Page 71 of Whisper of Love (Whisper Lake 1)

CHAPTER 26

“Did you seriously just sell your motorcycle?!” Horror registered on KJ’s face.

“Yep.” Kade grinned as he walked inside and shut the front door. He’d just handed over his title to the first guy that had answered his ad on Craigslist.

KJ looked at him like he might need a straitjacket. “Why?”

Instead of answering his question, he had one of his own. “Where’s your brother?”

“In the kitchen.” KJ’s expression made it clear he still expected an answer.

“Come on, I want to talk to you guys.”

Kade had been wanting to talk to the boys for a while now but Ali had been resistant. She was worried that they would be upset about things changing too fast. But, Kade didn’t want to keep secrets. He knew that even if either of the twins didn’t take the news well, they’d get over it. Plus, with what he had planned it would be a little hard to keep their relationship under wraps for much longer. And since Ali left for knitting club over an hour ago, his window of opportunity was closing.

“Your shoes,” Kade pointed out as he started heading to the kitchen.

Without a dirty look or any backtalk, KJ picked them up and set them on the bench that they’d designated home of all shoes. It was progress.

Over the past month, things had fallen into an easy routine. He knew it wouldn’t last forever, but for now the household was running like a well-oiled machine. Chores were divided between all four of them. He’d suggested having a chore lottery that they’d all play each week to find out what they got, but he’d been outvoted. Everyone just wanted to do what they liked the best, and thankfully there was no overlap.

Kade took care of dinners and the kitchen. Ali handled the laundry. Ricky was on vacuuming and dusting detail, and KJ was the bathroom man. And all four of them spent a weekend morning working on the yards.

They felt like a real family, and he wanted to cement that even further.

“How’s the arm?” Kade asked as he walked into the kitchen.

“Good.” Ricky looked up from his book and rolled his shoulder.

He’d gotten his cast off the day before. Afterwards they’d all gone out for ice cream. He’d known that they weren’t too old for ice cream. No one was too old for ice cream.

“Take a seat.” Kade motioned for KJ to sit beside his brother.

Reaching down, he rubbed his hand over Dumbass’s head as he lay at Ricky’s feet. Then he took a seat across from the twins. He rested his forearms on the table and clasped his hands together. “Okay, so I have something I want to talk to you about and it involves your aunt.”

KJ sat up straighter. “What’s wrong with Aunt Ali?”

“Nothing.” Kade quickly assured him. “Nothing is wrong with her, it’s just…I love her.”

“So do we.” KJ shot his brother a confused look.

“I think he means he loves her.” Ricky set his book down on the table, apparently this conversation warranted his full attention.

“Oh, yeah. We know that.” KJ shrugged. “We know you guys are like, together.”

“You do?” Kade had honestly thought they’d been covering their tracks pretty well.

“Yeah,” Ricky backed his brother’s statement up. “We saw you guys kissing in the backyard a couple days after my accident. And then, a bunch of times after that.”

Kade’s eyebrows rose. “A bunch of times?”

“Yep.” Ricky lifted his hand and started counting on his fingers. “There was the laundry room, the kitchen, the garage, the movies—”

“The rental shop,” KJ interjected.

“The rental shop, down at the lake, the—”

“Okay.” Kade lifted his hand to stop them from continuing.

---