Page 49 of An Unexpected Everything
“You’re a math whiz, right?”
“I wouldn’t call it that, but yes, I love math.”
“Do you think you can come over tonight and help us study? Our first final is in Calc Three, and I’m a little worried.”
“Sure. I can do that.”
“Girls, Bella does have a life you know.”
“So, Bella likes us,” Sydney said as she preened in her seat. “Sorry, bro, she’s with us tonight.”
“Yeah, bro,” Lance put in. “She’s ours.”
Lance caught the grape that Weston threw, and I just stared at this family that had pulled together in times of adversity and were closer than ever. And soon the girls and Lance would be fully out of this home, and Weston would be doddering around alone. Did he want that next step? Did he want that family he hadn’t been able to have?
My thoughts whirled, and I tried not to think too hard about it.
Because this was just temporary. It had to be. We were once again on two different paths, and worrying about it wasn’t going to help anything. Weston reached over and squeezed my knee and winked.
“Stop thinking so hard. You need to use that brain to help the girls pass math. I’m counting on you.”
I let out the breath I hadn’t realized I’d been holding and nodded.
“Fine. But I’m a stern taskmaster and I expect color-coded flashcards.”
“We can do that. We love flashcards,” Sam said with a grin.
I quickly ate my breakfast, wondering why I felt as if I was torn between two families. Just like Weston had been before.
And I had to wonder what choice I would make next.
“I truly hope they passed.They studied so hard,” I said as I sat across the table from Weston. “I have all the faith in the world but you know that doubt monster in my brain can be loud.”
“You’re sounding more stressed than I am, and these are my little chicks. Though I really don’t know what we would have done without you for Calc Three. That was way over my head.”
Rachel, our waitress, set our meatloaf and mashed potatoes in front of us, and we nodded our thanks. “You two just let me know if you need anything. And seriously, you two are the cutest. I’m so glad that you’re finally venturing out into the town more. We need to get looks at you. I mean, you know we wanted to walk up to Cage Lake to just say hello and be neighborly. But well, we were also trying to give you privacy.” She winked as she left, and I just stared open-mouthed at Weston.
“Are they always so open about their gossip?” I asked, my voice low.
“Oh, that wasn’t even that bad. You know how many people have come into my garage to check the air in their tires? Just to try to see a glimpse of you, or ask me what’s going on between us?”
“You’re kidding.”
Weston shrugged. “It’s home. It’s what they do. I bet you if we were down in Denver, your family would be doing the same thing. They just have a little bit of a longer drive.”
“That is true,” I said as I dug into possibly the best meatloaf I’d ever had in my life.
It was still finals week for the girls, but they had wanted peace and quiet to get studying done. In answer, Weston had taken me out to Cage Free, the local diner that the Cages owned, but it was pretty much left to free rein for the older couple who had first created it. When they had gotten into financial trouble, Aston and the others had stepped in to buy it, but made sure that whatever needed updated was updated, and that if things needed to be organized, they were there. It was truly remarkable how much my brothers had put into this town while trying to erase the past deeds that our dad had done. It wasn’t that he had tried to run the town into the ground, he had just tried to make it in his image. The only good thing he had ever done was ensure that certain companies and shady builders couldn’t come in and destroy the environment.
And I wasn’t sure if that was out of the goodness of his heart or the fact that he was waiting to do it himself later.
Either way, people were starting to treat me as if I was a Cage, and I wasn’t sure how I was supposed to deal with that. It wasn’t as if I had built any form of this community. I hadn’t even been to the resort. It wasn’t that I didn’t want to go, but Hudson and James had that place handled enough that I just hadn’t been out there yet.
“So, how was your meeting today?” Weston asked.
I blinked up at him. “You knew about that?”
He raised a brow. “Yes. I remember that you had an important meeting today. You have an important meeting most days, but you were nervous today when I left the house.”
