Pierce My Heart (Women of Willowbrook Book 1) (29 page)

“So where is everyone else? I figured at least Maddy and Robby would be here by now.”

Gran turns back to the counter and starts dropping things into a skillet, onion and garlic starts to permeate air around us.

Mom’s standing in front of us at the counter slicing mushrooms, so she doesn't even bother to raise her head as she answers. “A parent of one of Maddy’s kids had a work emergency so they’re going to be running late. Robby would’ve come on his own, but Maddy’s been under the weather so he didn’t want to leave her alone.”

“Is she okay?” I ask, concern coloring my tone.

I just now realize with everything going on this week, I haven't spoken much to anyone.

This time Mom does look up.

“She’s fine, my girl, just a little stomach bug. You know how that goes around with the weather change and all those kids. I took her some chicken soup yesterday. She was a little pale, but she was fine,” she assures me before taking the cutting board full of mushroom slices to drop into the pan.

“What are you making, and can I help?”

A loud bang has both Mia and I jumping off our stools in surprise.

Gran’s almost maniacal laughter draws our focus. “You should’ve seen your faces,” she chokes out, pointing the spoon at the both of us before mimicking it.

I see Mia roll her eyes from the corner of mine before her phone draws her attention while she sits back down.

“Chicken Marsala, but I think we’ve got everything under control here. Why don’t you sit and tell me how you’re liking working at the site? Your mom mentioned a certain perk to the job,” Gran suggests.

I aim a look at my mother who (fortunately) can’t see it since her back is to me.

“I saw that, Anna,” Mom says casually.

My eyes get big.

Or, she could.

“Saw what?”

She looks at me over her shoulder and just raises her brow.

When she goes back to stirring, I look back to Gran and see that her amusement (which has lessened, but not by much) is mingled with impatience.

“I like the job. It’s definitely different from what I did when I worked there during school, but I like it more. As for the ‘perk’, I don’t know what you mean,” I say, feigning ignorance.

“Um, hello? She means all the eye-candy,” Mia (oh, so helpfully) puts in.

“No, she means the specific eye-candy who Anna had a date with last night,” a voice corrects.

This time five pairs of eyes turn to look in the direction of the archway where Evan’s strolling in.

My eyes do a top-to-toe as my brows shoot up in surprise.

She catches my look and just shakes her head.

Evan isn't decked out to the nines.

Hell, she isn't even decked out to the fives.

She's in yoga pants, a pair of furry boots (that I could never pull off), and a Pierce Construction sweatshirt. The only thing even remotely ‘Evan’ about her outfit is the makeup, her hair, and the earrings in her ears.

It’s not like dinner is some fancy occasion; all the women are shoeless (because it's comfortable and we’re home with family), in jeans, except Mia (who's donning an overly large, deep purple sweater with leggings), and casual, but cute tops.

Evan always showed in cute
everything
.

She walks over and gives both Mom and Gran kisses on their cheeks before parking it on the stool between Mia and I, and I see up close that she looks a lot more tired than normal. Even more tired than when she worked the all-day shifts while her parents were hiking.

At the mention of my date (which I had completely forgotten I’d told her about) both Mom’s and Gran’s eyes swing my way. Mom looks happy and knowing. Gran looks a little wary but happy, and also a whole lot curious, which in turn makes me a little wary.

Gran is a little wacky, in a sweet way.

After raising three boys, she got a serious kick out of messing with us girls and the men we brought around. I’d heard on more than one occasion how when Mom and Dad were first dating, Gran had made
Dad
jump through hoops to date
Mom
, not the other way around. I thought it was sweet, a little crazy, but a whole lot hilarious. Dad didn’t find anything hilarious about it. He’d had to win over three parents, not to mention Mom’s brother, Paul—luckily, Gramps was on his side.

So, Gran’s wary and curious look makes me wonder what's going to happen tonight.

“A date, huh?” Gran voices the question they're all thinking.

“A date,” Evan confirms.

Gran turns her eyes back to me after looking at Evan. “And what did you two do on this date?”

Before I can answer, the bell rings.

“I’ll get that,” I practically shout, quickly rushing out.

“Saved by the bell,” Gran mutters and four different laughs follow me.

When I open the front door and catch sight of Jake, the vows for vengeance I was promising in my head fade.

He's wearing his usual attire of jeans, Henley, work boots, and black jacket; his hair mussed (likely from the wind), he still hasn’t shaved, and my grip on the door gets tighter as my legs get weak.

“Gonna let us in, sweetheart?” he asks with a smile.

At the word ‘us’ I straighten and look to his left to see Grace with a huge smile, that's all too knowing, on her face.

“Shit, sorry. Of course, come in.” I move back, opening the door wider as Grace walks in with Jake following. “My Dad and Gramps are in the living room to the right, but my Mom, Gran, Evan, and my cousin, Mia, are in the kitchen to the left,” I offer as I close the door.

I hear footsteps fade and figure Jake’s wandered into the living room with the men, but when I turn back I find myself pushed against the door and my body flush with Jake’s as he leans down to give me a serious toe-curling, body-humming, tongue-dueling,
kiss
.

When he pulls back my hands are clutching his arms and I'm having a hard time opening my eyes, but I somehow manage.

His eyes are soft, his face satisfied. “Missed you, baby.”

“Missed you too, Jay,” I whisper, a small smile curling the ends of my lips.

His eyes flare with surprise at the name, but he smiles back and drops his mouth to mine. This time my arms wrap around his neck and his hands slide from my hips to wrap around my back.

Next thing I know, I find myself thrown forward, making Jake go back a few feet to keep us upright.

We both turn our heads to the entryway to see Robby and Maddy standing there, staring.

“Hey, guys,” I wheeze out, still trying to catch my breath.

Maddy lets out a giggle and Robby fights a smile.

At least that's a better reaction than the last time he saw the two of us together.

When I try to pull back to make things less awkward, Jake’s arms give me a warning squeeze. I give him a look out of the corner of my eye, but he just ignores it.

Guess I'm not moving.

“Hey, Anna, J.T.,” Maddy says moving in to give us each a kiss on the cheek. She turns and gives Robby a look, then turns to me and gives me a whole different one before heading towards the kitchen.

Robby greets us with a chin lift in Jake’s direction and a smile in mine.

“Rob, man,” Jake says unwrapping one arm from around me and holding his hand out.

I hold my breath in wait, but, thankfully, it isn't a long one.

Robby grins and reaches out to give Jake’s hand a shake before giving my chin a chuck and moving towards the living room.

I tilt my head back and look up at Jake who already has his face tilted towards mine.

“Well, that went better than I expected.”

“Everything was already good, sweetheart. Didn’t need to worry.”

His hand comes up to tilt my head further back so he could give me a quick kiss before we are interrupted again.

“Anna, stop necking with your boy! Dinner’s ready!”

This came from Gran.

Jake chuckles. “I think we’re being summoned.”

“Last chance to escape,” I tell him.

He just smiles and shakes his head at me.

I shrug.

His funeral.

When we hit the dining room I notice the only two chairs left open next to each other happen to be
conveniently
close to Gran. I try to move quick and put myself in the line of fire, but Gran is already patting the seat next to her with a big smile.

“Here, Jake. This seats for you. Come sit next to Gran Ree and let me get to know you,” she calls out.

“Sure thing, Mrs. Pierce.”

“Oh, please. Mrs. Pierce was my mother-in-law. You call me Gran or Ree.”

“Sure thing, Ree,” he amends.

Jake steps around me, giving me a wink as he passes, and heads for the chair. I stay rooted to my spot, trying to think of a way to evacuate the house without burning it down before Gran scares him off.

I'm so focused in thinking up different ways, then nixing them, then thinking up more ways that I don’t notice Dad step up behind me until his arm slides around my shoulders.

My head leans back and my eyes focus on his when he starts to talk.

“He can handle your Gran. If things get too hairy, Gramps already said he’d fake a good heart attack tonight,” he says, trying to hold back his laughter.

“Great,” I mutter on an eye roll.

His arm gives me a squeeze.

I roll my eyes back.

“Don’t worry so much, baby girl. The way that boy looks at you it’d take a lot more than your Gran’s shit to run him off.”

My lips tip up as I whisper, “Thanks, Daddy.”

“Anytime, baby girl. Now go sit down, I’m starving,” he bosses as he gives the top of my head a kiss and my shoulders another squeeze before moving to his chair at the head of the table.

I plop down in my seat and am immediately accosted by Mia.

“Anna! You didn’t tell me he was so
dreamy
. Where’d you meet him?”

Grace, who happens to be sitting directly across from me, chimes in. “He and a couple of his friends stopped by to help me with adoption day down at the shelter. Anna and Evan came down to check things out.”

Before she can go on, Maddy pulls her into a conversation about the shelter.

“Was it love at first sight?”

The sip I’d just taken of my drink fights to come out of my nose but I manage to get it down.

The wrong way.

“What?” I choke, as my stomach and body tingle with nerves.

Mia rolls her eyes at me like
I'm
the crazy one now.

She
really
had that look down.

“
Hello
? It’s way obvious he’s into you, like seriously into you. And from the way you look at him, you’re just as into him, if not more. It’s totally love,” she says with her know-it-all-sixteen-year-old girl wisdom.

Hoping everyone else is deep into their own conversations, I lean in close to her.

“It’s only been a week, Mia.”

“So?”

“So, that’s not a very long time.”

“Time doesn’t dictate your feelings, Anna.”

My eyes widen in surprise at her words. “When did you get so smart?”

“From watching you, Payton, Maddy, Evan, and Marie,” she informs me, and I have the overwhelming urge to start bawling.

Instead, I give her hand a squeeze, acknowledging what that means to me.

“Wait, Marie? You hardly ever see Marie.”

That question gets me an eye roll.

That was a move all the Pierce women—by blood or marriage—had down.

“Just because I hardly see her, doesn’t mean I don’t talk to her a lot. I’ve been texting her, and Payton, to let them in on everything happening tonight,” she pauses as a smile comes over her face, “Payton’s seriously pissed she missed meeting him. Marie thinks the whole thing is hilarious.”

She would.

Marie was Uncle Will’s daughter. Her, her brother, Tyler, his wife, Elizabeth, their four-year-old son, Lucas, and her parents, Will and Natalie, all lived in Nevada.

Uncle Will met Aunt Natalie on a boy’s weekend to Vegas and he’d moved down two weeks later, marrying her a month after that. It was fast, but from the stories I’d heard, Uncle Will said he knew she was the one the moment he saw her cussing out the slots. Gran and Gramps loved her and had fully supported him.

The only downside was that they stayed in Nevada so no one got to see them nearly as much as they’d like. They’d come up for Christmas—Thanksgiving was for Aunt Natalie’s family—and would sometimes come up during summer when the temps there would hit the hundreds, but for the most part all our contact was through phone calls, texting, Skype, Facebook, and birthday cards.

Even with the distance, Marie utilized all the ways to keep in touch and did.