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Shouldn’t he be at the cottage with Romero?

Yeah, stupid question. They’d both be here waiting for me to be okay. Only when they knew all was right in my life would they go back to doing their own thing. I always came first though. That was family for you.

“I’ll send out texts so all the boys know to meet us up here for lunch,” Dash said as he reached me.

He grabbed the side of my head and pulled me in for a quick, chaste kiss.

He stepped back, picked up a plate, and headed into the living room. “It was good of you to cook for us,” he commented without looking over his shoulder as he plopped down onto the couch with his plate held in the air in front of him. “Boys will be here soon. They’ll give their thanks before stuffing their faces. You did good, honey.”

Well, alright then, I’d just take his word for it.

I took my plate with my sandwich on it and carried it over to the table. I got myself a cup of coffee in a mug with a creepy clown on it that advertised balloon animals no child in their right mind would ever take from such a clown. This one was new and not one I ever planned on using again. Clowns were not my thing. They weren’t Dash’s thing either.

Clearly Dash had gone off the deep end.

Maybe it was Romero’s? That made sense to me.

Addison and Abel arrived first. They had wet hair that had me assuming they’d just gotten out of the shower. Probably a shower they’d taken together. How sad that I hadn’t been invited.

They each had a kitten in their arms, making me smile at them.

Julian and Damien weren’t far behind them. Their hair was wet too. Probably from another shared shower that I hadn’t been invited to

I was surrounded by assholes, the whole lot of them.

The twins put the cats down, giving them free rein, and they carried their plates over to the couch to join Dash. Damien and Jules joined me at the table.

Romero came in on his own. He got a plate but didn’t sit down with it. Instead, he stood with his back against the wall while he ate, watching everyone like a freaking hawk.

Rain came in with Quinton and Tyson behind him. Rain brought his plate over to the table, likely so he could glare at the other people sitting at the table with us while he ate.

Tyson followed Quinton over to the couch. He hovered close to his uncle, and I breathed a sigh of relief at seeing them together. It looked like Quinton just got himself a shadow, and I was down one.

Which reminded me… “Where are Trenton and Simon? I thought we were all meeting here.”

“They are next door, babysitting. They relieved me so I could be here for this family meeting we are about to have.”

My mouth dropped open as I stared at Romero in shock. Who the hell thought it would be a good idea to have him babysit those poor, damaged kids next door? He was a damn crazy man who shouldn’t be babysitting anyone.

“Aren’t Simon and Trenton now family?” Tyson asked.

This, too, shocked me. Did he really see them that way? Since when?

“Damn straight they are,” Rain grumbled as he shoved half the sandwich in his mouth and bit it off.

If I tried to stuff that much food in my mouth at once, I would choke to death.

“Are you okay?” Jules asked me in a quiet voice as he placed his hand on my knee beneath the table.

Even though it was under the table, Rain still tracked the movement as if he could actually see it with his eyes. Uh-oh. Rain didn’t like Julian on a good day.

I didn’t understand his animosity toward this particular boyfriend of mine, but it had been there since day one. Thankfully Julian didn’t seem to mind, and he never backed down when Rain started throwing out barbs.

“Ariel?”

Right. How to answer that loaded question. I didn’t even have to think about it. “I’m fine.” I was. Mostly.

I would process my feelings on my own damn time and not a moment before I was ready to do so. They weren’t going to bully me into it, not this time.