Page 68 of Hideaway Heart

“Yeah. They arrived today. Devlin has some business in the area next week, but he came in a little early. And Mabel just decided on a spontaneous visit. Everyone’s getting together at my dad’s house for dinner at six.”

“You can go if you want. I promise you, I’ll be fine here. And I won’t try to escape.”

I laughed. “No?”

“No.” She picked up her head and smiled at me. “We have an understanding, you and I.”

My insides grew strangely warm when she said that. “You’re invited too,” I told her.

“To dinner at your dad’s?”

“Yes. Do you want to go?”

“I’d love to!” She scrambled off me and popped to her feet. “Do you think I have time to shower?”

“You already showered today.” I glanced at her bare legs. “But please put on some pants.”

“Xander, I showered likesevenorgasms ago! I’ve gotten sweaty since then.”

I laughed. “Not sorry. But that’s fine. We’ve got some time.”

She went running down the hall, her bare feet thumping on the wood floor. The water came on in the bathroom, and I heard her pull the curtain aside and get in. Within seconds, she was singing.

I’d probably miss that too.

* * *

After dinner, we’d all gathered in the living room for a family game of Pictionary.

“Raccoon!” Devlin shouted while I tried my best to draw a fucking panda bear on a big white dry erase board. (Here’s where I mention that art is not one of my talents.)

“Mouse!” My dad removed his glasses, wiped a lens, and put them back on, like maybe it was a smudge making my giant bear look like a small rodent.

Alas.

I stared at my shitty drawing. Did pandas have bigger ears? Why couldn’t I picture one? I gave him a bushier tail and more black around the eyes.

“Platypus!” yelled Owen, the youngest member of the men’s team.

“What the hell is that thing?” Austin muttered.

“Time!” Mabel called.

“It’s apanda bear.” I shot my team a grumpy look over my shoulder. “Obviously.”

Everyone laughed as I scrubbed at it with the dry erase marker, then took my seat at one end of the L-shaped sectional couch. Austin was next to me, our dad on the other side of him. Owen, in charge of the timer, knelt by the coffee table.

“Okay, who’s up?” Devlin asked, perched on the couch arm next to me, a beer in his hand. He was tall, but built differently than I was. More like a runner—muscular, but long and lean. Not quite as wide through the shoulders. He had dark hair like Austin and me, but he had our mom’s piercing blue eyes, which he was good at using to his advantage. He also had a way with words I’d always envied. Our dad always said he could sell water to a drowning man.

It was not, however, helping us at Pictionary.

My brothers groaned as Mabel’s childhood best friend Ari jumped up and grabbed the marker. The women’s team—Veronica, Kelly, Mabel, Ari, and Adelaide—was crushing the men’s, largely due to the fact that Ari and Mabel obviously spoke some sort of telepathic language.

Owen started the timer. “Go!”

As Ari began to draw, I stole a glance at Kelly, who was seated between Veronica and Mabel on the couch, Adelaide and the dog by her feet. I liked that she’d put my sweatshirt on over her clean clothes after her shower. Now she was laughing at something Veronica had just whispered in her ear. It was like she’d always been around, the way she fit right in with my family. Not that I’d been worried she wouldn’t, but—

“Bunk beds!” Mabel shouted.