The Family You Make (Sunrise Cove #1)(74)

The doorbell rang and everyone jumped. Jasper lost his ever-loving mind, barking at a piercing pitch, warning the entire planet that there was a possible intruder.

Levi got out in front of the whole pack and faced them, hands up. “Sit,” he said. “All of you.”

Everyone but Jasper sat.

“Okay, now try to look normal.”

“Honestly, Levi,” his mom said, “we know how to behave.”

“Do you?”

“It’s his girlfriend,” Tess said, putting an odd emphasis on the word girlfriend that made Levi grimace on the inside. “He’s got the right to want everything to go perfectly. Isn’t that right, Levi?”

He pointed at her, then the rest of them. “All of you, zip it.” He gently touched his finger to Peyton’s nose. “Except you. Never you.”

She beamed her toothless grin at him.

To everyone else he said, “Not a single one of you is going to say another word. Not until I explain to her what you guys did. Because there’s no way I’m letting her walk in here without first telling her about the con you all pulled.”

Tess gave him a long look. “Do you really want to tell stories about con artists?”

Levi glared at her, but she’d been his big sister all his life and wasn’t cowed in the least. In fact, she smirked.

Shaking his head, he opened the door to Jane and her grandpa. Jasper squeezed between Levi and the door and immediately put his nose to Lloyd’s crotch.

“Whoa,” Lloyd said. “The frank and beans haven’t been nosed like that in a long while.”

“Sorry.” Levi pulled the dog away. “Jasper, sit.”

Jasper sat, panting happily, smiling from ear to ear.

“Jasper, huh?” Lloyd patted him on the head. “What a big boy you are. Nice name too.”

“He also goes by ‘dammit,’ ‘don’t you dare,’ ‘no!’ and ‘stop!’” Levi looked at Jane, trying to figure out how to do this. Like a Band-Aid, Jane would say.

Her smile was a little short of its usual wattage. In fact, it was her polite smile, the one she used with people she hadn’t let into her life. The one Levi hadn’t seen in a while, and he stepped over the threshold, pulling the door shut behind him. “You okay?”

“Nervous.” She sat on the top porch step like her legs were wobbly.

“Me too,” Lloyd said at a decibel that suggested he might have forgotten to turn on his hearing aids. “But not for the same reason as Jane. I’m nervous because I had bologna and cheese for lunch, and bologna gives me the toots.”

“Don’t worry, Jasper will have you beat,” Levi said and crouched before Jane. “Don’t be nervous. You don’t have to be nervous. Trust me, they’re going to be nicer to you than they are to me.”

She lifted her head and nodded, studying him a moment. “You seem off too. What is it?”

How did she do it? How did she always know what was going on with him beneath the surface? No one had ever been able to read him in the same way he could pick up on her emotions. If he thought too hard about that, the meaning of that ability, it made him feel vulnerable like nothing else ever had.

“Whatever it is, tell me quick before I have a heart attack,” she said.

“Heart attack?” Lloyd put a hand to his own heart and shook his head. “No, I’m fine. I’m great.”

“Grandpa, are your hearing aids on?”

“Uh . . .” He blinked sheepishly as he turned them on. “Sorry.”

Jane’s eyes were still on Levi, anxiety swimming in her pretty eyes.

She thought she was the problem. As if.

“What did I miss?” Lloyd asked. “I hope the meal isn’t canceled. I was looking forward to dessert.”

“Not canceled,” Levi said. “But we could head out to Cake Walk if you want. I hear they’ve gotten some new flavors—”

“Levi.” Jane took a deep breath and nodded. “You’ve changed your mind. I get it, believe me. We’ll just—”

“No.” Levi grabbed her hand before she could get away. “I haven’t changed my mind. On anything,” he clarified, looking her right in the eyes. “But—”

She closed her eyes. “There’s a but.”

He really hated that he had to do this. “There’re a few things you need to know before we go inside.”

“Maybe I should go inside to give you two a moment,” Lloyd said, shifting his weight from foot to foot. “Besides, I drank a lot of water today, so I’ll just . . .” He gestured to the front door and then opened it and vanished inside.

“Ohmigod,” Jane said. “Should I go after him?”

“No.” If anyone could handle Levi’s family for a minute, it was Lloyd. He sat next to Jane, then turned her to face him. Their knees bumped and he took comfort from the touch, accidental as it was. He knew that in a minute she was going to be mad at him, very mad, possibly mad enough to walk away. And he wouldn’t be able to blame her. “I’m not sure where to start.”

“Then I’ll start,” she said. “You regret asking me to do this. You regret that night up at the Tahoe Rim Trail. And every night since then—”