Page 88 of Return to Sender (Pine Falls 1)

“It’s so nice to meet you.” I hugged her back, but not too hard. There was hardly a thing to her.

She leaned away. “I hope your flight was good.”

“It was. Thank you.” I shifted my focus to Jonah and Whitney, who was all but asleep in her daddy’s arms. “This is Jonah and Whitney.”

Sabine left me briefly to give Jonah a side hug. “Yes, I’ve heard so much about you. Welcome.”

I wondered what Sabine had heard about Jonah, seeing as Dean had only met him briefly.

Sabine patted Whitney’s back. “We better get you all to bed. You’ve had a long day. Can I offer you anything first? A drink or a snack?”

Jonah and I both shook our heads.

Sabine came right back to me and looped her arm through mine. “If you need anything, you just ask or feel free to help yourself.” She pointed down the large hall with marble floors and fine artwork. “The kitchen is down that hall and to the right. Hopefully your brothers haven’t eaten everything. Those boys are empty tanks when they come home. You can meet them in the morning. They are off with friends tonight making mischief, I’m sure.”

It was weird to hear the word brothers in relation to me.

Dean walked in from the cold with our luggage, which was only three carry-ons. “I see you met my better half.” He flashed his wife a smile.

She blushed as if they were two kids dating. It was adorable, and couple goals. “I think we better get them up to their room.” Sabine waved to the split staircase in front of us.

I felt like we were staying in a five-star hotel. All we needed was someone to be playing the sleek black grand piano in the open room to the right of us, complete with crystal chandelier and professionally decorated Christmas tree.

“I’ll follow you,” Dean said.

Sabine tugged on my arm and led us up the stairs. “I’m so sorry, only our small guestroom is available. We had to give Dad the large guest room and his private nurse uses the one next to him. And with the boys home, we are full up.”

I knew Roger Stanton lived here. But it really hit home that I was just steps away from him. I couldn’t believe I would be meeting him tomorrow, if he was well enough for visitors.

I had been racking my brain for days thinking of what I would say to him. Even now, I tried to come up with an opening line. That was, until it dawned on me what Sabine was saying about our accommodations.

“We’re all staying in the same room?” I regrettably said out loud. I’d told Dean I would make our next visit awkward. It took me all of five minutes.

Sabine stopped on the step near the top. “Oh. I just assumed you would want to. I figured you . . . Well, that’s not important. Oh goodness, let’s see what we can do,” she fretted.

Jonah gave me an amused smile.

I rolled my eyes at him. “Please don’t make a fuss. One room will be great.”

“We love bundling,” Jonah teased me. “We’ll use Whitney as our bundling sack.” That was a great idea. Put the innocent child in the middle of the bed to prevent us from having sex. Huh. That actually was a good solution. But did he need to announce it? I thought I had already done a good enough job of embarrassing us. Or at least myself.

Both Dean and Sabine laughed while I turned ten shades of red.

“Bundling.” Sabine giggled. “Your dad tried that tactic on me once too.”

I was surprised anyone knew what that was, but I was surrounded by some of the most educated people on the planet.

“Tactic?” Dean acted faux offended. “I thought I was being romantic.”

“You were very romantic, dear, but I saw right through you.” Sabine winked at him.

I raised a brow at Jonah. Did he have ulterior motives?

He gave me a wicked grin that said all I needed to know.

With all that, we continued our trek to our room. On the way down the hall, I took note of all the family photos. My brothers were darker like their mother but built more like Dean. Sebastian shared his eyes. What really struck me, though, were the four happy, smiling faces in each picture. It didn’t matter if they were formal photos, or whether they were at the beach or the Sydney Opera House; there were smiles for days. I knew pictures didn’t tell the whole story—I’d thought Jonah was blissfully happy in all the family photos he sent every year. But looking at my family, I could see in their eyes they were truly happy. I could even feel it in the energy of this home.

Suddenly, that loss Dr. Morales warned me about hit. This is what I had missed out on. Part of me wished I never knew that’s how deep the loss cut. I had to swallow down my emotions before I made everything even more awkward.

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