Page 111 of Legacy

“And how many suitors would that be?” Callum asked with a laugh.

“You guys are ridiculous,” I said as I threw my hands in the air. “I’m going with Mom to help with dinner.”

“Yes, a woman’s place is in the kitchen,” Rune said as he squeezed Callum’s shoulder, none too lightly, and they headed into the living room.

“Aren’t you the one who cooks dinner usually?” Callum asked.

“Gosh. Let’s get the womenfolk out of here. Since you’re dating my sister, now I can’t even talk about certain things with you.”

“And what things would those be?” I asked.

“Yes, son, what things would you be discussing about women that you can’t say in front of us?” Mom asked, sing-songing.

“How we respect women, and we enjoy their company, and they are amazing?” Rune asked, fluttering his eyelashes.

“Ridiculous. All of you.”

“If you think that’s bad, just imagine how annoying it is when you have all of my siblings in one place,” Callum said with a sigh.

“At least you only have these two in the house right now. It’s worse when you add in all of mine.”

“Well, we’re just going to have to do that soon, aren’t we?” Mom said with a shrug as we stood behind the kitchen island, still able to hear everything from the living room.

“What do you mean?” I asked, handing over a block of cheese so she could finish the cheeseboard.

“Well, you guys don’t know it yet, but next week, we’re going to be having an Ashford and Carter family dinner.”

I froze. “What?”

“What do you mean, ‘what’? We always used to do things like that. And ever since you moved back to town, and well, since the others have started their own businesses and you’re all adults and moving on, we haven’t had a good dinner with the whole group. So we’re going to do it.”

“How are we going to fit everybody in this house, Mom?” Rune asked with a shake of his head. “The Ashfords outnumber us more than two to one.”

“You can have it at mine,” Callum said with a shrug. He wasn’t even looking towards us as he paid attention to Atlas on the ice, and I blinked.

“You’d do that?” I asked, confused.

“Of course. That’s why I bought the big house. Not just to show off my football winnings but because I needed to fit the whole family in there. It’s not like we’d go to Dad’s.”

There was an awkward silence as Callum went out of breath. “Sorry, I hate bringing him up. It just happened.”

“No, your father’s an asshole, and he deserves whatever’s going to come to him next,” Mom said simply, and Callum snorted as Rune and I just stared at each other.

“Well, that’s just great. Having it at your house will make sure we can fit everybody, and I want to see the babies.” She gave me a look. “At least somebody’s giving me babies. Even though they’re not my grandkids, I’m claiming them.”

“Mom,” I gasped as Callum nearly dropped his beer, an Ashford brew, of course.

Rune threw his head back and laughed. “Oh, this is going to be fun.”

“Darling, you’re older. I’m going to bother you about babies soon too. It’s just what I do.”

“Well then, I’m going to go hide in a closet with a bottle of wine,” I said dryly.

“Callum, darling, do you think Briar is coming to town anytime soon?”

“No clue, but I’ll ask. I want to see my niece. And we can try to make it work where it’s the weekend that Finnian gets the twins.”

“Well, if not, we can invite Promise as well. I love that girl. I’m sad that she and Finnian didn’t work out, but they’re so much better as friends, don’t you think?”