Page 186 of Embracing the Change

“Am I clear?” Jamie pressed.

“Clear,” Chet grunted.

“Fantastic. Now get out,” Jamie demanded.

He sat behind his desk and turned his attention to his laptop.

Chet hesitated only a second before he walked out on his own.

Ten minutes later, Monica stuck her head in and assured him Chet had left the building.

Only after the door closed on her, did he call Nora.

She demanded they cancel their dinner reservations for that evening so they could have a quiet night in, and Jamie translated that to: so she could look after him.

He demanded that they didn’t, because that was the last time Chester Lynch was going to darken their lives.

His Nora always looked beautiful, even in a designer tracksuit with only mascara on her lashes.

But that night, she’d pulled out all the stops.

Therefore, when Jamie walked into the restaurant at her side, he was so proud, and so looking forward to good food and his woman’s company, Chester Lynch wasn’t even a memory.

In other words, Nora did what Nora was prone to do.

She found her way to look after him, no matter what.

“I’m rethinking this Sunday lunch shit,” Archie muttered, sitting with Jamie and Nico in Allegra and Darryn’s living room.

“Word,” Nico agreed.

Both men took sips of their bottles of beer.

Jamie said nothing.

After being starved of a functional family while growing up and well into adulthood (until he met Lindy), he was always at one with any family time, no matter if the chaos that was currently ensuing at the dining room table was both confusing to follow, and even if it wasn’t, he didn’t have a lot of interest in it.

The results when they came, he was definitely interested in.

The road to get there, not at all.

This was because the women, with Darryn inputting regularly, were poring over some of the preliminary design schemes for the brownstone, at the same time they were discussing a variety of gowns for a variety of events, including Dru’s adoption party. Not to mention, they were dissecting, with minute attention to every detail, plans for said party.

“You don’t seem bored outta your skull,” Archie observed to Jamie.

Jamie tipped his head toward the dining room table. “They’re happy.”

Archie looked that way.

Nico looked that way.

And both men with him settled in after they did, because when your loved ones were happy, that happened.

“Oh my God, Dru! Look at this dress!” Valentina shouted and shoved her phone in Dru’s face.

“Oh my God!” Dru shouted back. “That’s it!” She pulled Val’s phone out of her hand and extended it to Nora. “What do you think?”

Nora glanced at the phone and decreed, “Perfection, dearest. Order it immediately.”

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