make a girl feel special.”
Jack’s hand moved from high-five mode to stop right there. “Okay, but don’t even think about kissing me. I already tried to give you that money three times.”
I made a smoochie face at him but kept my mouth to myself. I was saving all my lip service for the older Bradley anyway.
Hudson did most of the assembly when we got back, but he took the time to teach Jack a few things about levels and making things perfectly square. It was adorable and truthfully miraculous how much patience Hudson had with his boy. He stayed calm when he didn’t get it right and never lost his cool when there was a mistake. Then again, Jack was a pretty decent scribe and for the most part followed his dad’s every word.
I was a gopher and the entertainment. I kept the tunes going and the lemonade flowing, all the while watching my dream come to life in my guest room.
I’d always felt confident that my plans were good. I’d aced drafting and CAD in school. Seeing everything click into place, I wondered how far I might have made it by now if I hadn’t fallen apart and dropped out when Brenden died. Lately, I kicked myself every day for not having gone back.
Oh well. I wasn’t going to let all those ugly thoughts put a cloud over cat palace day. Not when I had so much in one room to be thankful for.
“What do you guys want for dinner? My treat.”
“Sushi,” Jack suggested. “I want fried rice too.”
I’d expected him to request pizza, but I welcomed the change.
After swinging by their house so Hudson could change his shirt, we walked into GochisÅ.
“Booth or hibachi?” the hostess asked.
“Hibachi,” Hudson answered at lightning speed.
Jack followed the young woman through the restaurant, and we trailed behind.
Leaning down into my ear, Hudson’s gravelly voice buzzed against me. “Not touching you is killing me.”
A smile slid around my face as we kept walking to the grill, where Jack was already drumming with his chopsticks.
“Don’t be so dramatic, Hud. You were inside me just this morning,” I replied under my breath so only he could hear.
He groaned and pulled out a chair for me between his and Jack’s and nodded at his boy. “Good thing he’ll be distracted through dinner.”
With that, Hudson’s hand was on my leg the second we sat down. Had my shorts been any looser fitting, he would have scandalized me by the time the onion volcano erupted.
Also, I fucking loved it, and I suppose I didn’t really care about PDA after all, because the minute Jack excused himself to use the bathroom, I planted my lips on his father’s. We were the only people at that grill in the back corner and the cook had already cleaned up and taken off.
“Why are you two kissing like that?”
Mid lip-lock—which we might have gotten a smidge carried away with—both sets of our eyes flew open, and slowly, our heads turned to face the music.
“Um,” I said cleverly.
“Um,” Hudson agreed. “Yeah, me and your…uh, Lex are in a…” His face was almost comical as he scrambled for words.
If my heart hadn’t been racing like I’d been caught red-handed by the Feds while pulling cash from a till and not just an almost-eight-year-old who used the restroom at record speeds seeing us kiss—really kiss—for the first time, I would have laughed.
“You’re boyfriend and girlfriend?” Jack asked.
Glancing back at each other and then him, we answered in sync. “Yep.”
“But we’re related. You’re my aunt.” He walked back to his seat, climbed on top of it onto his knees, and faced us, waiting for an explanation.
Since the subject was sensitive, and not one I’d really planned to have in a restaurant, I let Hudson lead.
“You know how Mom doesn’t have any brothers and sisters?”
Confused, Jack answered, “Yeah.”
“Well, neither do I. And you know how Grandma Pauline and Grampa Simon are neighbors with Grampa David and Mimi?”
Jack squinted, looking so much like his dad, still trying to sort it out. “Yeah.”
“Okay, so when Mom and me and Lex and Cal were younger, we were all best best best friends. Then when you came along, you sort of made us all family because we all loved you so much.”
My chest felt tight and full, adoring how he was explaining it, and it was all completely true.
“So they’re not really related to you, just to me?” Jack clarified.
Hudson thought for a second. “Yeah, I guess if you want to