“I’ll go with you,” Rose pipes up. “She usually doesn’t throw stuff if there’s two of us.”
The two disappear up the stairs. I pad barefoot into the kitchen where everyone has congregated. Leah is pulling takeout containers of pancakes, fruit salad, breakfast burritos and home fries out of the bags Rose was carrying and my dad is making coffee.
“I’m so glad you’re all here for the second Christmas in a row! I feel spoiled!” my mom gushes and she cups my face in her hands and kisses my cheek. It’s been four weeks since I last saw my parents in Brooklyn, but my mom always acts like it’s been years. “You look good, Devin. Really good.”
I smile at her. “I am good. I’m great. I’m…just really content, you know?”
For a second I think I see her bottom lip quiver but she pulls it into her mouth and nods. “It really shows.”
“You look like you gained weight,” Jordan observes with a smirk. “You better watch it. A fat hockey player is a bad hockey player.”
I flip him the finger. “I’m not fat, jackass.”
“Language!” my dad warns.
“Callie is just a great cook. But it’s healthy,” I explain and rub my hands over my bare, muscular chest and stomach. “The trainers say I’ve actually improved my muscle mass. So up yours,BigBird.”
Cole and Luc chuckle at Jordan’s expense.
“She really is rubbing off on you. Fantastic,” Jordan replies dryly.
My mom puts a hand over my arm and I glance at her. She looks worried about something.
“Ashleigh has brought Conner by the house a few times since she got here for the holidays,” she says carefully, her blue eyes clouded with concern.
My heart almost stops. “Is he okay? Is something wrong?”
“Oh, no, honey, he’s great!” she assures me with a smile. “Your dad’s been taking him out on the rink to skate.”
“He’s going to be faster than all of you lugs,” my dad pipes up with a proud grin as he starts handing out mugs of coffee.
“Ashleigh and I have been talking,” my mom continues in a lower voice meant only for me. “You know…while Dad and Conner skate.”
She just stares at me for a long minute like she’s trying to find something in my face—in my expression. I don’t know what she wants, but I’m fairly certain I look guardedly indifferent.
“She’s having a hard time, son,” my mom finally confesses.
I stare at her for a long moment.
“I’m going to go find a shirt to put on,” I say simply and walk out of the room.
I stand in the hall and try to not get angry with my mom. But I can’t help but be upset and confused. My mother loves Callie. She loves Callie and me together. She told me that point-blank just a few weeks ago when I told her we’d decided to date. A few days alone with Ashleigh and all of a sudden she wants me to what? Take on responsibility for Ashleigh screwing up her own life? That’s not my problem—and my mother shouldn’t think it should be my problem.
As I start up the stairs, Callie, Jessie and Rose are coming bounding down them. I catch Callie’s eye. She looks slightly sleepy but beautiful and happy. She loves being with her sisters even more than I love being with my brothers. I smile lovingly at her.
We meet on the landing halfway up, where the stairs change direction. She holds up a pale gray long-sleeved T-shirt. “Looking for this?”
I wrap an arm around her waist and pull her to me and kiss her. She tastes like toothpaste. “I was actually looking for you. Morning, baby.”
“Morning, baby,” she repeats back with a beautiful smile as she kisses me again.
When we pull apart, I see tears in Jessie’s eyes and a big smile spread across her face. She quickly looks away and starts past us on the stairs. Rose follows.
“Get dressed, Devin, or Callie might jump you in the middle of brunch and ruin it for all of us,” Rosie kids and reaches back to grab Callie’s arm, pulling her down the rest of the stairs and completely ruining my idea of sneaking back upstairs with her for a quickie.
I snag the shirt from Callie and pull it over my head, walking back downstairs after the girls. As soon as I hit the landing, the doorbell rings again. I furrow my brow. Everyone is here. I have no idea who it could be. I glance into the kitchen as Callie is hugging my mom and then my dad, and then reach for the door handle and swing it open.
Ashleigh and Conner are standing there bundled up in their winter coats. As soon as I see Conner, my eyes light up and so do his. He raises his little arms and yells, “Daddy!”
