Dex closes his eyes. “Ethan…”
“How’s living with my brother been so far?”
Summer elbows him. “Hey.”
“Leave them alone.” She lifts a brow.
Ethan grins at her. “You know I like you all sassy like this.”
Summer rolls her eyes, but she’s smiling. Whatever silent conversation passes between them ends with Ethan turning back to his food.
“She is not living with me,” Dex shoots daggers at him.
“She literally is.”
“That’s not what… it’s just for a few fucking months!”
“Dexter Hawthorne.”
Lily doesn’t raise her voice.
“Little ears.”
She glances toward Mia.
Silence falls instantly.
Then, just as quickly, the conversation shifts back to normal.
After a while, Dex’s arm comes up behind me, settling along the back of my chair while he talks to Cas about blocked roads.
I glance at him. If he notices what he just did, he doesn’t show it.
This is not a big deal, Lexy. He just wants somewhere to rest his arm.
I look away and find Lily watching us. Her gaze follows his arm behind me, then lifts to mine. She smiles like she knows something I don’t.
I drop my eyes to my plate, trying to focus on my food. Trying not to think about where I am.
At the Hawthorne family table.
Between Jude, quiet and watchful, and Dex, whose nearness is making me feel things I don’t quite understand.
???
Dexter
Bringing Lexy here might be my smartest decision… or my worst.
Mama notices her the second she walks through the door. Of course she does. Mama notices everything. The way Lexy hovers half a step behind me like she isn’t sure she’s allowed to take up space. The way she studies the pictures on the walls like they belong to another world. The way she thanks Mama for hugging her.
Nobody thanks Mama for hugs, but Lexy does. And now she’s sitting at our table, wearing one of Grace’s sweaters like it was made for her.
It’s the soft cream one. The one Grace always says makes her eyes look brighter.
It does the same damn thing to Lexy’s.
Her hair falls loose around her shoulders, cheeks still pink from the cold outside, hands folded neatly in her lap like she isn’t sure where to put them.
