wouldn’t want to put a damper on your party by having my kids running around.”
