Page 55 of Luke

“I’m going to call Jake and have him order pizza. It’s looking like there’s potential for a long night ahead.” Cade pulled out his phone. “Any special requests?”

They all declined and Cade made the call. Other than his conversation, the ride home was quiet. Paisley leaned on Luke as he contemplated plan B that they didn’t think they’d actually need. Or maybe it was just him that didn’t think they’d need it.

“Here,” Ryker blurted just before they pulled up.

“Thanks for coming with us,” Paisley said.

“You’re family.” Cade shrugged like it was that simple.

They piled out of the car and headed inside. Quiet greeted them as everyone hung out in the living room, both babies asleep and everyone else watching a movie quietly.

“I ordered the pizza. It should be here soon. Evan and Kayla are on their way over, too. They just wrapped up meeting with Evan’s company about expanding the restaurant.” Jake stood and shook everyone’s hands.

“That’s so wild to me still,” April said. “There was a time when we didn’t think the restaurant would take off, and now it’s growing to a second location.”

“We don’t know that yet,” Cade reminded her. “Wait for them to tell us.”

“I do know. I might be on maternity leave but I’m still her lawyer.”

Catherine laughed at Cade getting corrected. “Of course she knows.”

He humphed and folded his arms across his chest.

“How did things go? That’s something I don’t know,” April soothed her husband.

“It went really well,” Luke filled in for her. “Mary was on board with the rehab and was already working on getting herself clean like we thought.”

“That’s wonderful.” Catherine came around the sofa and hugged Paisley.

“What does that mean for your father?” April asked Cade.

“It means that we aren’t done yet. Mr. Smith is working on getting rid of his lawyer and once that’s done, we have other things we can do to make sure this doesn’t happen again.” Cade went back to his pacing like he always did when they were here. “We can’t let our guards down yet. Hopefully soon.”

“I hate being on edge,” Catherine said. “Why couldn’t we just have a normal family?”

“What even is normal?” Luke asked.

Paisley chuckled beside him. “None of us know. We’ve all had our moments and it’s rough, but it brought us all together.”

“Well, okay, Miss Bright Side,” Catherine teased.

The doorbell rang and Luke left the group to open it, whether for either pizza or Evan remained to be seen. His thoughts about what to do next bounced around in his head as he walked, not paying attention to his surroundings or bothering to look at who was there before opening the door.

He pulled it open and immediately tried to close it back. A foot stopped it, though.

“You have a lot of explaining to do,” the man who was in the way said.

“Mr. Hamilton,” Luke acknowledged. “You need to leave. You are not welcome here at all.”

“I’m afraid that doesn’t matter. You need to stop what you’re doing, and I’m not leaving until you come to your senses.” Mr. Hamilton’s beady eyes drilled into him from the crack in the door.

“Do you need help with the—” Cade cut off when he noticed what was happening. “Who is it?” His almost jovial voice was now stone.

“Ah, Cade, glad you’re here too. Thanks for being together. It makes things much easier on me.”

“What do you want?” Cade demanded.

Luke opened the door the rest of the way so they could see the man on the other side. Hopefully, the women stayed in the living room.

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