Page 49 of The Love Ambush
Alex, a brawny guy with a man bun, smiles over at me kindly. Daphne’s whole family is kind and warm and relaxed. Liza is the most done up of them, and she apologized for it, explaining she’d been on an Internet call for work before dinner.
“I am—” Alex starts.
“He was in the ER so much as a kid, he probably didn’t even need to go to nursing school,” his brother Leon says.
“Were you shadowing a nurse there?” I ask.
“No,” Daphne laughs. “He’s the daredevil of the family, and he was always getting hurt.”
“Me, the daredevil?” Alex asks. “You’re the biggest daredevil in this family.”
“What?” Brodie asks. “Why haven’t I heard about this before?”
Daphne waves a hand. “He’s exaggerating.”
The rest of her family laughs in that way people do when they’re sharing an inside joke.
“I thought you said you took him bungee jumping,” her brother Charlie says, leaning against his boyfriend, Jake. We’ve finished dinner, which was just as raucous as the current conversation, and are waiting for Daphne’s grandparents to bring out a special dessert they made just for tonight. Apparently, they’re making a few last-minute touches in the resort kitchen.
“She did,” Brodie says slowly, putting an arm around Daphne like he’s going to protect her. “Once.”
“That’s it?” Alex asks. “You hiding your risk-taking side from him, Daph?”
“Maybe I’ve outgrown it,” Daphne says.
Again, everyone laughs like they know something we don’t. They’re clearly a very close family, and it makes me miss something I’ve never had.
“Daphne was the one always leading her brothers into some grand scheme or other,” Rose says. “She could never sit still and was always up for anything outdoors. You work too hard, Daphne, if you haven’t been camping since we saw you last.”
“Brodie and I just went two weeks ago,” Daphne says, smiling at my brother with so much love it makes my chest ache. “We’re both really busy, but we’ve agreed to make more time for getting outside.”
“I’m glad, honey,” Rose says, before turning her attention back to me. “Have you always wanted to be a nurse, Gentry?”
I hesitate, hoping someone will interrupt and take the heat off me, but I have no such luck. “I actually wanted to be an artist when I was a kid, but it’s not realistic as a career path.”
“Don’t tell Leon that,” Alex says, shoving his brother’s shoulder. “He’s still trying to make a living off his finger paintings.”
Leon grins like he’s proud, his long, full beard bobbing as he nods. “That’s right. I work in the service industry to fund my arthabit and prefer it that way. It gives me the freedom to create whatever I want without caring whether it’ll actually sell. Do you still make art?”
“Dessert’s ready,” Daphne’s grandmother, Hester, says as she steps into the dining room, followed by three staff members, each carrying a tray covered in brownies on small dessert plates.
Daphne’s grandfather, Morris, points at the end of the table where the kids have congregated. “Kids get black cats and ghosties. Adults get pumpkins.”
The staff distributes the desserts. My plate has a decadent-looking chocolate brownie with a candy shaped like a pumpkin on top of it. Around the brownie, someone has decorated the plate with lines of chocolate sauce in the shape of a heart and the words,True Love.
It’s simple and lovely, and I can definitely use the sugar and chocolate.
“If it tastes as good as it looks,” Levi says next to me. “I’ll be angling for an invitation to all of Daphne’s family events in the future.”
“You’re all invited,” Rose says with a huge smile. I don’t know how she overheard him from the other end of the table. She must have special mother hearing. “The more, the merrier.”
Conversation resumes as the family talks about past desserts from the grandparents, who own a bakery in Bend.
“Take my brownie,” Brodie says in a low voice from the other side of me as he slides his brownie onto my plate.
Immediately, I turn and study him. He looks healthy. There are no dark shadows under his eyes, and his cheeks aren’t gaunt like they were that time he came home from college looking like a movie superhero and eating only chicken breasts and lettuce.
He smiles sadly. “Don’t look at me like that. I’m fine.”
