Page 351 of Branded
And I’d figured we had time to talk about it that morning. After all, my family wasn’t coming over until?—
I rolled, Jules making an adorable sound of protest as I moved, and saw that?—
Fuck.
It was eleven-thirty.
“Oh. Hi, buddy,” I heard my mom say. “I’m Luca’s mom.”
“Who’s Luca?” I heard Ethan ask from downstairs. Apparently, the kiddo had gotten up already. Then again, it was eleven-thirty, so that wasn’t too surprising. Also, a fact that had me moving, slipping out from beneath the blankets, grabbing my phone from the charger. A glance at the screen showed that my mom had texted and said they were on the way over.
Fuck.
Julie was going to kill me.
“Luca is Cas,” my mom said as I was rounding the bed, kneeling next to it, and gently shaking Jules, really wishing my parents didn’t have a key to my place to take care of Sparky when I was out of town.
“Do you like Cas?” Margot asked, and heaven help me with annoying sisters.
“Yup! We watch movies and eat popcorn and stay up late.” A beat. “Oh, and he takes me skating, and I got to watch him play once!”
“You did?” my mom asked.
“Yup.” Complete with that pop at the end. “It was the best day ever.”
Fuck. The kid killed me.
“Who are you?” Ethan asked in the semi-polite way of five-year-olds.
“Margot. I’m Cas’s sister, and this is Sam and Kathy, his brother and other sister.”
Jules. Was. Going. To. Kill. Me.
“Jules, sweetheart,” I urged, shaking her shoulder. “Wake up, gorgeous.”
She buried her face in the pillow. “Mmm? Just a few more minutes, baby.”
God, I’d love to wake her up slowly, to kiss her gently and?—
“Is your mom around, honey?” I heard my mom ask as I called Jules’s name again.
We didn’t have time for slow.
“Yup.” A beat. “She and Cas are upstairs sleeping.”
Shit. Fuck.
“We stayed up late last night watching movies and my mom works late and needs sleep”—something that I had mentioned the day before when we’d planned on letting Jules sleep in while we took Sparky on a walk (this was supposed to have happened before my family came over for brunch)—“and Cas works hard too, so I figured he needs sleep too.”
“Jules,” I said more firmly this time, and finally—thank God, finally—her eyes peeled open.
“That’s really kind of you, honey,” I heard my mom say, her voice echoing up the stairs, right into the open door and making my woman’s eyes go instantly alert. “Do you want to help me make some cinnamon rolls while we let them sleep?”
“Okay!” Ethan said.
Which was the point that Sparky finally seemed to clue in that the house was currently full of people he hadn’t gotten the chance to sniff yet—and that some of those people were his favorite people (those favorite people being my mom and Margot). As such, Sparky popped up like the puppy he hadn’t been in years, bounded down the stairs at the bottom of the bed and took off down the hall.
A soft woof.
