Corinna smiles before her brow furrows. Then she shouts, “Brendan! Get your country music ass into my kitchen. It’s time to help me.”
That’s when my jaw falls open as country music star Brendan Blake separates himself from a different gaggle of people. He shakes his head even as he catches the apron tossed at him from the only male in the kitchen. “You have any number of volunteers. Can’t I have one night off?”
“Not if you want me to keep sending you baked goods on the road,” Corinna flings back.
“Fair point. Phil, get out of the way,” he orders the final person in the kitchen—Phil who I met briefly outside amid Caleb and Keene’s taunting of Charlie.
Phil steps out of the galley kitchen with a flourish, even as my heart starts beating erratically when he heads straight for me. Even though we “met” outside, my anxiety kicks up a notch. Charlie described him to me as, “Phil is the man I wish I could claim as my biological son. He’s given up everything—and I mean everything—for his family. I wish I was half the man he was.”
Considering Charlie used to be a Navy SEAL, it’s hard to reconcile the jokester I met outside with the kind of man who earned that level of reverence.
Phil grins wide enough to swallow the room's noise. “We didn’t get properly introduced outside. Rhoswen?” he confirms.
I place my mug down on a nearby table and hold out a hand “That’s me. Assuming Charlie didn’t exaggerate, you’re the single person I’m most terrified to meet.”
Phil barks a laugh. “I’m so sorry.”
“For what?”
“You don’t know us, but if Charlie exaggerated, it was in the wrong direction. He likely didn’t prepare you well enough.”
“For?”
Phil waves his hand back and forth. “Well, let’s just say this group has no belief about family privacy. We’re going to want to know all the details about how you met Charlie.” He pauses significantly before a devilish smirk takes over his face. “Especially if the topic of sex comes up.”
I repeat his statement as a question to make sure I understand, “You all talk about sex? As a family?”
“Well, to be fair, for a long time it was just me and the girls. They had questions and I did my best to answer them.” My heart melts a little when I realize this is part of the reason Charlie admires him so much. That feeling evaporates when he opens his mouth to reassure me, “Then, it became a bonus because it annoys Keene.”
I snap my eyes shut before muttering to myself, “Do not kill Charlie for failing to give you this information. You love him. He’s your person despite the fact he’s related to the Clan MacDonald.”
Phil’s delighted laugh peals out. “There’s so much there to unpack and I can’t wait until dinner for us to do so.”
I force one eye open to find him beaming at me. Letting out a deep breath, I ask with some vulnerability, “Do you mind keeping that close? I mean, Charlie’s family means everything to him and here he is introducing me to them for the first time.”
Phil wraps an arm around my shoulders and tugs me away from where I’d stationed myself. “Actually, that’s the kind of information that’s going to endear you to them.”
I meet the frosty eyes of Alison once again. Despite the fact I’m now under the cloak of her brother’s arm, I still feel a chill. “Somehow I doubt that.”
He’s insistent. “No, really, it will.” Before I can say yes or no, Phil flicks his hand to the side. “Doesn’t really matter; I’m going to anyway—it’s going to help me win a bet.”
I choke on air. “Excuse me?”
“Holly pointed out Charlie was in love. Since then, we’ve had a bet on when he’d finally bring you around.”
“Seriously?”
“Oh yeah.” He leans in conspiratorially, despite being terrible at whispering—exactly as Charlie warned. “Cassidy had money on Thanksgiving, but the others said he’d bring you around for our annual white elephant gift exchange. Ali predicted New Year’s. I said he’d chicken out until Twelfth Night.” He smacks his lips. “I can taste the batch of Corinna’s caramel chocolate brownies now.”
I laugh—because what else can I do?—but Charlie groans behind me.
“Phil,” he mutters in warning.
Phil waves him off. “Relax, old man. I’m making Rhoswen comfortable.”
“Hardly that,” Charlie counters.
Phil’s smile widens so much, his dimples pop. “Please. Look at her. She’s already handling us better than wife five ever did and we had her arrested.”
