Page 57 of Always Be Mine
The kids immediately got swept up in conversation about the cat and what games they could play with him. Lucy chuckled a little; Garfield was a cranky old boy and wasn’t likely to participate in any of their games, but she decided against telling them. They’d figure it out soon enough.
The rest of the dinner passed quickly and soon the women were settled in the living room with cups of tea for some, and refills on their wine for others, while the men cleaned up.
“So, Lucy. How was your first family dinner?” Kat asked the question as she fell into an overstuffed chair and crossed her legs.
“My first?”
“We do this every week,” Charli chimed in. “So I guess we’ll see you every Sunday.” She winked but Lucy shook her head.
“I’m not family.”
“Oh, yes you are.” It was Annie who spoke up. “You’re living with Craig and Meri and?—”
“That’s only because I don’t have anywhere else to live.” Again, she made a note to talk to Craig about how exactly that went down. “I work for Craig. I’m hardly family.”
Charli waved her hand, dismissing Lucy’s protests. “I don’t think that’s how any of us see it.”
She had no idea what to say to that. Instead, she lifted her mug of peppermint tea and took a sip. “I think it’s great that you guys do family dinner every week. I never had a big family. It was just me and Mom most of the time, growing up. It’s nice that you all are so close.”
“Most of the time we are.” Kat shrugged. “Trust me, there have been moments. Like earlier tonight, you guys missed it, but I was sure Craig and Asher were going to come to blows.”
“What? Craig?” Charli set her tea down on the table. “Asher, I believe. But Craig?” She shook her head in disbelief, but Kat nodded, her lips pressed together.
“It’s true. Chase told me he had to get between the two of them before Craig punched him.”
She hadn’t known him very long, but from what Lucy had seen of Craig, there was no way she could imagine him getting into a fistfight with his brother. It just didn’t fit.Maybe that was why Craig had been so withdrawn during dinner?
Charli sighed. “What did Asher do?”
“Because you know it was Asher who instigated it,” Annie agreed.
“I’m not one hundred percent sure, but…” She looked straight at Lucy and held her gaze.
“What?” She pressed a hand to her chest. “Me? They were fighting because of me? I’ve only met Asher once and…” She looked around at the women. “I’m just the nanny. There’s no reason to fight about that.”
Kat raised her eyebrows and took a sip of her wine, but didn’t say anything more.
“There isn’t,” Lucy said again. “Trust me.”
“Are you dating anyone, Lucy?”
It was a bold question, and she shouldn’t have been surprised that it had come from Kat.
Her sister smacked her arm, but Lucy laughed. “No. And I don’t see that changing anytime soon.”
The last thing she wanted to do was get into the nitty-gritty of her love life, or lack thereof, with these ladies. “I’m just really enjoying how simple things are right now.”
She smiled and tried her best to actually believe the words she’d just spoken aloud, because her current situation felt like a lot of things at the moment, but none of them were simple.
ChapterFourteen
It waslate by the time Craig carried Meri in from the car and tucked her already fast asleep into her bed, taking the time to position all her stuffed animals around her so she wouldn’t be upset if she woke in the middle of the night.
He knew he shouldn’t have stayed at the big house so late, especially on a school night, but it felt easier to deal with an overtired little girl the next morning than it would be to face Lucy alone in the house they now shared.
He’d seen the look on her face when Chase made a comment about how long he’d waited to tell her about the move. He owed her an apology. He knew that. He also owed her an explanation, and that would be the harder thing to handle.
Because for the life of him, Craig did not know how to explain to Lucy that his lack of attention to the entire situation wasn’t because he didn’t care. It was exactly the opposite. He cared too much.
