The Crush (57)

Claire shook her head. “I can’t believe you’re adding a swing chair just because my son asked for a quiet place to read.”

Bracing my arm, I pushed the drill bit into the wood, holding out my hand for Anya to give me the correct bolt. “Cooper likes to hide from all the craziness here. How will I keep favorite uncle status if I don’t give him what he wants?” From inside the house, Luna screamed, followed by the whooping sounds of Claire’s son Brooks and Molly’s son Asher. “I may join him up there before the day is over.”

Anya snickered. “Like your giant ass would fit in that chair.”

I gave her a look. “Only one of us has fallen out of this tree house before, and it wasn’t me.”

She rolled her eyes. “I was eight. It doesn’t count.”

“Where are all your husbands?” I asked the grouping of women watching us work.

Claire smiled innocently. “We locked them up at home so we didn’t have to share time with you.”

Isabel nodded. “Aiden’s still handcuffed to the bed.”

“Boundaries, Mom,” Anya called. “No sex talk about my dad.”

Iz grinned.

Claire shook her head. “Bauer is still up in Whistler; he’s working on that snowboarding line launch. He should be back in a day or two.”

“Lia and Jude get back from London tomorrow before lunch,” Mom said. She leaned forward to poke Isabel’s arm. “Can’t miss the big day,” she added in a sing-song voice.

Isabel gave her a thin smile. “Let’s hope Lia is so jet-lagged that we just have to accidentally cancel everything.”

Molly rolled her eyes. “You are no fun.”

Anya handed me the bracket and the correct wrench attachment. While I mounted everything into the beam, and my family talked about Isabel’s birthday, I thought—again—about Adaline. She was headed up to the beach house today to set up everything my mom and sisters would need for the weekend.

She’d be there for a day, prepping food, setting up the house, making sure they didn’t have to think about anything other than enjoying their time together until the guys came up Saturday night for dinner.

Which meant one night where we overlapped in Seattle until she left. By the time she got back, I’d be gone.

Frustration had me pushing a bit too hard on the drill, and my finger pinched against the wood.

I cursed.

“Uncle Emmett said a really bad word,” Willa yelled.

“Sorry, Will,” I said, ruffling her hair.

“Easy there, killer,” Anya said, side-eyeing me.

I sucked at the spot where the skin throbbed. “Finish this one for me? Carabiner is in that bag behind the toolbox.”

She nodded, so I handed her the drill and climbed down the ladder.

As I opened the slider, Molly’s phone rang, and she excused herself to answer it, hustling behind me into the house.

“Hey, what’s up?” she said. “Did you get out there okay?”

Her eyes darted to me, and my brow furrowed when I couldn’t read what I saw there.

She hummed, settling her hip against the counter. “Did you try restarting it?”

The slider opened, my mom coming in with a stray child clinging to her back. Luna laughed happily when my mom whirled in a circle. I held my arms out, and Luna leaped from Mom’s back into my waiting hands. She was petite for her age but mind-bogglingly fearless, and I stood completely still while she hooked a leg up around my neck so she could sit on my shoulders.

Molly shook her head, unfazed by her youngest child’s antics.

“Who’s she talking to?” my mom whispered.

“I don’t know.” I winced when Luna gripped my hair in her fingers. “Do you mind, Lu?”

She let go with a laugh, clamping her hands onto the sides of my face instead.

“Better, thank you,” I said dryly.

“There should be a little red button down along the bottom,” Molly said. “Sometimes it’s finicky, though, especially when it gets stuck.”

Mom and I traded a look. “The water heater,” we said in unison.

“Your father has said he’s going to fix that for the past three years,” Mom mumbled. “Must be Adaline. She got to the beach house earlier than I thought she would.”

Molly blew out a breath. “Let me call you back, okay? Mom probably has a number of a local plumber; I’ll see if they can come out. Or one of us will come up early and help.” Adaline must have argued because Molly smiled. “I know you’re not worried, but you can’t be up there overnight with no hot water, either. I’ll text you and let you know what I get figured out.”

Mom gave me a loaded look as Molly wrapped up her phone call with Adaline.

We might have shit timing, but there was something to be said for fate too. There were always openings and opportunities, and when the game clock ticked down to dangerously low territory, it was my job to figure out how to find those openings.

“That stupid water heater is off again,” Molly said.

“Stupid is a bad word,” Luna added. “My teacher said so.”

Molly smiled at her daughter. “Your teacher is very smart. But moms are allowed to call inanimate objects whatever they want. It’s a rule.”