Not only did Noah and Paige hit it off and the family loved her, but they loved Sebastian too. Paige’s teenage nephew that she was trying to adopt.
And why was his mind filling with all this family stuff right now when he normally pushed it aside?
“They are happy and it’s all that matters,” Sam said, standing up. “I need to get back to my office. I’ve got appointments. Are you done in the OR today?”
Wyatt looked at his watch and stood up too. “No. I’ve got another surgery in about twenty minutes. Guess I was here longer than I thought I was going to be.”
“You just love my company,” Sam said. “You can’t stand to be alone. That is why you never go to your office when you have breaks but always end up where the people are.”
He was going to dispute that statement but realized his cousin was right.
4
Embrace Them
Adriana pulled into her father’s driveway. She’d had no intention of coming to dinner tonight, but her father called her and left a message that Maggie was making her favorite—shrimp scampi—and that there was plenty.
She knew a cry for company when she heard it, and the truth was, even though she lived in the same city as him now, she didn’t see him often.
She missed him.
Not like she had when she was states away. But enough that she gladly accepted the dinner invitation.
“Hello, sweetie,” her father said, coming forward and giving her a kiss on the cheek. He’d always been an affectionate father. She remembered that growing up. He’d even done it with her mother often. When her mother would avoid those kisses and touches she should have realized that something was going on.
She’d been too young back then to know it for what it was though. That her mother was pulling away because she had her sights on something else. Someone else.
Her father got the raw end of the deal. She knew that, but he’d tried to keep the peace as best as he could. Being in the middle was a shitty feeling and she’d been put there way too much in life.
“Hi, Dad. Your dinner invitation came at the right time today.”
“Really?” he asked. “Did you have a bad day?”
Figures her father would think that rather than she didn’t have much food in the house. “No. It was good. A normal day. But I was too lazy to go to the store to get food this week. I keep putting it off.”
“You’re going to waste away to nothing if you don’t eat,” he said.
“No chance of that happening,” she argued. She had the Latino curves down pat. She’d given up trying to be skinny a long time ago and went for toned instead.
No use training for marathons like most of her other twenty-something friends were doing.
She went straight for the weights and yoga. Hiking, biking. Everyday fun activities rather than structured cardio staring at a wall in a gym or boring running on a street.
If you can’t beat them, join them, or rather embrace them, had always been her thought when she looked at her curves.
“Men like their women with some substance to them. Those that don’t can’t appreciate a woman for what she is,” he said back.
“José, you are such a charmer,” Maggie said, walking into the room. Maggie had plenty of curves on her body. Not toned either, but not unhealthy. She liked her food and her father enjoyed the cooking and the company. Adriana suspected her father enjoyed the fact Maggie loved spoiling and pampering him too. Something his first wife never did.
“He is that,” Adriana said. “Thanks for the invite to dinner.”
“Anytime, honey. You know you’re welcome to come every night if you want. We wish you would have moved in with us. Your father was so excited you decided to leave California and all that mess behind you.”
There was no use arguing over the comment her stepmother made. She’d left as fast as she could to get away from the destruction that was left in her path.
She hadn’t meant for any of it to happen. She hadn’t even known she was a willing participant. And when she found out the truth, that she ended up being something close to her mother after all, she couldn’t wait to hightail it out of there like she was outrunning a crumbling street beneath her feet during an earthquake.
“I’d just be in the way,” she said.
Not only that, she was twenty-eight and needed to be living on her own, not with her father.
She had a damn good job and could afford it. Especially since housing was so much cheaper here than in California. Hell, everything was cheaper here.
“Nonsense,” Maggie said. “But we know how independent you are. Still, you can come to dinner a few times a week. We’d really love to have you.”
“I’ll think about it. Sometimes after a long day I just want to go home and workout and then relax. But it is nice to not have to cook for myself too.”
“I’ll send you home with leftovers. I’ve got plenty,” Maggie said. “We are almost ready to eat if you want to come into the kitchen and get a drink. Can I get you a glass of wine?”
“Do you have any beer?” she asked. Wine had never been her thing but give her a good beer and she was a happy girl.
“Help yourself if you want. Consider it your house,” her father said. “And grab me one too.”
But she had a hard time doing it because it was Maggie’s house. When her father relocated here he’d gotten a condo and when he and Maggie married they moved into the house she had with her ex-husband and kids. Adriana’s stepsisters didn’t live around here.
She’d met them a few times, but they didn’t even talk. She supposed Maggie was lonely when her daughters moved
