Breathe (Colorado Mountain 4)

Chace didn’t share this.

He just looked at Faye, fighting a grin and saying quietly, “Good you held out, honey.”

Liza burst out laughing again. Boyd chuckled. Silas smiled at the both of them.

At this point, Sondra walked two feet into the room and announced, “Soup’s on. Come and get it.”

Then she walked right back out.

Apparently, Sondra spoke, everyone listened because instantly they all made a move.

But as they started out of the room, Silas caught up with Chace, Chace’s arm around Faye, Faye returning the gesture and Silas shared, “The scissors, Faye’s right. Liza chased Jude with ‘em.”

“See?” Faye directed this at her sister’s back.

“Though,” Silas went on, “she got the idea from Faye.”

“Did not!” Faye snapped, her head twisting so she could aim her glare at her father.

“Sweetheart, you did it,” he returned then looked at Chace. “Got in trouble for it, sat in the corner for half an hour because of it and then wrote a report for her second grade teacher about it which caused the woman to call her Mom and me into school.”

They walked through the kitchen into the dining room at the other side of the house and Silas kept sharing.

“She didn’t know what to do with herself. Said the report was work well beyond any seven year old she knew. Also said she was alarmed that it was about parental cruelty. We convinced her our Faye had a vivid imagination. Since she’d noted this already, luckily she wasn’t hard to convince.”

“The scissor story,” Sondra muttered, obviously overhearing.

“Chace is getting the lowdown,” Boyd shared then looked at Chace. “Settle in, man. Happened to me ten years ago. Took ‘em around two dozen visits to burn the stories out. I didn’t know whether to think I got hold of a hot one or move to a different state.”

“Faye’s stories will be better because she’s got that shy and retiring gig going on,” Liza put in as she fussed over Robbie’s napkin in his lap while he shoved at her hands and glared at the side of her head. “No one would ever expect her temper matches her hair.”

“Learned that myself thirty-four years ago but my teacher was her mother,” Silas added, seating himself at the head. “Knew, my baby girl came out with that red fuzz on her head, I was in for trouble. And I was not wrong. Though, half the time she’s rantin’, it’s about fathers with chunks cut outta their brains or Darth Vader and I don’t know what the heck she’s on about.”

“Uh… does anyone mind if we stop acting like I’m fifteen and Chace is my high school boyfriend you’re all trying to scare to death and maybe remember to act our ages?” Faye suggested, glaring at her father at the same time motioning to a chair which Chace took as her telling him to plant his ass in it.

“No,” Liza denied immediately.

“Nope,” Silas took a second longer and did it while shaking his napkin out at his side and grinning at his daughter.

“I didn’t do this to you,” Faye retorted to Liza as she situated herself by the chair next to his therefore Chace moved to pull out.

She tossed a small, distracted grin at him before taking her seat.

“No, you didn’t. But you side with Boyd on all our arguments so this is payback for that,” Liza returned.

“How about this,” Sondra, seated at the foot of the table, started, “I just spent an hour cooking, an hour before that baking a cake and half a day cleaning my house. I’d like to enjoy the meal and my family. I wasn’t all fired up about this banter when you two were teenagers. Now, I like it less. So how about we eat and act like adults. Does that work for anyone but me?”

“It works for me,” Faye stated instantly.

“It would,” Liza muttered.

“Liza,” Sondra said in a tone much like Boyd had used with his boys except feminine. Clearly it was just as impossible to be denied because Liza’s face immediately assumed a thirty-two year old woman’s pout that made her look nearly as cute as her sister, just more sophisticated, and Chace finally got an idea of why Boyd liked it in there.

This was more evidence that Sondra spoke, people listened. The banter ended.

Chace missed it.

It wasn’t ugly or hurtful. It was reminiscing, nostalgic, teasing and although heated, there was a different kind of warmth under that heat. It was a warmth that Chace had never felt before. An affectionate kind that said these were shared memories and, regardless of their alarming nature, there was no love lost. They’d just morphed into amusing anecdotes that provided opportunities for teasing but fond banter that would leave no one with hard feelings.

It wasn’t the first home of his girlfriends’ parents that he’d visited. It wasn’t his first such dinner.

But it was the most interesting one and he’d never felt as comfortable.

Food was passed around and Chace took in the flowers he bought that Sondra had put in the middle, a silent but thoughtful indication of her gratitude. Liza looked after Robbie who was at her side. Faye kept an eye on Jarot who was at hers. Sondra kept an eye on both her grandsons as they flanked her.

Surprisingly, even Robbie minded his manners at the table. Clearly, it was a free for all the rest of the time but when he was at his meal, he was to be quiet and behaved and he was.

The food was delicious and it was also familiar since Sondra obviously taught her daughter how to cook.

This made him feel comfortable too.

The conversation was light, easy and flowed naturally. Chace was pulled in from the start, Silas and Boyd talking sports and in an experienced way, Sondra, Liza and Faye remained silent but not removed while they did it.

Chace participated in a discussion about the Avalanche with the men while listening to Faye remind her mother that spring was nearly on the Rockies and asking her if she’d help again that year with flowers at the library.

So that answered that. Faye planted those flowers with her mother.

There was something about that, knowing daughter and mother worked side by side to create beauty for a building that didn’t belong to them, but instead the town that also made him feel strangely comfortable.

Conversation naturally turned and again this turn was affectionately heated as it became political and the politics at the table quickly outed themselves, those being strictly segregated by gender. Men, staunchly conservative. Women, resolutely liberal.

Through this, Chace remained neutral by keeping his mouth shut until Boyd threw up his hands, looked right at him and begged, “Man, help us out here. Even out the friggin’ numbers.”