Page 46 of Impossible

Chapter Nineteen

Liam

On Sunday, I'm walking through my parents front door for our weekly dinners with Harper in my arms. As soon as we enter the family room, Peyton runs over to grab Harper from me.

“Oh my goodness, look how big you are, princess!” she says while taking her out of my arms.

Her boyfriend James comes over to say hello and shake my hand. He has popped in and out of some of our family dinners. Mom’s cooking is wafting through the air, making my stomach growl. The entire family is here tonight which will make for a loud evening, but Harper seems to love all the attention she gets over here. She is playing on the floor right now with Greyson and Peyton while Dad, Logan, and James are talking on the couch. Mom is in the kitchen so I head over to her to keep her company.

“Hi, ma,” I say to her after I give her a kiss on the cheek.

“Hi, sweetie.”

I watch on as she cuts tomatoes and throws them into her large wooden salad bowl.

“Can I help you with anything?”

“No, dinner is in the oven. I’m just fixin’ a salad real quick. Sit down.” She nods to the kitchen island chairs.

I take a seat and watch as she continues to chop vegetables. It gets me thinking that I really should learn to cook. Harper needs to eat home cooked meals growing up and I'm the one in charge of that now.Unless Riley and I stay together.The thought takes me by surprise. I know my feelings for her are strong but I have avoided looking too far into the future. What would a future with her look like? I can see Riley fitting naturally into my life with Harper. The three of us eating dinner, going to the park, watching movies.

“Tell me, what’s this girls name who will be watching my Harper this week?”

“Oh, Felicity. She’s really nice. She came over yesterday to spend some time with Harper. I think she will be great with her.”

Mom raises her eyebrows at me, as if in doubt of my words. “Okay, just as long as you trust her.”

“I do, Mom. You don’t have anything to worry about.”

Mom calls everyone over for dinner. It takes everybody a good ten minutes to get over to the table and seated with their drinks. Mom seems to know this process takes awhile because I notice the oven timer just going off now as she takes the lasagna out of the oven. Peyton is putting Harper in her high chair that's right next to her in the corner of the table. We just started Harper on her first baby food, green beans. Peyton said she called feeding Harper tonight. Luckily, James can hold his own with our family because Peyton is in her own world with Harper right now.

Once everyone has their food, Mom and Peyton start arguing over who gets to feed Harper.

“Mom! I called it! You get to be with her all the time,” Peyton whines.

“Dear, why don’t you pay attention to others in this room while I worry about feeding Harper,” Mom motions her head towards James.

We all laugh, including James, at Moms lack of subtly.

“I’m fine, Beverly. No need to worry about me. Peyton enjoys her time with Harper, and I enjoy seeing her happy.”

Logan coughs out. “Suck up.”

“Shut up, Logan!” Peyton eyes him with a warning.

“Liam, you’re mother told me this was Riley’s last week,” Dad interjects.

My family is clearly not the best with any form of subtly as dad tries to change the subject.

“Oh, Riley. I just love her!” Mom begins to gush. “She is so good with Harper, and you two seem to get along so well.”

Peyton looks at me funny. She stopped over a while back to visit Harper when Riley was there. She was giving me the weirdest looks, like she didn’t approve of Riley. I don’t know what it was about. Riley took off as soon as she got there, and this was before anything had happened between the two of us. But she is giving me the look again right now.

“WhydidRiley help out so much this summer? What was in it for her?” Peyton asks.

“Nothing was in it for her. She is just a sweet person who wanted to help me out and get to know her best friends baby,” I say in annoyance.

“That wasn’t very kind of you to say, Peyton,” my mom says.

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