She pointed at me. “Careful.”
The front door opened before we reached it, and Katie came flying out in pink rain boots and a princess dress, despite the fact that the sky was clear.
“Cade!” I braced half a second before she slammed into my leg.
Bliss snorted. “She likes you better than me now.”
Katie looked up at me with serious brown eyes. “Did you bring good food?”
Bliss gasped. “Betrayal.”
I looked down at the kid. “Tacos were already handled.”
Katie nodded solemnly, like I had fulfilled a sacred duty. “Grandpa burned hot dogs.”
“I heard that,” Daniel yelled from the backyard.
“You were supposed to,” Katie yelled back.
Bliss covered her mouth, laughing, and the sound hit the driveway bright enough to make the whole day change shape.
This was the part I hadn’t expected.
The Bennett family was chaos, but it wasn’t careless. It moved around Bliss like weather around a landmark. Loud. Messy. Constant. Her brothers shoved each other, insulted each other, stole food off each other’s plates, threatened murder over card games, and argued about hockey, football, construction, parenting, and whether Daniel’s grill needed to be retired with military honors. But every few minutes, someone checked where Bliss was without looking like they were checking.
Ryker did it from the deck, arms crossed, eyes flicking from Bliss to me to the street and back again. Knox did it from the patio table, where he sat with one ankle crossed over his knee like a man who knew every exit and expected them to disappoint him. Lyon did it while chasing his son away from the sprinkler. Emmitt and Kellen did it by yelling her name every time they wanted her opinion, as if forcing her into arguments was the same as making sure she stayed close.
Daniel did it the most.
He looked at her like someone who had already lost one woman he loved and had been quietly terrified ever since.
The first Sunday, they had treated me like a hostage situation with bad intentions. By the second, Daniel started calling me Mercer. By the third, Lyon’s son had fallen asleep against my side during a Tigers game, and nobody commented on it because apparently Bennett acceptance came through children using you as furniture.
Today, Daniel saw me walk through the side gate with the foil pan and lifted his tongs. “Mercer. You bring extra food again?”
“Already prepared, sir.”
“I accept that.”
Bliss stopped dead. “Dad.”
“What?” Daniel shrugged. “He’s learning.”
“He is enabling disrespect toward your grill.”
“My grill is an institution.”
“Your grill is evidence,” Knox called from the table.
Daniel pointed the tongs at him. “Nobody asked the police.”
“Usually for the best,” Ryker muttered.
The yard unfolded around us in early October warmth, golden and noisy. Folding chairs scattered across the lawn. Paper plates stacked near the sliding door. Condiments lined up like a bad decision. Smoke rolled off the grill while Daniel stood over it with total confidence and almost no justification. Somewhere near the fence, Emmitt and Kellen were arguing about whether a person could technically jump from the garage roof onto the trampoline without going through if they committed hard enough.
“No,” Bliss shouted without looking.
“We didn’t ask you,” Kellen yelled back.
