Page 32 of Brides and Brothers
“I knew you were the right one,” Aiden said, impressed.
Camille rolled her eyes. Aiden caught her off guard and swooped her up and threw her down on a huge heap of towels. He started tickling her, and she screamed, “Stop! Ew! Dirty clothes! Stop!”
After Aiden showed mercy and Camille shivered in disgust, the tour recommenced. Aiden opened the double doors off the kitchen to reveal the family room. The coffee table alone was littered with empty fast-food containers and more socks, not to mention the miscellaneous items: a pair of fingernail clippers, chopped fingernails, and wart remover. Perfect.
In an attempt to ignore the mess and see the room for what it was, Camille turned to face the large flat-screen TV mounted on the wall above a beautiful fireplace. The couches were worn, and the room would’ve been more attractive with neutral walls instead of mauve, but the structure had potential.
“Well?” Aiden asked.
“It’s nice,” Camille responded in a vague way. Thankfully, Aiden didn’t act disappointed. He pulled her down the hall into the next room, a formal dining and living room. She gasped. It was magazine perfect. The dining room contained another long table—this one more elegant than the one in the kitchen—with a table runner and candles. In the connected living room was a shiplap wall with a floating fireplace below an oversized wreath. On either side of the fireplace were long white cabinets with floating shelves above them. The decor was various vases and dishes and spots of greenery. The highlight, though, was a beautiful baby grand piano.
And the room was clean. Perfectly clean. “Wow. I like this room.”
“I hoped you would.” Aiden rocked back on his heels, looking pleased. “My father did the woodwork. It was a hobby of his. He also did the cabinets in the kitchen and the mantel on the other fireplace. For most of the rest of the house, my parents hired out the labor.” He ran his hand over the piano. “There was nothing more important to my mom than God, her family, and music. We all had to learn to sing and dance.” He raised the hand that was holding Camille’s and extended one finger to point to the china. “The glassware collection is hers. Those dishes represent her family heritage. Most of them are heirlooms that have been passed down for generations. The blue set made it across the ocean, then across the states. A lot of sacrifices went into keeping those dishes safe. I probably wouldn’t appreciate the story if it weren’t for what it meant to my mom.”
“It’s beautiful.” Camille squeezed his hand. She’d liked the room immediately, but knowing its significance in his family history made it all the more lovely.
Aiden pointed to the couch. “My aunt is an interior decorator. She was divorced and needed some pictures to add to her portfolio to get back into business. I let her pick out the furniture to help her out. Now that I think of it, it’s been a year since we’ve updated this room. We try to keep it nice for company. We have youth groups who meet here, and friends of my brothers are over a lot. It’s a space that gets used.”
With a warm hand on her back, Aiden ushered her to the next room to continue their tour.
There was a guest bedroom and bath on the other side of the family room, and Aiden and his brothers kept some recreational equipment like four-wheelers and a ping-pong table in the barn, which even had a gym floor for basketball. The house’s downstairs had a large storage area and a family room, but that was full of junk and exercise equipment.
“The rest of the house isn’t too impressive—mostly dirty bedrooms,” Aiden said as he concluded the tour. “Benson has his own room with Grant gone. Daegan and Cade share, and Easton and Flynn share.”
“The rooms are all so spacious. This house is huge!” Back in the formal living room, Camille sank onto the couch to test it out. She could already tell she would be frequenting this space a lot, even though she didn’t deserve to live in a mansion. None of this seemed fair after the way she had acted the night before.
“Well, it’s a pain to keep up. None of us are cleaners. I hired a crew to come the day before our wedding. I wanted to make a good impression.”
Camille smirked. “They must not have done any laundry.”
Scratching his neck, Aiden admitted, “It wasn’t in the scope of their job.”
Camille would’ve laughed, but it wasn’t hard to feel sympathetic when she thought of Aiden trying to run a household of men. “I might be able to help out in that department until we all get into some sort of routine. In fact, while we’re sitting here, do you mind if we go over schedules?”
Aiden sat next to her and pulled her onto his lap. “Talk away.”
Camille started listing things with her fingers. “First, I need to work on my classes before I stop by my old apartment to pick up my stuff. It might take a load or two. Then I need to go to the grocery store. I’ll need a lot of groceries if I’m going to feed seven people for every meal.”
“Whoa,” Aiden said. “You don’t need to cookeverymeal.”
“I’ve always planned on making dinner every night for my family.” Camille rested her head on his shoulder. “Just because I’m not happy to be living with your brothers doesn’t mean they need to know that. Serving them might help me accept my situation here. Besides, remember how my mother has a catering business? Well, I had every intention of going into the food business before my relationship with her fell apart. I think I can manage.”
Aiden rubbed her back. “I knew I got me a fine wife. You’re just what this family needs—what I need.”
Camille slugged him on the shoulder. “You’d better not have married me to cook and wash your laundry.” She’d just volunteered to do both, but she still wasn’t completely over the shared-housing dilemma. In many ways it was even worse than her old housing situation.
“No, ma’am,” Aiden said, grinning. “But I don’t think anyone will complain.”
Camille snuggled deeper into the crook of Aiden’s arm. “I might, but you’re not allowed to love me any less.” She could do this.
No, she couldn’t do this. Would she and Aiden ever have any privacy?
Camille took a deep breath. She needed an unconventional solution for an unconventional problem. Her dreams were worth fighting for.
