I haven’t talked to Oakley in a couple of days, and I just feel down about the entire situation. I’ve decided that family dinner will be the thing to cheer me up if I can just shut my brain up for a couple of hours.
I walk into Ledger and Ainsley’s home, making a beeline for the kitchen, hoping there’s wine or a seltzer—I don’t really care, just anything to take this depressed edge off.
“Well, hello, kill anyone off lately?” Ainsley saddles up next to me, and I have to laugh at her. It’s become a sort of game to her to try to guess who in town I’ve killed off that week. She’s yet to guess correctly, so it’s fun.
“Loads. Too many to count at this point,” I deadpan. “You’re so scary, but I fucking love it.” She grabs two vodka sodas from the refrigerator and hands me one.
I take a long swig and take a minute to look around their house.
It always makes me happy to be here. Ledger gave up a lot of himself for so long, making sure us kids were taken care of, and now he’s living the life he should have always gone for. All because of Ainsley.
“Whose favorite are you cooking today?” I ask since it is tradition, after all. Every week, at Ledger’s house, we all gather and he cooks one of ourfavorite meals. It’s something we did when our parents were alive, and he kept it going. We also go around the table and say something good that happened to us that week. I usually make quips about who I’ve killed off, hence Ainsley’s game now.
“Today is Rina. She’s been busting her ass on some crazy custom order, so I felt like she probably needed the pick-me-up.”
I don’t envy Rina. Her furniture building business has blown up recently, and it feels like she’s busy more often than not. We haven’t seen a lot of her lately, which is not normal.
“So, burgers then?” I arch an eyebrow. She’s very basic, but Ledger makes pretty damn good burgers, so I don’t mind.
“Yep.” She takes a swig.
The front door crashes into the wall, and I cringe knowing Lennox just put another fucking hole in the drywall. He does this so often; they should really put a stopper or something.
“Shit, I promise I’ll fix that,” he says with a guilty look on his face as he joins us in the kitchen.
“I mean, honestly. Should we just put a metal piece right there this time? So you literally can’t break it?” Ainsley asks in exasperation.
“Oh, bro, you finally fucked up. Ainsley’s now annoyed with you. I don’t think just fixing it is going to work this time.” I chuckle. He’s like a giant puppy dog sometimes, I swear.
Ainsley sends me a covert smirk as Lennox’s face pales.
“I’m sorry, Ains. I promise I’ll do better.”
“I’m just giving you shit. What do you want to drink?” She turns to the refrigerator as Lennox sags in relief.
Yeah, family time is exactly what I needed.
“I watched some badgers build a new home yesterday,” Lennox tells us as we go around. He smiles fondly, but there’s something in his eyes that tells me that wasn’t the only notable thing that happened this week.
“I finished one piece of ten for this fucking order,” Rina grumbles, and now I see why it was her turn for food.
“I took a day off and spent the day watching movies with Ains,” Ledger says with an adorably sweet smile on his face, and my heart trips in my chest.
I don’t think I’ll ever have that with Oakley.
My thoughts turn to all the what-ifs, and I curse myself for continuing to think about him.
“Yeah, ditto. I don’t care if that breaks the rules,” Ainsley adds, and we all laugh.
“Will?” Ledger asks.
“Umm.” I try to come up with something, but it’s been an uncharacteristically bad week for me. “I wrote a lot a couple of days ago. like, more in one sitting than I ever have before,” I offer. When I went back to read what I wrote that fateful night, I cut every single word and moved them into another document. They didn’t fit my current story, but I didn’t want to delete them. They were not only cathartic but something I could possibly use later. Who the fuck knows anymore, honestly.
“Well, that’s great! You think you’ll make the deadline?” Ainsley innocently asks.
“We’ll see.” I give her a small smile. A week ago, I would have said hell yes. Now, I’m not so sure. I meet Lennox’s eyes, and his brow furrows with what he sees.
The rest of the conversation flows normally. It’s a weird mix of super happy Ledger and Ainsley, with a pissed-off Rina, and Lennox and I both stay pretty quiet. But they’re my family, and I love them.
