Page 71 of Every Beat of My Heart

By unspoken agreement, everyone eased up because Owen was present and paused to give him pointers. We ran plays, forcing him to run different routes and make split-second decisions according to the way we were defending him.

By the time Daphne called us in for dinner, we were hot and sweaty. Not exactly how I wanted to look at dinner with Claire. If she hadn’t thought it before, she definitely thought I was an overgrown kid now.

We washed up in the sink in the mudroom.

“Good job out there,” I said to Owen.

He grinned. “It was just a pickup game.”

“That’s where you’re wrong. You can still pick up valuable skills doing something like this.”

“If you say so,” Owen said.

Everyone was already in the dining room, waiting for us. Owen sat down on one side of Claire, and I sat on the other. She was my guest for the evening, and I didn’t want her to feel neglected.

Teddy sat across from us and winked when he caught my gaze.

I mouthed, Don’t be an asshole.

“Do I need to remind you two to behave?” Dad asked from the head of the table, and I looked down at the table.

The last thing I wanted was Claire to see me as someone who was immature. “No.”

Dad nodded. “We should go around and say what we’re thankful for.”

This tradition hadn’t started until Izzy was a bit older, and it was originally her idea. She’d learned about it from school.

Izzy raised her hand. “Me. Me. Me.” When Dad smiled at her, she lowered it. “I’m grateful for my new house and my new dad.”

Cole blinked and reached for her so she could climb into his lap. When her arms wrapped around his neck, my heart squeezed.

Everyone smiled, and I think there were even tears in my sisters’ eyes.

I leaned over and said to Claire, “It’s going to be hard to top that one.”

Claire grinned. “Are you going to try?”

I shook my head. “Not even going to bother.”

Then Cole said to Izzy, “I’m grateful for you and your mother. You two made me the happiest man on earth.”

“Now that everyone’s heart is melted, let’s move onto someone who has less moving things to say. Teddy?” I joked.

He shot me a disgruntled look, but finally said, “I’m grateful for most of our family being together and new friendships and opportunities.”

“Are you talking about Charlotte Monroe?” I couldn’t help but ask.

Now he was shooting daggers at me. “I was talking about Claire and Owen and the opportunity to spruce up the farm.”

“Sure you did,” I said in a purposely disbelieving tone.

“I’m grateful that we got to see Ryder and Faith this year. May this be the year our family comes home,” Wes said, ever the responsible one.

“Hear! Hear,” Dad said, and we all lifted our glasses. “To the Calloways.”

Everyone said, “To the Calloways.”

I nudged Claire with my shoulder. “Did you want to go? You don’t have to.”

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