Page 39 of An Unexpected Everything

After your damn family dinner.

Me:

I can hear the grumble in your text. But yes, after the damn family dinner.

I paused, wondering what I was supposed to do now. I wasn’t good at this. Though, I’d never truly had a real relationship. I had dated, but Weston had been the closest to anything real. And here we were, in a completely different situation and yet the feelings were complicated around that familiar tension.

Me:

I’d say you can come visit for the end of it, but that’s a lot of Cages.

Weston:

I know most of them. I might drop by just to get you out of the dragon’s den. Depends on the twins.

My heart warmed, and I pressed my lips together, wondering what the hell I was doing. This couldn’t last. We weren’t in the same place in our lives or geographically. He might not be a father, but he was sure acting like one. The twin girls were in a huge transition part of their lives, so was Lance. And I had no idea what I was doing. I had started a new job and yet I wasn’t even there. I was doing so many new things, and I didn’t have an anchor.

Weston:

I can hear your mind whirling from here. I’ll stop by later.

Me:

You need to stop reading my mind so well.

Weston:

If I could read your mind, I’d own the universe.

Weston:

But I’m trying anyway.

We said our goodbyes, and I knew I would always make sure to end a conversation. Because we hadn’t before. What an odd thing to be worried about. Because it was true. We hadn’t ended our conversation the correct way before. And now it completely changed every interaction I had with him and others in my life.

And now I was being way too philosophical this morning. I made my way back to Aston and Blakely’s place, and quickly made myself some lunch, and got back to work.

By the time I was done for the day, I was tired, a little cranky, and nervous.

This wasn’t my house, so it wasn’t as if I were the one who was playing hostess, and yet, I was here for a reason that still wore on my mind.

The door opened as I was working on dinner, and I grinned at the sound of my best friend’s voice.

“Isabella! Where have you been!”

I rolled my eyes at the familiar line from one of our favorite movies and laughed.

“I’m in the kitchen cooking.”

“Do we need to be worried about poison?” Dorian asked, and I flipped him off as he walked into the kitchen.

“Nice. Go grab an apron and get to work. I didn’t know you were coming.”

Dorian practically bounced on his toes as he came over and placed a surprising kiss on my cheek. “I’m here to annoy the hell out of you. Of course. And Joshua needs me to check on Harper. You know, big brother things. Which, I can do to all of you. I enjoy this whole big brother thing.”

I blinked at him and tried to do math. Without the family tree in front of me, it took a moment. “But you’re not that much older than me.”

“A year counts. I’m still the fourth in line.”