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Worry and questions strained between them.
My stomach twisted in uncertainty, but it was Raven who cleared her throat to break up the tension. “It’s about time you two got here. Work was crazy busy today, and I’m starving. I made fettucine.”
The tightness in my stomach turned into a growl. I hadn’t eaten all day, unable to tolerate food with the way I’d been riddled with indecision. And then after my evening with River…
Nolan inhaled as he rubbed his belly. “Do you smell it, Miss Charleigh? Deee-licious.”
“It does smell delicious.”
“Um, that’s because your auntie is the best cook around.” Raven turned her attention to me. “Prepare to have your mind blown.” Then she quirked a grin. “Never mind. Cleary, it’s already been.”
She exaggerated the last with the blink of her long lashes.
Redness flushed my entire being, and River grunted in some kind of warning.
Otto laughed this low laugh that promised whatever he’d been thinking had been proven correct, and he shook his head before he smiled at me. “Good to see you again, Charleigh. How are you tonight, sweetheart?”
I was still holding Nolan. Refusing to let him go. I cut a glance at River. Between the two of them, my heart swelled to overflowing.
“I’m better than I’ve been in a long, long time.” I saw no purpose in hiding it.
“That’s because she didn’t have any family, Uncle Otto, so she’s gotta be in ours because we got a lot of love around here,” Nolan said, so matter of fact, as if he didn’t wreck me a little more with each adorable word that dropped from his mouth. “Family’s just who you love most.”
Otto rumbled a satisfied sound. “Yeah, it sure is, isn’t it?”
He looked at River again, though this time, there was something emphatic in his expression. Trying to drive a point home that was invisible to me.
I didn’t know how much time had passed before Otto cleared his throat. “All right, I’ve got to get out of here.”
“What, you aren’t staying for dinner?” Raven pouted. I wondered if he had any idea that she was actually disappointed or if he believed she was only playing it up.
He curled an arm around her shoulder and tucked her close to his side. “Got plans. But don’t worry, baby sister, I’ll see you tomorrow at Kane’s.”
He planted a kiss to the top of her head.
She placed a hand on his chest as if to steady herself. I was pretty sure what she was steadying was her heart. “Can’t wait.”
“Whole crew is going to be there,” Otto said with a blaze in his blue eyes that he directed at River.
Nolan bounced in my arms, exuberance riding into his expression. “You know what that means, Miss Charleigh? My best friends Gage and Juni Bee are comin’ to see me! We’re gonna have a sleepover at Miss Liberty’s house and it’s going to be the most fun I ever had.”
“Wow. That sounds amazing.”
“The most amazing,” he said with a jut of his chin.
My heart squeezed again. Unsure how I’d been given this. Wondering if I could really truly be a part of it.
Wondering if I could really stay.
“All right, I’m out of here.” Otto came striding across the kitchen,so enormous I wasn’t sure how the room contained both him and River. He plucked Nolan out of my arms and swung him high, making the child shriek and giggle and clamber to get ahold of his head.
Otto was chuckling as he flipped him before he settled him onto his feet. “There…just to show you’ve got as good of moves as your auntie Raven.”
“Was it an eleven?” Nolan asked, his brows shooting for the sky.
Otto poked his belly before he looked back at Raven. “Just about, Little Dude, just about.”
He swung his attention to me and River.
