Page 259 of The Maxwell Brothers
"Of course I’ll come back eventually,” Kimberly said. “No clue when though.”
"You said you also went to London. How's your dad?"
I was sure the whole room could hear the bereavement in Gran’s voice. It hurt her greatly that Uncle Harvey was so absent. Though it did sound as if the tide was turning with his wanting Reese to clear the path. We could only hope. Dad’s face was stoic though. I wasn’t sure what he was thinking.
Reese took a deep breath, running a hand through her hair and looking once around the table.
"Great. There is some news though."
Tate looked up from the onions in front of him, raising his brows at me. I shook my head imperceptibly.
Damn it, we should have told Tate and Tyler beforehand.
"Dad had some news. And he wasn't sure how to share it with the family, so he basically didn't." Reese's voice was tight now. I was sure this was still upsetting to her too. "So, I had a surprise when I went to London. It turns out that he got married a couple months ago, and Kimberly and I are going to have a baby sistersoon." My cousin had such a plastered, unnatural smile on her face that it was almost scary.
The whole room was completely silent now. Gran fixed Reese with her gaze, gripping the knife she was using in front of her so tight that her knuckles were white.
"My son got married and is having a daughter, and he didn't tell me?" Gran repeated. Reese nodded. “Well, maybe?—"
Gran cut her off and turned to look at my dad. "Did you know about this?"
"No," Dad said. He looked as stunned as Mom. Unfortunately, his brother hadn’t kept anybody in the loop. The whole situation was unfortunate.
Tate, Tyler, Kendra, and Lexi all exchanged glances. Paisley was also looking around, confused. Shit, maybe we should have kept this conversation from her. On the other hand, she knew everything that was going on in the family, and she was old enough to process a lot of things.
Maybe we should have let Reese do this on her own. But everyone needed to find out at some point. Unfortunately, there probably was no good way of doing this.
The silence stretched, and I grew restless, exchanging a glance with Reese. Then I looked at Travis. It was unlike Gran to be silent. You could count on her to have a reply for everything. But now, she simply took a sip of water, staring down at the marble counter.
I cleared my throat, taking on my moderator role.
When we were kids, Mom used to call Tate and me her generals because we kept the rest of the group in check. Luke always talked us into doing shit, and usually we could count on him and Travis and Tyler to bring humor to any situation. But not even they had a comeback for this. The room was very solemn.
“Clearly we’re all trying to process this, so let's change the subject,” I said.
Gran didn't fight me on it, which made me even more restless. Even though I didn’t have kids, I could certainly imagine the hurt she was feeling from this news.
Damn him for doing this to her. Gran was getting up in years, and this kind of heartbreak was unacceptable.
Paisley leaned forward, looking around once, then said loudly, "So, the wedding planning is going super well. I'm very excited." Damn, kiddo.She was even better than Luke, Tyler, and Travis, because she'd picked the one subject that was sure to put everyone in a better mood.
"You're quite a planner," Lexi said. “I don't know what I would do without her. Every choice is so overwhelming, and even though Tate and I don't agree on a lot of them, we’ll figure it out.”
"Paisley's got the veto power.” We all laughed at that… except Gran, though she seemed to be listening to the conversation. “We do have an announcement," Tate said, looking at Lexi, who nodded. "We've set a date. We're going to have a December wedding."
"Hey, congrats," Travis exclaimed.
I had renewed respect for Tate. He'd followed his daughter's lead and defused the situation with his news.
Tyler and Kendra looked at each other. Those two were hiding something. As the oldest, I always picked up on stuff like that. One of my jobs was to realize when everyone was sneaking around or had secret plans. Not because I would tell on them—I wasn’t a snitch. I had to make sure they weren't going to accidentally kill themselves.
"That's great, guys. Congratulations," Kendra said.
There was a lot of chatter around that. I was immensely happy for my brother and Lexi. Ever since his divorce, he'ddisappeared into himself. A part of me had worried that he would end up like our uncle, burying himself in work, although there had always been a crucial difference between the two of them. He'd been a fantastic dad to Paisley, unlike our uncle, who’d left most of Kimberly and Reese’s upbringing to Gran and our parents.
“While we’re all sharing news,” Travis said, "I've got something in the works, but I won't tell you until I've got more details."
"Dude. That's not sharing news," Luke said.
