Pull You In (Rivers Brothers Book 3), стр. 57
"And Kate, this is," she started, sucking in a deep breath. "Peyton, Autumn, Savvy, Lea, Scotti, Jamie, Dusty, and, of course, Helen. Oh, and my minions over there. Becca, Izzy, and Mayla. That's a lot of names. No one expects you to remember everyone—"
"I think I know of everyone but Jamie," I admitted, looking over at the woman with the short hair, wearing a gray and blue flannel.
"Jamie. Peyton and Savvy's best friend," Fiona supplied.
"Hi," I said, giving her a smile.
"So... Rush has been talking about us, huh?" Peyton asked. "What did he say about me?"
"Ah, he said a lot of things about you," I admitted, smiling a bit at the stories.
"All bad, I hope," she said, shooting me a wink.
"What did he say about me?" another voice asked, making me turn to find the Mallick matriarch standing there. The oldest woman in the room, she somehow also managed to be the most striking. Tall, fit, with beautiful bone structure and long, thick hair, she carried herself with the bearing of a queen. But one who had seen battles herself.
She was even more intimidating in person than I had made her up to be in my head. Which was an impressive feat.
"That you took him and his siblings in like your own kids. And that you are a great cook. And that you would tell me to my face if you don't like me."
"Well then," Helen said, lips twitching. "There you have it. It's nice to meet you, Kate. Atlas has been raving about your baking skills since he started crashing in our basement two days ago. Apparently, they are life-changing. So I guess we should stick you on desserts with Dusty and Becca," she said, waving me toward the table.
I imagined that it had been mentioned that I cooked, not just bake, so I was curious if Helen decided to put me with Dusty and her granddaughter because she thought they would be easier transitions for me into this crazy kitchen world they created.
Even when the women weren't actively speaking, they were loud. Chopping, opening and closing cabinets, putting baking trays on the counter, shuffling pots and pans together.
It was a lot for my system that was used to a certain amount of quiet.
"I like your dress," Becca declared, giving me a warm smile.
"Thanks. Fiona picked it out. I think she's taking it upon herself to completely redo my wardrobe. Too many sweaters and comfy pants, she says."
"She'll back off if you ever get pregnant. She claims she went into a 'frump mode,'" Dusty told me, giving me a warm smile. "Though I have yet to see any evidence to support that. Helen actually has a picture of her with a two-month-old Becca on her hip wearing a wrap dress and five-inch heels."
"Assuming you want kids," Becca was quick to add. "And it's totally fine if you don't. This family spawns like squid, but that's not everyone's path."
"I always wanted kids. Well, at least one. I never really considered beyond that. But I wanted them. It was just never in the cards."
"You're still young enough," Dusty said, shrugging. "Rush would be a great dad. Except, maybe, I wouldn't let him teach a kid to drive," she said, smiling.
""Don't tell Mom, but Uncle Rush was who actually taught me to drive," Becca declared, eyes mischievous. "She and Dad think they taught me it all on the backroads at ten and two with no music on. Uncle Rush took me out in that old car of his, right onto the parkway, with the music thumping. I failed the test twice before him. But then after two lessons with Uncle Rush, I passed."
"You passed what?" Fiona asked, looking over.
"Oh, one of those online quizzes about old 90s TV shows."
"I'm mildly concerned about how well you told that lie," Dusty told her niece, brow raised.
"Is it really a lie when the truth is going to come out eventually?" Becca asked. "No one gets to keep any secrets in this family."
"That's true," Lea said, moving over toward the table, grabbing one of the apples out of the bowl next to Dusty. "If you have any deep, dark secrets, now is the time to air them."
I felt my stomach bottom out at that, thinking of how humiliating it would be if they all learned how I'd been lonely and horny and desperate enough to call Rush's phone sex line."
"I know her secret!" Fee declared, waving a knife with tomato guts on it at me, making that stomach thing even more overwhelming. "She reads smutty little sex books," she said, making a wave of relief course through me.
"Oh, I have some books for you then," Peyton said, beaming.
"Don't trust her," Autumn, her sister, declared. "They're not normal sex books. They're horror-porn sex books."
"That sounded mighty judgy for the owner of a sex store," Peyton shot back.
The food prep went much like that, the women sharing stories, both old and new, occasionally bringing me into the fold, but never in too big of a way, keeping it all very casual.
I was starting to think there would be no issue.
That is until all the food was brought and lined up on the sideboards in the dining room. And the men and kids filed in.
My heartbeat tripped into overdrive as a band of tightness pressed against my throat, making it hard to breathe.
Hugging the walls, I made my way toward the back of the house, opening the door to the back porch, and slipping outside.
"You found my hiding spot," a voice said at my side, making my overwrought body jolt as a yelp escaped me. "Sorry," Dusty said, giving me