Page 140 of Flaunt
“Who’s going to get in on the action?” Banks asks.
Moss and Maddox mumble their confirmations. Jess says a solid maybe, which means he will. Foxx sits stoically with no response.
“Are you going, Foxx?” Banks asks him.
He shrugs.
“Come on, you have to come. It’s going to be great,” Banks says.
Foxx sighs. “Probably.”
Banks’s face lights up in a way that worries me. I look at Brooke, and she nods.
“When he uses that tone, he’s up to something. Probably something that will cause a lot of drama around here.”
Shit.
“Hey, Sara. Are you going with us to the vineyard Thursday night? There’s a wine tasting and painting thing,” Pippa says. “Brooke and I are going.”
“Is Ashley?” I ask.
“No. She’s helping Honey with the event.” Pippa laughs. “That thing is taking over everyone’s life.”
“You know, this is the first Sunday dinner in a long time that Jess and Banks haven’t wanted to throttle each other over a prank,” Maddox says.
“Yeah, that’s true.” Moss nods approvingly. “What gives?”
Banks stares at Jess. “Two things. One, he loves the chickens.”
“I do. I do,” Jess says, shrugging.
“And two …”Banks smirks. “I won the race, and Jess can’t hack it.”
Jess shoots to his feet, hands on the table, lobbying for a second race. The two of them go back and forth while the rest of us watch, amused.
“Damaris, do you need any help?” I ask.
“Do you want to stir the tea? We’re about ready to eat.”
I smile. “Sure.”
Every time the family is all together, I’m taken back to the day Banks came to my house to save my rental deposit. I was convinced I was out of good luck and my life was on a downward spiral.
And maybe it was.
But when the universe is ready to show you the path you should be on, it doesn’t care if you’re spiraling or soaring—and that’s what I failed to understand. I always counted myself out because I wasn’t stable. I held myself back because I thought that if I deserved things, they wouldn’t be so hard to attain.
But that’s not true.
If I’ve learned anything, it’s that you have to be willing to receive the blessings coming your way. You have to be willing to receive love, be open to goodness, be willing to take a chance on something,or someone, that seems all wrong.
Take a corner that ends up being the right one after all.
I look up and catch Banks’s eye. He gives me the shy smile that’s just for me.
I took a chance and got a whole wild, amazing, loving family. And soon Banks and I will start our own little branch.
As if he knows what I’m thinking, Banks’s eyes blaze.
