Page 62 of Heartstring

“Welcome home, honey,”Bastian’s mom, Sylvie, rushes over from the farmhouse kitchen to give me one of her mom hugs. “And where’s my baby girl?”

“Hi, Nan,” Kay says, coming from behind me to take my place. Kay has known Sylvie all her life, and since neither Bastian nor his brother have kids, she adopted Kay as her grandchild. Kay gets along well enough with my mom, but her relationship with Sylvie is special.

Seeing them together again brings back all the doubts I had about moving to Stillwater.

“Gosh, you’re so grown up. Let me look at you,” Sylvie gushes.

Bastian’s smug look is annoying. It was his idea to have us drive the four hours to Vermont to spend the weekend with his family.

Okay, fine, so this was a good idea.

“Come on, you two, you must be tired from the drive up. There’s fresh coffee, and I’ve made my girl’s favorite. Maple-apple-cinnamon cake.”

We follow Sylvie to the kitchen big enough to feed a battalion.

Kay sits right next to Sylvie to guarantee the biggest slice of cake.

I sit at the end of the table with Bastian.

“Where are the guys?” I ask.

“Stone went home to see his mom. Fox and Nikko also went home. Their sister is having a baby any time now.”

I accept a cup of coffee from Sylvie and a slice of her cake.

“You didn’t tell them we were coming.”

“I figured you’d want to have a relaxed weekend without the whole band pressuring you to move here.”

I put my hand on his shoulder and squeeze. “Thanks, man.”

“How’s Kay settling in?”

I look at her. The smile on her face is everything. It’s been a while since I’ve seen her this happy. Maybe only when she got a letter of recommendation from Tyler for her work at the soup kitchen.

“She’s made a friend she’s been spending some time with and she's volunteering at the local soup kitchen.”

Bastian almost coughs out his coffee.

His mom and Kay stare at us.

“Sorry, wrong hole,” he says.

The girls go back to their conversation. He hits my knee with his.

“She’s volunteering atthesoup kitchen?”

I sigh. “Yes.”

“Dude, we need privacy for this convo.”

Great.

“Hey, Mom, I’m going to show Mik the new heifers. Wanna come with us, Kay?”

“Ew, no.”

“What? Baby cows are adorable,” he says, indignant.