Page 43 of Returning to Everton

She squeals when she sees the cookies Logan picked out for them. “So, are you still mad at me?” I ask as I hold the cookies just out of reach.

“Nope! Now gimme my cookies! Or I’ll be even more mad at you,” she growls adorably.

I chuckle. “Okay, okay here have a cookie,” I offer placatingly.

She grins as she snatches two cookies out of the box and walks away. “Here Logan, I got you a cookie!” She hands Logan one of the cookies.

“Thanks, Vi!”

We all laugh at how adorable Violet is. “Alright,noware we ready to go play?” I ask.

“Yes! I wanna see what a magical playground is like!” Violet cheers.

We all follow Violet and Logan to the park as they talk excitedly. They run off to the playground, and we go find a seat at the tables. Rowen sits down facing the playground and places her cake on the table.

“Man I sure wish I had a drink to go with this yummy cake,” she gripes playfully.

Hudson shakes his head and conjures her a strawberry smoothie.

“You know Hud, this is my second coffee cake and strawberry smoothie today. You're going to make me fat if you keep this up,” she accuses.

“Just trying to keep you happy, Sugar. Can't blame me for that,” he defends.

“I guess,” she grumbles. “There are other ways to keep me happy you know.”

All of our heads snap in her direction at that comment. She sees her mistake and tries to backtrack, but she forgets I can hear her thoughts when she gets frazzled.

“I mean... you know, you don’t have to keep feeding me. You can... um,” she starts, but Nate interrupts.

“What else can I do to make you happy, love? Tell me and I’ll do it,” he insists.

“You already do it, Nate,” she assures him.

I look up at Nate and he gives me a look and thinks to meNo, Dec she’s not talking about that. Though we all wish she was.

“You played with Violet and even taught her magic today. She’s never had anyone but me and Quinn do that. It matters, Nate. You helped me with the movers today too,” she reminds him. “It’s the little things like that that keep me happy.”

She looks at Hudson. “You drove me home this morning, when you had to close the bakery to do it, and you didn’t complain once,” she tells him. “You got a text while you were driving and you didn’t even pull your phone out. Granted you had a good idea it was from me, but still. You care enough about my wellbeing to not text and drive, and you made sure I was safe inside before you drove off.”

Finally, she looks at me. “You bought dinner for us when you just met us. You knew I was freaking out about the house being too big, but you convinced me to give it a try anyway. I’m so thankful you did Declan. I truly love your house. Then you were thoughtful enough to get my daughter cookies when I guilted you into getting me some goodies from the bakery.” She looks around at all of us. “You all make me happy,” she says emphatically.

“Well get used to it, because we don’t plan on stopping,” Hudson states for all of us. Nate and I nod our heads in confirmation.

“What are Ayden and Kayden up to? I’m surprised I haven’t randomly run into them since I’ve been here,” Rowen jokes.

“Oh, they had to work, or trust me, they would have been knocking on your door this morning right alongside Nate,” Hudson tells her.

She smiles at that. “What do they do?” she asks.

“They own the mechanic shop in town. It’s the only one, so they stay pretty busy. I keep telling them they need to hire more people. Maybe now that you’re here, they’ll have an incentive to work less,” I tell her.

She blushes at that. “Well, I sure would like to see them soon. Do they work weekends too?”

“Nah, we put our foot down on that. They were working seven days a week for a long time. They were getting burnt out, so we made them close the shop on weekends. We had to make them take a break,” Hudson tells her.

“That’s good. I’m glad they have y’all to look out for them like that. Lord knows what they would do without you there,” she laughs, then goes back to eating her coffee cake.

As Rowen eats her coffee cake and drinks her smoothie, we watch the kids play on the playground. Logan takes Violet over to the swings and when he sits down the swing starts swinging for him. We can hear Violet laugh from here. She climbs on the other swing and is thrilled when it starts swinging too.

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