His Saint (Forever Wilde 5)

“He means determined,” Doc said.

“Sure he does,” I said, walking past Grandpa and squeezing his shoulder. “Now, I came over here to help cut onions for the chili. Who’s ready to cry like a baby?”

We began prepping for the two types of chili Grandpa planned to make and were halfway through burning our eyeballs out with onion vapors when the doorbell rang. The three dogs declared Armageddon and took off scorched earth style to bring down the insurgents.

When I got to the door, I could see the outline of a man about my age through the windows in the door. He twisted around looking behind himself before facing the door again. His arm came out like he was going to ring the bell a second time, but then he dropped his arm and shook his head.

“May I help you?” I asked once I got the dogs under control and pulled the door open.

The man’s head snapped up, and his eyes widened. He was cute, but I definitely hadn’t ever seen him before.

“Oh, ah… sorry, I… I’m looking for Weston Marian. Does he live here?”

The guy was plenty nervous and actually wrung his hands in front of himself while he waited for me to answer. Grandpa’s first name was Weston, but he’d been a Wilde for decades.

“May I tell him who’s asking?”

I rubbed the tears away from my eyes, which seemed to get his attention.

“Oh god, oh no. I’m so sorry. This must be a bad time. I didn’t mean to—”

“Saint, who is it?” Grandpa asked, coming up behind me to see who was at the door. His eyes were even redder than mine were, and he’d removed his glasses to rub at them.

“He’s asking for you,” I told him before turning back to the stranger. “Why don’t you come in.”

The poor guy looked horrified, glancing back and forth between Grandpa and me and clearly getting the wrong idea.

“I’ve clearly interrupted something,” he stammered. “I’m so, so sorry. I’ll come back.”

He turned and began hurrying to his car, which I could see was a rental.

“Wait,” I called to him with a laugh. “We were cutting onions. Come back.”

The man spun around, but now he was the one with red eyes. “I shouldn’t have come here. I’m sorry.”

I turned to look at Grandpa, who seemed just as confused as I was. “He asked for Weston Marian,” I murmured. “Not Wilde.”

Grandpa’s entire body stiffened. “Get Doc,” he said quietly before taking a step off the porch. “Tell him I need him.”

I didn’t second-guess him. Instead, I raced into the house and quickly explained what was going on to Doc.

“Shit,” he muttered, wiping his hands off with a kitchen towel. “I knew this was coming. Your grandfather would live in denial if given half a chance. Stubborn bastard.”

“What’s going on?”

“Old chickens coming home to roost. Stay here with your sister.”

I finished prepping the chili fixings before cleaning up our mess. By the time I was done, Doc and Grandpa came back in, looking emotional.

“Grandpa?” MJ asked, unfolding herself from the sofa. “Who was that?”

“Sit down, sweetheart. I’ll tell you everything. Doc already called in the troops so I only need to tell it once.”

While we waited for my siblings, I put on another pot of coffee and set Doc’s muffins on a tray. There was fruit cut up in tubs in the fridge, so I set that out too. My aunt Gina arrived first, still wearing pajamas and her bathrobe. She kissed her dads on their cheeks before heading straight to the coffee.

“Carmen’s coming. She wanted to take a shower first.”

“You could have waited for your wife, Gina,” Grandpa chastised. “It’s hardly worth leaving the house looking like a slumber party runaway.”

We all stared at Grandpa. He was the least judgmental man of our acquaintance. He winced and looked at Doc.

“I’m sorry,” he said in a low voice. Then to Gina, “Forgive me, sweetheart.”

Gina’s forehead creased with worry, but she didn’t say anything.

Hudson and Charlie got here next, followed by West. Nico, Pippa, and baby Reenie were conspicuously absent, which I decided was probably for the best since Neckie was there. Otto and Seth appeared with Sassy in tow. That was about as good as we were going to get from my side. King was somewhere off doing secret squirrel stuff for his secret squirrel job. Hallie and Winnie were in Dallas. My parents were in Singapore, and Cal was on a boat somewhere in the Caribbean getting his captain’s license.

My cousin Katie turned up with her brother Web, which surprised me since neither of them lived in Hobie. But then I saw my aunt Brenda come in behind them already spewing out guilt trips about how their one trip to the family lake house in six months was already being interrupted by family drama.