“Also, Trevor is smart. He’ll give you good advice. When the time comes, you should listen to it.”
“Who says I’ll need advice? Is it time for dinner yet?”
“Cade! You haven’t dated anyone seriously since Charlotte—”
“I’ve had girlfriends, Rose—"
“But—"
“Ten minutes,” Holly answered. “Until dinner.”
“Thank you, Holly.”
“You’re welcome. Mom said to leave you alone and I’m not in the mood to badger you with questions. I just got back to town and I’m staying for good. I want to settle into Sunday dinners and family time. It’s time for me to take it easy, you know?” Holly had just shut down her travel blog and moved back to town permanently. But I wasn’t sure if she was messing with me or not. She used to tell everybody she wanted to be a private detective like Nancy Drew. She’d follow me and my older brother, Asher, everywhere when we were kids and wrote down everything we did in a little flip notebook, like we were a case she was working on. Holly had been an interesting kid.
“All right . . .” I studied her earnest face with suspicion. My sisters always wanted to know my business, except Violet. But I usually ended up confiding everything to her on my own. And to her credit she had kept everything I’d ever told her about my relationship with Charlotte to herself.
“You have your cop face on, Cade.” Violet laughed and patted the cushion next to her for me to sit down.
“Can you blame me?” It felt like a trap; her smile was innocent, but I knew her intentions were not. If I sat down, I’d end up spilling my guts and I didn’t want anyone else to know how I was feeling about Charlotte. If things didn’t work out again it would be humiliating.
“I don’t blame you,” Rose answered. “I’d be scared of all of us put together too.”
“Well. Um . . .” I stalled, waiting, and hoped my mother would yell that dinner was ready so I could go downstairs and not hurt anyone’s feelings. I sipped my Coke and lingered at the head of the staircase.
“Five minutes,” Holly announced, her green eyes gleaming with faux innocence. Maybe now that she wasn’t out and about and traveling anymore, she wanted to start that detective crap up again. Or maybe now I was getting paranoid we were actual adults, for fuck’s sake.
“Dinner is almost on the table!” Our mother’s shout interrupted all the awkwardness that was about to mortify me. “Come on down!”
“Thank god.” I all but ran down the stairs, soda sloshing around in my glass and laughter trailing behind me as I descended.
I stopped in the living room and sat on the couch. Sipping my Coke, I contemplated choosing one of them to talk to. I was leaning toward Violet when Rose joined me on the couch.
“Sorry about that. I get carried away sometimes.”
“It’s okay, I know you can’t help yourself,” I teased.
“Yeah, yeah, make your fun. But I feel like I owe you, Cade. You have no idea how much you helped me back when Trevor and I were messing everything up with each other.”
“Really? I did?”
“Yeah, remember after Trevor got shot? You said I should just sit with my feelings and let them sink in so I could work through them. I think that’s what you should do now. You’ve been trying to forget about Charlotte for years and you two avoided each other every time she came to town to see her family. Things are different this time. It has to be a big adjustment. It must still hurt.”
I looked at her from the corner of my eye. “Thanks.” I wasn’t ready to admit to anyone how much my heart hurt whenever I saw her. How I wanted to take her in my arms and kiss her or just simply talk to her and be at ease with her like I used to, in a way I took for granted for so many years.
“Of course. And I’m not going to butt in, I promise.”
I scoffed. “I’m not counting on that.”
“No, I mean, I’m not going to try and set you two up or meddle in your business, nothing like that. I will, however, always get nosy and ask you stuff. I can’t, like, completely change my personality. But no games. I swear.”
“Now, that feels more realistic.”
“See? Growth and change. Sitting with your feelings, talking things through, all that stuff is smart. You should do it with this situation. I do it all the time now and I feel like a total adult. Trevor and I are kicking so much marriage ass.”
“I’m happy for you two, and I’ll try it.” I already felt myself pushing half of her good advice to the back of my mind and even though I knew it was a bad idea to deny what I was feeling for Charlotte, I was doing it anyway.
Clearing her throat to interrupt us, Mom came up behind the couch and shot a pointed look at my sister. “We talked about this, Rose.” Rose raised her hands in silent defense and my mother turned to me. “I’m here to rescue you, Cade. Go in the dining room with your brothers.”
“She’s fine, Mom.” Her eyebrows raised in disbelief, and I laughed. “She’s offering quality life advice now, so no worries. Thank you, Rose.”
Rose laughed then stuck her tongue out. “See, Mother? I know how to keep a promise.”
“Then I apologize, sweetheart. Go on up and get your sisters for dinner.”
I followed Mom through the arched entrance to the dining room while Rose went upstairs. “Go on and sit down.” She waved me toward the table before bustling back to the kitchen.
I took the seat between Levi and Jude—fraternal twins, the babies of the family, and always first to the table. In fact, they crashed in their old rooms pretty often. Neither one of them were fond of cooking and my mother still loved to baby them.
“How’s Charlotte doing?” Levi asked and I groaned.