Page 51 of Returning to Everton

“What do ya think? It’s perfect isn’t it?” Violet sighs dreamily.

“Yeah it is! Look at all the stuff you have to play with in here! Do you ever plan on leaving?” I ask. “I would just stay in here all the time.”

She giggles at that. “Well Mommy makes me come in for dinner and to sleep in my new bed, but besides that, I’m in here all the time. Once I start school I’ll have less time to play in here,” she pouts. “So, I want to be in here as much as I can until then. Logan still hasn’t seen it though. I can’t wait to show him.”

“Well, I’ll go get him for you and y’all can play until dinner is ready okay?”

“Thanks, Ayden!”

I smile at her then head back outside to send Logan out. When I get outside, I see everyone has migrated to the back porch. Logan looks like he’s chomping at the bit to go to the playhouse, so I wave him over. He looks at his dad and when Declan nods his head, he takes off running toward me.

He stops in front of me and I furrow my brows. “Why were you waiting on the porch if you wanted to go to the playhouse so bad?” I ask him.

“Dad said you were in there and to wait for you to come out before I went in.”

I guess he was giving me time to cool down. “Well, Violet is waiting for you. She’s very excited to show off her new playhouse,” I tell him. “Have fun. I’ll come get y’all when it’s time for dinner.”

“Thanks, Uncle Ayden!” he exclaims then takes off for the playhouse. Once he disappears inside, I turn and start walking toward the others. Declan looks at me with his head tilted and a brow raised. I sigh and thinkwe’ll talk about it later.He nods once and I walk over to Nate.

“Great job on that playhouse man! Wish we had one when we were kids. Why the hell didn’t we?” I ask him.

He chuckles and shrugs his shoulders. “No idea man. We didn’t think about it until we were teens and made that house in the woods, and our parents weren’t nice enough to make us one.”

“Oh my god. I was just thinking about that house the other day!” Rowe exclaims. “What ever happened to it? Is it still there?” she asks.

I look at the guys. “I have no idea, haven’t been there in years. I don’t see why it wouldn’t be there though.” Kayden echoes my thoughts out loud.

“We should go check it out sometime, see if it’s still there,” I suggest.

Everyone nods their heads in agreement and I decide to go inside and get a drink. “Anyone need a drink?” I ask before I leave.

I get a round of ‘I do’s’ and I chuckle. “I don’t have that many hands guys sorry. Rowe, I’ll get you something though,” I wink at her. “Whatcha want sweetheart?”

She smiles at me. “Surprise me.”

As I walk inside, I hear Declan call out “I’ll help.” Great looks like he’s gonna attempt to have this conversation now. He follows me in and closes the door.

“Hey man, I didn’t mean to make you mad earlier. I didn’t plan on kissing her Ayden, but as I was walking up to give her a hug it was all I could hear. She was practically begging me to kiss her. What did you want me to do?”

“I don’t really wanna talk about it now Dec. Being with Violet calmed me down. I don’t wanna get pissed again. I just wanna spend some time with Rowe, okay?”

He sighs, “Okay. But wewilltalk about this Ayden. I should have already talked to y’all about it. I’m sorry I didn’t.”

“Why didn’t you?” I demand. “This isn’t going to work if you keep secrets Declan.”

“I know Ayden, I’m sorry. It was just all so new. You know I haven’t looked at a woman that way since Jane died. I guess I just wanted to wrap my mind around it before I talked to anyone about it. I see now that was the wrong thing to do. I didn’t do it to keep it a secret from any of you. I planned on telling y’all before we came today. I don’t have a good excuse for why I didn’t. All I can say is I’m sorry and it won’t happen again.”

“Fine, but when we get home, we’re all having a conversation about what clearly happened between you and Rowen that no one knows about, and about everyone’s expectations on how this relationship is going to work,” I declare.

“I can handle that. Come on let’s get those drinks before someone comes in and checks on us,” he reminds me why we came inside in the first place.

We each grab three drinks and go back outside. I hand Kayden a root beer then smirk as I give Rowe her orange soda.

“Oh my god it’s been so long since I’ve had one of these!” she exclaims. We’re all taken aback by that. Orange soda is her favorite, but not just any orange soda, Sunkist is the only orange soda she’ll drink. She used to drink so much we’d joke about buying stock in the company to get some of our money back from constantly buying the stuff.

“What do you mean you haven’t had any in so long?” I ask. “That’s your favorite drink Rowe. You can’t tell me they don’t have Sunkist in normalville,” I scoff.

She’s quick to look away, and I look at the guys for a clue as to what’s going on right now.

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