Brothersong (Green Creek #4) - T.J. Klune Page 0,99

“Okay,” and I wondered if this was a beginning to something I never thought possible. A gift, and one I never thought I needed.

I reached out and took his hand.

He stared down at our hands for a long moment. Then, “I’m hungry.”

I laughed until I could barely breathe.

I LED HIM INTO THE KITCHEN, and Mom stopped singing. She glanced at our joined hands, and though I knew she wanted to say something about it, she didn’t. Instead she said, “There you both are. Come here.”

We went.

We stood before her, and she looked at us both. “Gavin,” she said warmly. “Did you sleep well?”

He shrugged awkwardly before nodding.

“Good. You must be hungry.” She’d heard him, but we all acted like she hadn’t. “Kelly and Joe told me about your little cabin. It sounds lovely.”

That was not the word I would’ve used, but I knew what she was doing.

“Small,” Gavin muttered. “Not like here.”

“I don’t suppose it was,” she said easily. “However, it’s not about the size of something, but what you do with it.” She blinked. “Oh dear. I think that’s another conversation entirely.”

“Mom.”

She grinned. “Yes?”

“You know what.”

“I have no idea what you’re talking about. I was just asking Gavin about his cabin.”

Gavin glanced between us. Whatever else he was, he obviously wasn’t versed in innuendo yet. I dreaded the day he would be. But then he said, “Carter’s pretty big,” and I wondered if it was too late to send him back.

Mom coughed roughly as I looked toward the ceiling.

Gavin huffed out a breath, and it took me longer than I cared to admit to realize he was laughing at me. Again.

“I’m going back to bed,” I grumbled, but Mom pushed us both toward the dining room.

“Later,” she said. “You’re home, and we’re going to fawn over you and berate you, among other things. And you will take it because you don’t have any other choice.”

The others stopped talking as we appeared in the entryway. The table in the center of the room was new, bigger than the one we’d had before. I remembered the days when it’d been just us, just Dad and Mom, Kelly and Joe, me and Mark, and how it’d felt like enough. It wasn’t. I could see that now.

Ox stood at the head of the table, watching over his pack, a serene look on his face. Joe was next to him, and he looked more at ease, more relaxed than I ever remembered him being.

Kelly and Robbie sat on the far side of the table. Rico and Bambi were next to them, Joshua sleeping in his mother’s arms. Tanner and Chris turned around to look at us, and their eyes were orange, a pulse of packpackpack that felt wild and sharp. Jessie and Dominique sat seated next to them, and I heard Jessie whisper, “I used to have a little crush on Carter. Even when I was dating Ox. I had very weird taste.”

“Jesus Christ,” I muttered as both Gavin and Joe growled at her.

“I like to think you traded up,” Dominique told her. She pushed a lock of hair off Jessie’s shoulder. “Men are gross.”

Gordo and Mark appeared behind us, and I wished I never had to smell the stench I could smell on them again.

“Your shirt is buttoned up wrong,” Mom told Gordo, sounding amused.

Mark puffed out his chest as Gordo mumbled death threats at all of us.

“So gross,” Jessie agreed.

Mom pushed us toward two empty chairs before taking her own seat at the other end of the table from Ox. There was food piled high in dishes on the table, and I saw that she’d made all my favorites: meatloaf and mashed potatoes and thick, crusty bread wrapped in a dish towel. My mouth watered, and I had to stop myself from tearing into it. Ox had yet to sit, his hands on the back of his chair.

We all looked to him as the room fell silent, Gavin’s hand still holding tightly on to my own.

Ox nodded, taking in a deep breath and letting it out slow. He said, “We’re here. Together again. Finally.” He looked at each of us in turn, saving Gavin and me for last. “I never….” He shook his head. Joe touched the back of his hand. “Through it all, we’re still here. It’s all I ever wanted. Thank you. Carter. Gavin. Welcome home.” His gaze hardened slightly, and his voice deepened. “This is where you belong. Never forget that.” And then he smiled, and it was like