We sent everyone to fly back, except Matt and I. The two of us alone stayed back.
We were sitting down for dinner when they hit the door running.
Cyclone burst through, full-out sprinting for us. He dropped his bag by the door, and then he was first in Matt’s arms. I was next. His little body was squeezing me tight.
I was melting.
“Bailey!” His arms still around me, he leaned back. “I’ve got so much to tell you. You were right about AI being the next big thing. All the guys in my advanced class worked on a project together and we made an AI rock.”
I stared down at him.
First, I was marveling at how adorable he looked, no matter that he was shooting up in height and his face was beginning to grow more. Second, I had missed my little brother something fierce, and now his arms were around me. And third, an AI rock?
“What?”
He squeezed me before jumping back, his cheeks red and his eyes excited. His hands were waving all around the air. “Yeah. I mean, it can’t talk, but it can move. We tell it to do things and it’ll move there. Like, one guy told him to get him a soda from the fridge and the rock actually went to the fridge.”
Oh my God.
They had possessed a rock.
I just blinked at him, not sure how to respond.
Matt chuckled next to me, but then Seraphina was running through the doorway, too. She went to me first, burying her head into my shoulder and neck. And wow. Cyclone went up an inch, but Seraphina had shot up at least two inches.
No. No. No. They needed to stay little. They couldn’t grow. I wasn’t having it.
But she stepped back, a shy grin now coming over her, and she turned, stepped, and buried her face into Matt’s chest next.
His face softened, and he hugged her before she turned back to me. “I have a lot to tell you.”
“Good.” Good! I still had a mission to hack the mean girls who might be giving her crap. I needed to do an interrogation later, because I had promised Kash last summer that I wouldn’t hack my siblings … again. But I was looking her over, and she looked good.
She looked more than good.
“Ser,” I whispered, feeling all the emotions clogging my throat. “You are beautiful.”
She was stunning!
Her hair was longer, a little lighter, and that made it shine even more in the light. Her face had a natural, healthy glow, and her lips were the cutest shade of soft pink. Her eyes were dancing, and there were no shadows in them. They were clear, focused, and glistening as much as Cyclone’s were.
I pulled her back into my arms for another hug.
At that time, Marie came through the door, along with my mother. Both were carrying bags and wheeling luggage in.
I didn’t question any of it.
I didn’t question why Marie was back, what brought her back. I would, just not now.
I didn’t question why they were bringing in the bags. I never thought to. And then Marie was coming toward me with a fierce expression set on her face. Her mouth was firm, determined, and I was bracing myself.
She grabbed my shoulders and jerked me to her.
My face reared back, or it would’ve been right in her bosom.
She held tight and I felt her nod against my head. “I’ve missed you. You been gone too long. It’s ridiculous.”
I looked over her shoulder, saw my mother fighting a grin, and hugged Marie back. As soon as my arms closed around her, her whole body shuddered, and she held on for another beat before shuffling back. She sniffed and almost threw her arm up, wiping the back of her arm over her eye. “You have stuff to work out. You work it out with your family. Got it?”
I was grinning.
Same Marie.
“Got it.”
She clipped her head in another nod before turning and yanking Matt to her, too.
It was a whole repeat, almost verbatim, but they faded as my mom came to stand in front of me. She’d lost some weight since I saw her last. That wasn’t good. And there were bags under her eyes. And the spark, her feisty spark, wasn’t there. It was, but it was less. It had faded.
So, very not good.
I noted all that, said not a word, and she tugged me to her for a hug, just one that wasn’t as tight as Marie’s.
She whispered in my ear, “Payton didn’t come. Martha thought, if anyone got a picture, she looks too much like Quinn. It’d set off a whole new round of tabloid gossip and theory.”
Ooh. That was brilliant.
I stepped back. “Good thing Peter has that publicist on retainer, huh?”
Chrissy grinned back, but like everything else I noted, the usual spunk wasn’t there.
My heart took a dive.
This wasn’t good, so very not good.
I hesitated, but then started. “Mom—”
Another arrival swept inside, and when I say “swept,” I mean he really did sweep.
Peter came in, loaded to the teeth with bags. He had bags on his shoulders, on his arms, a strap was hanging from his actual teeth. And he was shoving two large bags forward with his legs.
Matt snorted before going to help his dad.
Chrissy sighed. It was faint, but I heard it, and she moved to my side, keeping an arm around my back.
I’d missed my mom’s public displays of affection. I’d forgotten how a hug from her made the morning dread go away, or a cuddle on the couch settled me in my belly.
Though now her body was aligned next to mine, her head to my shoulder, and I was pretty sure I was giving her all those effects right now. She seemed to be settling, and her arm got heavier around my waist as the guys finished bringing in the bags, then stopped and hugged each other. It wasn’t a man hug. It was a full hug.
Well.
The flare that was normally in my mom seemed to have moved.
Peter’s face was lit up.
Like Seraphina, I’d never seen my father more alive and healthy and happy. A bright, wide smile. His teeth seemed more blinding, matching the whites in his eyes as they were dancing, too, and scanning the room. He found me. His face melted, warming, and in two steps he was across the room to me. He caught me up, pulling me from my mom, and his hug was almost as strong as Marie’s. Almost. It was a close second.
He lifted me off my feet, shook me just a little, affectionately, and set me back down.
I heard Marie whisper in the back, “Dios mío.”
“You and Matt being here, calling for a family trip. Best idea ever.”
Wow.
He was beaming at me, literally beaming.
He made a face, pulled me back, and his hand smoothed down my hair. He bent his head and whispered to me, “You’re looking a lot better than the last time I saw you.”
I convulsed at this, my arms jerking, and I was hugging him back just as hard as he was holding me.
“I was so worried about you that day, and Kash came in.” He tipped his head back so he could see me better. “I thought I looked at Kashton as a son, but that day … that day he truly became a son to me. He put me in my place, because I was so worried, but he didn’t do it to be mean. He did it because I was getting in his way to getting to you. And Kash, as you’ve probably noticed by now, has no patience when it comes to anything getting between him and what he needs to do to take care of his loved ones. That boy—” He cursed softly, laughing lightly. “‘Boy.’ He’s not a boy anymore. That man loves you. I know I’ve messed up in the past and I’ve got a lot to make up for, going forward, but I couldn’t be as proud as I was in that hallway. I was terrified because my daughter was hurting, but I was also proud, and just filled with so much love. All the crap I’ve done in the past, one thing I gave you was him. I shouldn’t take the credit, but I’m going to.” He framed my face with his hands. “I love you, Bailey. I need to say it more often, something I’m doing with the others, too.”
Okay.
Kash.
That was another something I was going to tackle later, when he was here. Then I would know what I was supposed to be feeling. Right now, I wasn’t so sure. But that wasn’t for the here and now between Peter and me.
He set me back, putting an arm around my mom’s side and pulling her to his side. Both of them surveyed me, and I saw I’d been wrong.
Chrissy was content.
The feisty flare I’d been used to wasn’t there, but it didn’t need to be there. She was at peace, and I had never, never seen my mom looking like that.
I was floored.
What had been happening at the house this last month?
Chrissy laughed. “She’s not used to seeing me like this.”
Peter grinned, his head tilting down to rest over the top of hers. “We’ve struck our daughter speechless.”
A gargle left me.
I sputtered.
I couldn’t. I could not.
Who were these people?
“Come on, honey.” Chrissy took pity and broke free from Peter’s hold. She came to me, her arm sliding around my waist, and she walked me up the stairs. “We’re going to have some much needed mother–daughter time right now.”
“Can I come?”
We paused.
Seraphina had skipped to the bottom of the stairs where we were. She was holding her iPad, her eyes all lit up and hopeful.
Chrissy tensed beside me.
I was the one who took pity now. “Give me a bit, Ser. There are some things Chrissy needs to talk to me about, so come up in thirty minutes? Yeah?”
She shot me a grin back. “Yeah! See you in thirty. Mother–daughter–sister time.”
I was melting. Full-out. My knees were going to become one with the floor.
Chrissy chuckled in my ear, her arm tightening around my waist. “Let’s go.” And once we were up a few steps, another chuckle. “You’re becoming such a softie.”
I shot her a look. “Like you aren’t? I barely recognize you.”
Then we were in my room. The door closed behind us and Chrissy headed for the couch. I perched on the end of the bed and we stared back and forth.
Hayes women did not like to get into heavy discussions—at least not with each other.
Chrissy sighed, scooting to the edge of the couch and sitting with her shoulders up, her head up, as if she were taking tea with the English queen herself. I half expected a teacup and saucer to appear and her little finger to curl in the air.
Me, I grabbed a pillow, because my gut was flaring and I wasn’t sure what was coming my way.
This.
This, whatever Chrissy was about to say, was why half of her spark was gone.
I knew it, and I didn’t want to know it, but then she said it.
“We’re in trouble.”
See. There.
I so fucking didn’t want to know it.
I shoved down a knot and nodded. “Okay. Tell me what’s going on.”
A tear slipped from her eye.
“I’m in love with your father.”