Page 75 of Quietly Falling
“Happy looks good on you.”
“Go figure,” I murmur as she sits back and rubs a gentle hand over Remi’s back. “Did you meet everyone?”
“I did. Oh—” She pauses as Arden James walks by.
“Arden,” Ella whispers, trying not to wake Remi.
“What?” she says, whirling around to face us. “Oh hi, guys. Ella, how are you doing with,”—she waves her hand around—“all of this?”
“It’s been really great although now I have to remember everyone’s name rather than their coffee order,” Ella says lightly. “I really loved the article you did for Boots on Bar and Grill. I realized I haven’t been there in forever, and I definitely need to change that.”
“Oh, that’s great. The place is really great.”
One moregreatand I definitely won’t believe her.
“Are you all right?” Ella asks, apparently not needing any additional confirmation to ask the question.
“Me? Of course. Nothing is wrong. Why would something be wrong?” Arden manages, the words coming out in a rush. When Ella and I stay quiet, her shoulders sag and she runs a hand through her dark hair. “Sorry. I’m excited for my sister—truly. It’s just a lot on the heels of…other stuff…most notably that our parents are dating.”
Ella opens her mouth and then closes it, her brow furrowing as she continues to rub Remi’s back. “I… I don’t think I followed that.”
“Ellison is my half-sister. We have the same father and he’s still in love with my mother even though he continued to be married to that conniving bitch?—”
“Are we talking about my mother?” Ellison asks, wrapping her arm around Arden’s waist, the two of them strikingly similar when they’re together like this.
“Yes,” Arden confirms. “But now that Dad is divorced from her mom,”—she nods toward Ellison—“he’s dating mine.”
“I think it’s kind of nice. I mean, you saw how nervous he was when she finally agreed to go out with him,” Ellison says, looking at her sister as I try to keep my expression neutral. Arden is clearly in the middle of an identity crisis, and Ellison is riding high from all the pregnancy hormones.
Or something.
Arden huffs before giving Ella a wry grin. “Welcome and enjoy,” Arden says, and Ellison gives us an amused expression before steering her sister back into the throng of people still gathered around.
“That was weird, right?” Ella asks as soon as we’re alone again.
“Yeah, but I can’t figure out why.”
“You mean besides the fact that her parents, who weren’t married but were involved in some kind of drama, are now dating?”
“Yeah, besides that.”
The side-eye she gives me says she doesn’t agree but that’s all right; things will shake out one way or another.
“How are you two kids doing?” Mason asks as he moves through the crowd, his hand holding Lana’s as he pulls her down into the chair across from us.
“Holland asked if I can do her hair tomorrow.” I grin at Lana and she rolls her eyes.
“Gloat all you want, but just realize you’ll have to cancel all your plans for the next decade to keep up with all her sport and social commitments becauseUncle Bodhi does it better.”
Ella snickers and I don’t bother hiding my smile. “Just making sure to set the bar high.”
Lana snorts. “You two guys might have set an impossible standard.”
“Improbable,” Mason corrects, “not impossible.”
Her expression says she wouldn’t trade it for anything, and I believe it. Lana escaped a loveless marriage to a guy that had gone from disinterested to emotionally abusive when he heard she’d found someone new.
Mason had doubled down on being there for her kids and so had I, because we’re family and that’s what we do.
