Page 93 of Their Greatest Strength

With a clap on his shoulder, I retreat through his room. “Thanks, Nate. If you need anything, just let me know.”

“Will do.”

“And seriously, use the Xbox and buy yourself some games. Everything’s hooked up to my card, so go crazy. This is your home too, and I’d like it if you took advantage of everything I have to offer.”

He stares deeply at me for a moment, rolling around something in his mind before speaking. “Why does it matter to you so much if we view this place as our home?”

“Because I like to think of us as a family. And for as long as you’re here, I want you to grow comfortable enough to view us the same way,” I admit.

His expression loosens, emotion filling his eyes. “I do. I mean, it makes sense. We’re a found family.”

As someone who’s been surrounded by both found and blood family my entire life, hearing him say that nearly takes me out at the knees. Both variations of family carry the same exact weight in my heart. They always will.

I have to leave before Nate’s subjected to my ugly crying face. But I don’t take another step toward the door without meeting his eyes and saying, “Damn right, we are.”

And that’s that. Nate takes his plate to his bed and hunkers down to finish watching his video while I leave, closing his door behind me.

Instead of going to Blakely’s room like I’d planned, I go back downstairs. The hot sauce packets Nate mentioned have been in the fridge for way too long to offer his sister. So, I poursome of the bottled stuff into a small bowl and add it to her plate.

Before heading up the stairs again, I pull my Notes app up on my phone and addloves spicy foodto the list I’ve been keeping titled Things Blakely Likes. It’s the twin to my Things To Learn About Blakely one.

Her door is still shut when I make my way back upstairs. With two heavy plates of food in my hands, I use my foot to knock.

She isn’t as quick to answer the door as her brother, almost like she’s trying to punish me by making me wait. I quirk a smile at that.

When she finally peeks at me through the crack she’s opened in the doorway, her eyes are bare of makeup, and only half of her hair is down out of her braided updo.

“Hey,” she mutters.

I lift the plates into her line of vision. “Still hungry?”

“Is that hot sauce?”

“It sure is. If you let me in, you can have it.”

She narrows her eyes. “I would have let you in without the bribe.”

“Can’t be too sure,” I tease.

The air is fizzling with nerves, both hers and mine. There’s no telling how we’ll be around each other after what happened downstairs, but I really, really hope we don’t lose the progress we’ve made.

“What kind of tacos did you get?” she asks, opening the door for me to come in.

Before Blakely moved in, there were so many empty bedrooms in this house that I stopped caring to fill them with furniture. The only person who ever slept over was Jax, and that’s when we were both too drunk and fell asleep on the couch. The spare bed only collected dust.

It wasn’t until I ran into Blakely at the sports shop that I put in a massive furniture order online. I’m pretty sure I blacked outwhile imputing my credit card info because the next thing I knew, a moving truck was at the neighbourhood gate, waiting for instructions.

Blakely hasn’t added much of anything to the space. The hideous bag that she was keeping on the dresser with her clothes isn’t there anymore, as if she’s finally unpacked.

Hovering near the closet door, I drop my eyes to the food. “Beef, chicken, and a couple of shrimp ones, if you’re into fish. If not, I’ll eat them.”

“I could have made tacos. You didn’t need to waste money ordering them.”

“Don’t start with me tonight, Bandit. It’s impossible to waste money on you. Just sit down and eat with me.”

“Maybe I don’t want dinner company,” she grumbles, taking her plate.

“If you didn’t, you wouldn’t have let me in.”

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