Page 48 of Mended Hearts

I snorted. “Brown-noser.”

“Come on now, I thought it was a nice gesture.”

“For Pax, or our hosts?”

“Mmmmm, both,” he decided. “But mostly whoever is currently feeding me.”

“That would be me,” Alice said with a rare full-scale grin.

“Or at least your fancy chef,” Mav teased.

“I’ll have you know I baked every pie myself.”

“And the turkey?” I challenged, narrowing my eyes with a smirk.

“Seasoned via my nose… after Greyson’s chef cleaned out all the nasty inside stuff.”

“There it is,” Max said with a victorious laugh, tugging me along beside him.

“You’ll eat it and enjoy it,” Alice sniffed.

“Speaking of things we eat and enjoy,” Mav cut in, “who the fuck ever decided to eat an egg?”

“What?” Pax balked.

“Come on. It’s weird, right? Just plops out their ass with no warning and some Johnny looks at it and goes, ‘Looks like breakfast’? Make it make sense.”

“How are you still alive?” Paxton jabbed.

Kaia snickered. “Did Mama drop you on your head, and I’ve just forgotten or…?”

“Oh, piss off,” Mav scoffed, exploiting that ridiculous reach to ruffle her hair, sending me into a laughing fit as she swatted him away.

Home. This felt like home.

No wonder I’d been so downtrodden. These were my people. I was never built to fly solo. I wondered, for just a moment, if I could convince Pax to stay with me and Kaia for the winter.

“What the hell are you even on, kid?”

“It’s like pineapples,” Mav shrugged.

“Pineapples?” Alice coughed.

“Wellyeah—who the hell looked at that spiky little motherfucker and thought—” Maverick's words cut off like a record scratch as the front door opened.

Emmaline.

She slipped inside, shedding her trench to reveal a gorgeous, curve-hugging gold dress that somehow made her blonde hair even blonder. Curls half-pinned, tied with an emerald bow, she looked like a goddamn storybook.

But her bright smile dimmed the instant her eyes landed on the huddle of Rhodes in the foyer.

Maverick went statue-still.

An uncomfortable silence settled between us, as one by one, we all looked between the two of them.

“Evening, everyone,” Emmaline said, clearing her throat.

“Happy Thanksgiving!” Alice chirped, clearly trying to cut through the what-the-fuck-was-that still hanging in the air.

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