Page 96 of Family Bonds- Kelsey & Van

“I doubt that,” he said drily.

“Don’t be so sure,” she said. She moved back to his motorcycle and got her helmet on and then swung her legs over the back and patted the seat. “Sit down and let me put my arms around you. How easy do you think it is to have sex on this thing?”

“Not easy and not happening,” he said. “Don’t get any ideas.”

“You’re no fun.” He climbed on in front of her. She poked him in the ribs when she said it, but he ignored her.

When they returned to his house twenty minutes later, he parked his bike in the garage and they went in through the side door. She was almost running to keep up with him at this point. Guess he wanted to know more than he let on.

They got to his office and he opened the desk drawer where everything was left and found envelope four.

“This one is heavy,” he said. “I think it’s a book or pad or something.”

“So you’ve been picking it up and putting it down?”

“Yeah,” he said. He opened it and pulled out a notebook. He flipped through and she could see Barry’s handwriting on it.

“Looks like a journal to me,” she said.

“Shit,” he said. “It’d take me hours to read this.”

“I can’t believe he only has one considering it’s been so long,” she said, reaching for it. “First date looks like him venting over your mother dating your father.”

He took it out of her hands and looked it over. “Seems that way,” he said. “I guess I’ll read this little by little.”

“Which means it will be months before you get it done,” she said. “Sit and start now.”

He turned to look at her. “Maybe I’m not ready.”

“Van, you wouldn’t have rushed in here if you weren’t ready. It’s six. I’m hungry. You probably are too. Start reading and I’ll go make us some dinner.”

“Are you ordering me around?” he asked.

“I am. For your own good. I’m only in the other room if you need me.”

She didn’t give him a chance to argue and returned to the kitchen to look for food.

He had slim pickings, but she found ground beef and hamburger rolls and figured that would be good enough.

She was pulling out spices to mix with the beef like Duke had taught her to do.

She went to his deck and noticed his grill was gas so she turned that on.

There were potatoes in a basket, so she popped them in the microwave while she formed the patties.

It was going to be a simple rustic meal, but it’d fill them up and be good enough.

Twenty minutes later, dinner was ready and on the island, so she went to search out Van.

“Dinner done?” he asked.

“Yes,” she said. “I can bring it in here if you want to keep reading.”

“No,” he said. “I need a break.”

He followed her to the kitchen. “Do you want to tell me what it says?”

“A summary,” he said. He reached for the rolls and made her burger. “A lot of what your father told me. My grandfather didn’t like my father and forbade my mother to date him. My mother didn’t listen. There were fights. Some paragraphs of my grandfather missing my grandmother and that my mother and grandmother were two peas in a pod. I could almost read the sarcasm in the writing over that statement.”

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