“Alright, I’m going first,” Ainsley says. “I think my favorite part of the week was taking a half day on Friday. Work has been so busy it was nice to just come home and do absolutely nothing for a couple of hours.”
“I’m glad you did that,” Ledger says. “My favorite part was hiring a new contractor that will take over the day-to-day details of our projects. I’m officially handing over the reins of every single job at Bluebell Landscaping.”
“Holy shit, that’s huge!” I say in shock. Never in my life did I think my big brother would give up any control of his company.
“It is, but it feels good. It’ll free up more time for me to help Ains out with the bigger picture stuff. Give us more time together.”
“That’s awesome. Congrats, guys,” Arlo chimes in.
“My favorite part was seeing these two finally figure their shit out,” Oakley says, gesturing to me and Arlo.
I don’t bother with a response; I just roll my eyes as Willow picks up the trail.
“My favorite part was figuring out this damn plot hole in my book. Piece of shit took forever, and I finally figured it out.” We all clap as Willow does a little bow with a laugh.
Arlo clears his throat, looking at me, and I nod. “My favorite thing was being invited to the illustrious Hutton family dinner.”
“We’re happy to have you,” Ainsley says happily.
“My favorite part was being forced out of my house and spending more time with Arlo,” I blurt out, not even thinking about the repercussions of what I’m saying. The entire table freezes, and a cold silence takes over. I look over at Arlo and see him visibly cringing. Well, shit.
“What do you mean, forced out of your house?” Ledger’s tone is one that was common in our house when he had to raise Willow and Lennox when our parents died, and I’ve never really had it directed at me.
“Umm, well …” I look at Arlo again, not sure what to tell them.
“Someone has been texting Rina some creepy shit. It’s escalated to stuff being left at her house, and I thought it was safer for her to not be there for the time being until I can get things figured out,” Arlo says, strong and clear.
“Excuse me?” Ledger’s voice gets louder. “This is related to the wrecked workshop?”
“I’ve called in a friend from my old job, and we’re looking to track down the culprit,” Oakley adds.
“You fucking knew about the escalation too? Jesus, who doesn’t know about this?” Ledger’s outrage is obvious.
“Just the three of us know,” Arlo says, placating Ledger.
“Are you safe?”
“How the fuck do I know you’re safe with him?”
“You knew this whole time!”
“We’ve got it handled!”
Everyone except Arlo and me talk over each other.
“Enough!” I yell, finally silencing the panic. “We didn’t tell you because we knew you would freak out.” I gesture to everyone. “Arlo and Oakley have things handled, and I’m staying with Arlo as a precaution and nothing else. They’re close to figuring out who it is, and things will go back to normal.”
It’s close enough to the truth, and if the looks of Arlo and Oakley are anything to go by, they see right through my white lie. Who knows, they could be close, could figure this whole thing out tomorrow.
“I don’t like this,” Ledger says.
“Well, I don’t either, but it’s happening, and we have the best guys handling things,” I tell him, getting more and more irritated by the second by his big brother act. I know it’s because he cares, but it also feels like he doesn’t trust my judgement or trust Arlo to protect me.
Ainsley puts her hand on his forearm, dousing the fire spewing from his head. Oakley looks like he’s caught in the middle of something he didn’t willingly volunteer for, and Arlo looks like he’s about to go toe to toe with Ledger. I don’t know what happened between those two, but the distance between them seems larger than ever. They used to be friends in school, but who knows what happened with that? I’ll have to ask Arlo sometime.
“Let’s just all calm down and enjoy dinner. Take the night to process everything, and we can get together tomorrow, calmly, to talk about it if you want.” Ainsley takes control, just like she usually does. Her badass self can tame a group of rowdy men with just a few words, and I admire the shit out of her for it.
The men grumble in what can barely be considered agreement, and Willow looks like she’s plotting an entire book in her head. I breathe out a sigh of relief that this conversation is at least on pause for the moment. Fighting with my family is the last thing I want to do right now.
