There was good and bad news. Bad news—she ached for Spence. She ached for him like she’d ache for air to fill her lungs. Not exactly a newsflash.
Good news—her family had decorated. Yes, she realized this was a very small thing in the scheme of all the things, but hey, she had to celebrate the good stuff, no matter how small. Her brothers had pulled the Christmas boxes from storage and thrown everything up. It wasn’t in Colbie’s usual orderly fashion. The stockings had been taped to a wall instead of pinned on the staircase railing. The tree had been put up in a corner instead of in front of the window. And the lights . . . good Lord, the lights. They’d used the outside balcony lights to line the crown molding. The tree lights were on the balcony. And the mantel lights were on the tree. It was all wrong and looked a little bit like Christmas on crack but . . . it made her smile.
“What do you think?” Kent asked, standing in the doorway in nothing but boxers and socks.
“I like it,” she said. “You guys did it on your own.”
He smiled and headed into the laundry room off the pantry, where he grabbed a pair of sweats out of the dryer.
She opened her mouth to get on him about living out of the dryer, but she closed her mouth again.
Because he’d done his own laundry.
He came back into the kitchen and moved to the oven. He turned it off and pulled out what looked like a very loaded casserole dish, and put that on the stovetop.
“What’s that?” she asked.
“Linner. Late lunch, early dinner. Put it together last night cuz it’s my turn to cook today and I only had time to make one thing.”
She stared at him. “Okay, who are you and what have you done with my brother?”
He grinned. “I know, right? And wait until you taste it.”
She tried to pull a piece of the melted cheese out and burned her finger. “Mudderfudder!”
He laughed. “You know that we’re legal adults now, right? That we’ve heard every bad word under the sun and have most definitely used them?”
“You use them?”
“All the time. Just not near you so we don’t have to pay.” He gestured to the swear jar on the counter, filled with money she’d put in it. “Maybe,” he said, “it’s time to retire that thing. You could probably go on another vacay with what’s in there.”
She sighed. “I was just trying to make sure you guys knew right from wrong.”
“You were the best role model we could’ve asked for. Of course we know right from wrong.”
She looked at him and he laughed. “Hey, knowing and doing are two different things. We had things to get out of our system.” Still smiling, he came close, pulling her out of her chair and into his arms. “You’re back,” he said quietly.
“I told you I would be.”
He tightened his grip and pressed his face into her shoulder and she hugged him back, feeling a ball of emotion in her throat at the way he was holding her. “You didn’t expect to see me,” she whispered.
Still keeping his face hidden, he shook his head.
She squeezed him, her heart so tight she could scarcely breathe. He, like she, had some abandonment issues, and she’d hurt him by running away. “I’d never just walk away from you guys.”
He laughed softly and lifted his head, flashing her that grin that she knew got him whatever he wanted. “We’d absolutely deserve it if you did.”
“Maybe,” she teased, and then let her smile fade. “But seriously, I was always coming back, Kent. Always.”
His eyes grateful, he nodded. “I’m glad. And not just because Kurt cooks like shit. Oh, and you just got a same-day delivery. It was left at the front door.” He gestured to the package on the table that she hadn’t even noticed. One glance at the return address—Spence’s—had her hurriedly opening it up, heart in her throat as she came to a pretty wooden box. Inside, it was jammed with a huge assortment of small note pads and stickies in every color. She stared at it and started laughing.
Had a man ever gotten her more?
“What the hell’s all that?” Kent asked.
“It’s blank notes for me to use to jot down all my random thoughts,” she said.
“Huh.” Kent shook his head. “You should marry that dude.”
“Can’t,” she managed around a clogged throat, shaking her head. “I messed it all up.”
“As badly as I messed up?” he asked. “I mean, you yelled at me and I got it. I know we’ve been slow on the uptake but we’re trying to change, I can promise you that. I also know it’s only been a few days but I can tell you that we mean it. I’m sure we’ll screw up more than a few times but we heard you, Colbie. And we’re working on it. Sometimes it’s that simple.”
“Not this time,” she said.
“Because you let your responsibilities here hold you back,” he said. “You let us hold you back. If San Francisco turns out to be your jam, we’re going to try real hard not to hold you back anymore.”
Her breath caught. “No?”
“No.” He laughed softly. “I mean, we might all follow you out there, but hey, that’s how family works, right?” He pulled free and smiled at her.
“Right,” she said and shook her head. “How did you get to be smarter than me?”
He ruffled her hair just as Kurt came into the room.
They looked at each other, his expression hooded. “Hey,” she said softly. “Nice to see you. I’m glad you’re here.”
“I told you I would be,” he said.
“I was wrong to tell you what to do,” she said. “We’re equals in this family. We take care of each other because we want to, not because we have to.”
“You really believe that?” Kurt asked.
“I do,” she said and looked at the both of them, so identical and yet so different. “I’m sorry I left the way I did, without coming to you and telling you what was wrong. But I’m not sorry I went. I needed it. I . . .” She broke off, her throat constricting at what she’d found for herself in San Francisco, a world away from here. “I loved my time there.”
“We know.” Kent pulled out his phone, accessed his photos, and brought one up of . . .
. . . Colbie and Spence. It’d been taken outside of the Pacific Pier Building where the paparazzi had caught up with them. She was staring up at Spence with a silly smile on her face. It’d be embarrassing except that Spence was smiling down at her as well, his eyes lit with humor and something else—affection.
The cool, calm, unflappable, stoic man who didn’t easily show his feelings was practically glowing with how he felt for her.
And her heart stopped. Just stopped. She didn’t realize she’d taken Kent’s phone into her own hands and zoomed until he nudged Kurt.
“See? I was right,” he said. “She does really like that dude, a lot.” He held out his hand.
Kurt sighed and went to the junk drawer, where they kept an envelope of petty cash. Mostly it was used for emergency convenience-store runs or tips for deliveries, and it was funded by Colbie. Or at least it always had been. She realized she’d probably left it low on funds and hadn’t given it a second thought.
But the envelope was full now. “Tell me you didn’t rob a bank,” she said.