Do I want to be Kasen’s wife for real?
Uh, no. No! …Right?
"An adjustment," Navy repeats, eyebrows raised. "That's one way to put it."
"They're living together," Clover informs her, bouncing Noble on her knee. "Kasen told me this afternoon."
"You're living together?" Navy's eyes widen. "And you didn't tell me?"
"It's only until I find something else," I say quickly. "My building was sold. I needed a place to stay."
"Uh-huh." Navy's knowing look makes me want to sink through the chair. "And how’s the search going?"
Kasen’s fingers tighten at the nape of my neck, and for some reason I relax into it. Just fucking melt like a popsicle on the Fourth of July. Oh, and I ignore Navy’s question. The truth is I haven’t even started looking.
But should I?
The conversation mercifully shifts as Banks announces the food is ready, and soon we're all seated around the table, passing dishes and filling plates. I find myself between Kasen and Clover, with Noble now in a high chair beside his mom.
It's... nice. Surprisingly so. The conversation flows easily, with none of the awkwardness I was afraid of. They tease Kasen mercilessly, share embarrassing stories that make me laugh, and somehow manage to make me feel included rather than an intruder.
By the time we're clearing plates, I realize I'm actually enjoying myself. These people—Kasen's people—are warm and funny and genuine in a way I didn't expect.
"Come help me with dessert?" Clover asks. "Navy's useless in the kitchen."
"I resent that," Navy calls. "I can make cereal!"
"Point proven," Clover laughs, then turns expectantly to me.
"Sure," I agree, following her into the kitchen.
Once we're alone, she pulls ice cream from the freezer and homemade cookies from a container. "So. You and my brother."
Here it comes. The protective sister speech. The warnings about not hurting him. The subtle, or not-so-subtle, threats. It’s almost a relief. I’ve been waiting for it all night and finally, here it is.
"It's complicated," I say for what feels like the hundredth time today.
"Good things usually are." She hands me bowls and an ice cream scooper. "He's crazy about you, you know."
I focus on scooping ice cream instead of how my heart just went a little wild. "We're figuring things out."
"That's all any of us can do." She crumbles a cookie on top of every bowl of ice cream I scoop. "Kasen doesn't let people in easily. Not since our dad left."
I glance up, surprised by the shift in conversation. "He left?"
"Right after our mom died." Clover's expression clouds briefly. "Kasen was in college. I was sixteen. Dad just... checked out. Started drinking, staying away for days at a time. Then one day he just didn't come back."
The information rocks everything I know about Kasen James. He’s steady and solid and I can’t imagine him ever running out on anyone, and now I guess I know why. I knew Kasen's mother had died—it's common knowledge in the Portland beer scene that he dropped out of college to start Timber in her memory. But I never knew about his father.
I think about Kasen—how fiercely protective he is of Clover, how determined he was to rebuild Timber after the fire, how quick he was to step up when he found out about the baby.
"He had to become the parent," she says, meeting my eyes. "When Mom died, he dropped everything to take care of me. His dreams, his plans—all of it went on hold so I wouldn't be alone. He's spent so long being the one who fixes everything for everyone else that he doesn't know how to let anyone help him."
The revelation stops me cold. Fuck. All this time, I've been treating his overprotective bullshit like it was some kind of alpha male power play, when really it's just how he learned to be there for the people he loves. I've been fighting the wrong battle. I've been reading him all wrong.
I never stopped to consider that taking care of others might be the only language of love he knows how to speak.
"I'm not trying to make excuses for him," Clover adds. "He can be stubborn as hell.”
