Breathe (Colorado Mountain #4)(98)

“Nope,” Silas took a second longer and did it while shaking his napkin out at his side and grinning at his daughter.

“I didn’t do this to you,” Faye retorted to Liza as she situated herself by the chair next to his therefore Chace moved to pull out.

She tossed a small, distracted grin at him before taking her seat.

“No, you didn’t. But you side with Boyd on all our arguments so this is payback for that,” Liza returned.

“How about this,” Sondra, seated at the foot of the table, started, “I just spent an hour cooking, an hour before that baking a cake and half a day cleaning my house. I’d like to enjoy the meal and my family. I wasn’t all fired up about this banter when you two were teenagers. Now, I like it less. So how about we eat and act like adults. Does that work for anyone but me?”

“It works for me,” Faye stated instantly.

“It would,” Liza muttered.

“Liza,” Sondra said in a tone much like Boyd had used with his boys except feminine. Clearly it was just as impossible to be denied because Liza’s face immediately assumed a thirty-two year old woman’s pout that made her look nearly as cute as her sister, just more sophisticated, and Chace finally got an idea of why Boyd liked it in there.

This was more evidence that Sondra spoke, people listened. The banter ended.

Chace missed it.

It wasn’t ugly or hurtful. It was reminiscing, nostalgic, teasing and although heated, there was a different kind of warmth under that heat. It was a warmth that Chace had never felt before. An affectionate kind that said these were shared memories and, regardless of their alarming nature, there was no love lost. They’d just morphed into amusing anecdotes that provided opportunities for teasing but fond banter that would leave no one with hard feelings.

It wasn’t the first home of his girlfriends’ parents that he’d visited. It wasn’t his first such dinner.

But it was the most interesting one and he’d never felt as comfortable.

Food was passed around and Chace took in the flowers he bought that Sondra had put in the middle, a silent but thoughtful indication of her gratitude. Liza looked after Robbie who was at her side. Faye kept an eye on Jarot who was at hers. Sondra kept an eye on both her grandsons as they flanked her.

Surprisingly, even Robbie minded his manners at the table. Clearly, it was a free for all the rest of the time but when he was at his meal, he was to be quiet and behaved and he was.

The food was delicious and it was also familiar since Sondra obviously taught her daughter how to cook.

This made him feel comfortable too.

The conversation was light, easy and flowed naturally. Chace was pulled in from the start, Silas and Boyd talking sports and in an experienced way, Sondra, Liza and Faye remained silent but not removed while they did it.

Chace participated in a discussion about the Avalanche with the men while listening to Faye remind her mother that spring was nearly on the Rockies and asking her if she’d help again that year with flowers at the library.

So that answered that. Faye planted those flowers with her mother.

There was something about that, knowing daughter and mother worked side by side to create beauty for a building that didn’t belong to them, but instead the town that also made him feel strangely comfortable.

Conversation naturally turned and again this turn was affectionately heated as it became political and the politics at the table quickly outed themselves, those being strictly segregated by gender. Men, staunchly conservative. Women, resolutely liberal.

Through this, Chace remained neutral by keeping his mouth shut until Boyd threw up his hands, looked right at him and begged, “Man, help us out here. Even out the friggin’ numbers.”

“Boyd, don’t say frig!” Liza snapped.

“Why?” Boyd clipped back.

“The boys!” she hissed.

Boyd looked to Jarot.

“Jarot, buddy, what does frig mean?” he asked.

“Boyd!” Liza kept hissing.

“Uh…” Jarot looked mystified then, game and clearly unaffected by his parents’ heated words, he tried, “Frig means, um… frig?” he asked in answer.

“See?” Boyd bit off to Liza.

Liza glared at him and then looked at Jarot. “You’re right, honey. Frig just means frig. Now, please don’t say that at school or, well… ever.”

“For goodness sakes, it’s just frig,” Silas entered the conversation at this point.

“Dad!” Now Liza was snapping at her father.

“Oh my God, Dad,” Faye whispered, also to her father.

“He’s a boy,” Silas shrugged. “Boys, you gotta give on some things.”

“Here we go,” Faye muttered to her plate and Chace looked at her to see her chin tucked in her neck and her eyes focused with keen attention on her food.

“Um… I’m sorry?”

This came from Sondra and he’d been at this table once, the dinner wasn’t entirely consumed, the birthday cake to come was deep into the horizon, therefore he didn’t know Sondra but for less than an hour and still, Chace read her tone was dangerous.

“Now –” Silas started but Sondra cut him off.

“Don’t even go there.”

“Sondra –” Silas tried again.