Total pages in book: 85
Estimated words: 83786 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 419(@200wpm)___ 335(@250wpm)___ 279(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 83786 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 419(@200wpm)___ 335(@250wpm)___ 279(@300wpm)
“Okay, let’s let Uncle Bas get a drink and say hello to everyone else,” Otto called out, making the kids scatter. “Hey, Harp.”
“Hey Otto,” I said as Bas and I walked toward him.
Bas didn’t grab my hand again, but I tried not to read anything into it.
The entire Hawthorne clan was gathered in the kitchen, and they called out their hellos as we made our way into the group. Immediately, I found Nova and made a beeline for her.
“Coming as a couple, huh?” she said quietly. “Bold move.”
“Noel called and invited me,” I replied, leaning against the counter next to her. “I’m not his plus one.”
“Did you bring your own gift?”
“Shut up,” I grumbled, glancing at the gift I’d left on the kitchen table with the others.
“Harpy,” Aunt Heather, Titus’s mom, said, wrapping her arms around my shoulders from behind. “How’s my favorite niece?”
“Oh, you know, just living off my parents and eating ice cream for breakfast,” I replied, leaning into her. “Just what I dreamed of as a child.”
“Your mom loves it,” she said, giving me a squeeze. “How’s the head?”
She walked around me and waited for me to pull my glasses down.
The wound was closed, and a pink line was the only sign it had ever been there beyond some yellowed bruising around my eyes that I’d covered with makeup.
Actually, Gram had covered it. She’d ushered me into her bathroom and hadn’t let me go until she’d done a little something. I didn’t mind—it wasn’t that I disliked makeup, I just never bothered because I couldn’t wear my glasses while I was doing it, and it was a pain in the ass leaning that close to the mirror.
“All healed,” I announced. “Dad’s truck took the brunt of it.”
“Something to be said about those old trucks,” Uncle Tommy said, eavesdropping. “Like drivin’ a tank.”
“I’m back to driving nothing now,” I replied, rolling my eyes. “After that crap with the car the club loaned me.”
“Well, you’ve got Bas to chauffeur you around,” Aunt Heather said mischievously.
“Yes, he’s at my beck and call,” I replied, grinning.
“That’s kind of fucked up to say,” Myla said, opening the fridge.
“I was joking,” I insisted incredulously. I was pretty sure that was evident in my tone.
“Hey, man,” she said, holding her hands up. “Not my business.”
My stomach sank. I knew they weren’t, like, inviting me to sleepovers or whatever, but I’d thought that they were getting used to me and Bas. I’d seen all of my boy cousins at different times throughout the last week, and none of them had seemed bothered. Suddenly, I felt very conspicuous. My cheeks heated as I glanced around the room.
No one else seemed to be looking at us.
“Myla, stop being an ass,” Aunt Heather scolded. “What the hell is wrong with you?”
“Nothing’s wrong,” Myla said with a shrug as she wandered to the other side of the room.
My eyes traveled to Lou, who was helping one of Otto’s kids color at the table. She seemed completely relaxed. Me being there didn’t bother her.
“Ignore her,” Nova ordered quietly as Aunt Heather followed Myla.
“I—yeah,” I replied faintly.
Bas was talking to Mick and Otto all the way on the other side of the kitchen, and it would’ve been weird for me to go over there. I wouldn’t give Myla the satisfaction of thinking that I’d gone over to tattle or something.
“Thanks for coming,” Noel said as she hurried into the kitchen from the back porch. She came over and gave me a hug.
“Thanks for inviting me,” I replied. I wasn’t a stranger, but none of the rest of the club had been invited. Only the Hawthornes were present, except for Lou, Bas, and me. Frankie and my brother weren’t even there.
“Of course.” Noel smiled. “I didn’t want you to think you could skip it, since I knew Bas would be here.”
“He spent an hour at the store looking for the right present,” I told her, smiling back.
“I’m not surprised.” She glanced over her shoulder at Bas. “The kids love him. He’s so good with them.”
“Mama,” one of her girls called, waving her arms over her head.
“Duty calls,” Noel said with an exasperated sigh. “If we don’t get a chance to talk again tonight, you guys should come over next week for dinner! I promise, it’s usually not so chaotic here.”
“Was it just me, or was she trying to convince you of how good Bas is with kids?” Nova joked once Noel was out of earshot.
“She was,” Noel’s sister Esther said with a laugh. She was doing something at the sink with her back turned toward us. Titus and Otto had married sisters. It was less weird than it seemed.
“He’d make such a good father,” Nova said, fluttering her eyelashes at me.
“Shut up,” I mumbled.
God, Bas was hot. He was laughing at something Titus said, and I had a flashback of the first night we’d kissed when his smile had completely changed everything for me. I could no longer imagine seeing him and not finding him the most attractive man in any room.