Total pages in book: 69
Estimated words: 65083 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 325(@200wpm)___ 260(@250wpm)___ 217(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 65083 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 325(@200wpm)___ 260(@250wpm)___ 217(@300wpm)
Resisting the strong temptation to stand at the kitchen door and eavesdrop, I turn to the guests, who look worried, even shocked. “We’ll get started in a minute,” I tell them quietly. “Have some snacks and drinks in the meantime. What can I get everybody?”
Thorn starts listing the many choices on the table, making chips and dip sound like the ultimate haute cuisine. Of course, he made the dip, so it’ll be spectacular, but his over-the-top descriptions of the food get everyone chuckling, and the mood in the room lightens considerably.
The three of us get everyone loaded up with food and beverages, though I have one ear cocked in the direction of the kitchen at all times, ready to charge in there if it sounds like things are going to hell. So far, all I can hear is the quiet murmur of voices. I love my parents, but if they hurt Lexy I swear I will yell at them—which, for all my impatient ways, I have never done.
Gage gets the music going, and he and Thorn start circulating among the guests, keeping everyone chatting and distracted from what’s going on in the next room. I need to do that too, but I can’t tear myself away from the vicinity of the kitchen, so I talk to everyone near me in short bursts, then stop to listen.
So far, so good. I take a deep breath and force myself to relax, knowing that will help everyone around me dial it down a notch as well. Whatever happens, we’ll deal with it.
I hear chairs scrape, and risk a peek into the kitchen. Lexy and my parents are in a three-way hug; I hope to fuck that’s as good a sign as it looks like. A few seconds later, Lexy emerges from the kitchen, and I wrap her up in a bear hug because fuck, I need one.
After a long moment, I ease back and look down at her. “You okay?”
She’s been crying, but she nods and smiles. “Everything’s okay now.”
My parents still haven’t come out from the kitchen, so I’m skeptical, but now is not the time to probe. “Have some food. You want some of Thorn’s Miracle Dip? Not to be confused with Miracle Whip; that stuff is nasty. His dip, however, is—” I look around and lower my voice “—almost as delicious as you are.”
Lexy blushes and makes big Hush your mouth! eyes at me. I just grin and start loading up a plate for her.
A few minutes later, Gage goes into the kitchen and doesn’t come back. Thorn looks at me with raised eyebrows and goes in there himself, coming back to indicate the other part of the house with a tilt of his head.
There’s a side door from the kitchen that leads to the hallway where the bedrooms are. My parents must have taken themselves off in that direction. Are they boycotting the party?
But then Gage comes back with them in tow, and they seem their normal selves. He looks embarrassed, and I make a note to ask him later what that’s about.
The time passes more quickly than I’d expected. My parents and we guys stay busy making sure there’s no shortage of food or drinks. People dance, laugh, talk, and eat—a perfect party. I keep an eye on Lexy, and she seems a little quieter than usual at first, but she starts to shine as the party goes on.
Hours later, the last of the guests finally leaves, and my parents are in the kitchen. Before we go to help them wash up, the three of us gather around Lexy. “You don’t have to talk about it if you’d rather not,” Gage says first, before I can demand a full accounting.
But Lexy shakes her head. “They apologized. They said they were too caught up in their own concerns to realize how much they were hurting me, and they were sorry, and they still love me.”
“And what did they say to you?” I ask Gage.
“They thanked me.”
I can feel my eyebrows go up. “For calling them out?”
He nods, his expression mortified. I sympathize. My parents have always been so stable and mature, and all four of us look up to them. It’s a very awkward reversal for one of us to be the wise one. I’m not surprised it was Gage, though.
“Just think,” I tell him, “one day you’ll be old and kids will look up to you.”
He bares his teeth at me in a fierce grin. “Fuck you.”
With that, we all troop off to the kitchen to help with cleanup.
LEXY
“Good party?” Kai asks me. The four of us are gathered in the sunroom at the back of the house while the Sanchezes watch their evening shows.
“It was,” I say. “I don’t really like surprises; I’d rather be the one planning things, as you know. But I was remarkably okay with it. It was a good gathering of people.”