Family Forever

by Valerie J. Clarizio

  Dylan chuckled.

  “What?” Cole asked.

  “You kind of don’t have a room right now.”

  “So the room at the top of the stairs, down the hall on the left has disappeared.”

  “I took it,” Aric chimed in. “I needed more space so I moved out of mine and Braden’s room.”

  Cole pulled a teasing frown. “I leave to further my education and you take my room?”

  Aric smiled. “Yep, you snooze, you lose.”

  “Dare I ask where my bed is?”

  “Your bed is in the den,” Dylan informed him. “Marissa is using it. I moved my office into my bedroom.”

  A sly grin spanned Cole’s face as his gaze raked over her. “Works for me.”

  Marissa’s cheeks heated.

  Dylan’s gaze bore into Cole. “You’re bunking in Luke’s bed and Luke can sleep with me while you're here.”

  It crossed her mind to volunteer to sleep with Dylan as to not displace Luke, but she feared her idea would get rejected. She didn’t want to think about that now. Lunch. That sounded like a good idea. She spun and stepped toward the fridge where she pulled out the tuna and ham, and the pasta salads she made earlier, wondering if she’d made enough. It was hard enough to keep up with Dylan, Aric and Braden’s appetites but for the next few days she had to add Cole to the mix. She couldn’t believe the amount of food these men ate. In fear of not having enough, she had prepared a raw vegetable tray as well.

  The boys interrupted each other, informing Cole of all their adventures since they’d last seen him at Easter. He listened attentively to them. In this respect, he was very similar to his older brother, making sure each boy had his undivided attention.

  They were nearly finished with lunch when Luke leaned toward Dylan and whispered loudly enough for everyone to hear, “Can we have the cake now?”

  The corners of Dylan’s mouth crept up. “That was supposed to be a secret for after dinner.”

  “Aww, how nice, you guys got me a cake. Excellent!” Cole beamed.

  “Not exactly. But since Luke brought it up, now works just as well. I’ll be right back.”

  Dylan disappeared and returned a moment later with a sheet cake in his hands and set it in front of her. “Happy Birthday.”

  Tears swelled in her eyes as she stared at the white frosted cake decorated with pink roses, and her name written in pink letters. She honestly couldn’t remember the last time she’d had her own birthday cake. Her father never made a big deal about it. He was too busy with other things—drinking. And how on earth did Dylan know it was her birthday? She didn't recall mentioning it.

  "Nate, why don’t you go and get the presents that are stashed in my closet?"

  Presents. Plural.

  Dylan set two large white candles on the cake, one in the shape of a one and the other in the shape of a nine. He lit them when Nate returned with her presents, and then they sang to her, all of them. Her already warm cheeks heated even more. They had to be as red as the barn by the time they finished singing to her.

  Cole wore a teasing smile, Aric looked annoyed that Dylan made him sing, Braden’s cheeks were a bit red. Nate and Luke seemed to be enjoying their singing. As for Dylan, dark-eyed, handsome Dylan, she couldn’t tell one way or the other what he was thinking at the present moment. Yet, he had to be the mastermind behind it all, just like when he threw the little graduation party for her a month ago. She had no idea he’d been planning anything for her graduation until her couple friends showed up at the house.

  Luke handed her a homemade card. The front of the card displayed a red barn, green tractor, and was filled with people, so many in fact they hardly fit on the front. He pointed out each and every one of them as he named them off, including her among all the men with whom she now lived. They had all signed the card. This is what being a part of a family was like.

  She stepped toward the little boy, scooped him up, kissed his cheek and hugged him. “This is a beautiful card, Luke.”

  As she set the child down, she caught Dylan’s warm gaze and satisfied smile.

  Cole stepped forward. “I see my name is on the card too, so do I get a kiss?”

  Though he asked, he didn’t wait for her response. He pressed his lips lightly to her cheek. “Happy birthday.”

  With another quick glance toward Dylan, she noticed his smile had faded, and his jaw seemed to clench.

  Saving the moment, Nate reached out, handing her the gifts. Everyone watched as she opened her gifts including a University of Wisconsin Green Bay hooded sweatshirt, T-shirt, sweatpants, shorts, and fleece jacket.

  “There, now you should be set for school,” Dylan said.

  They’d done well. She hadn’t expected anything, but to outfit her for college was simply awesome. “Thank you, thank you all. These are great.”

  Dylan smiled at her. “I hate to leave all this fun but I have some work to do in the office. And Aric, don’t forget we’re both helping Will with the milking this afternoon, and both shifts tomorrow.”

  Aric moaned.

  “Well, you can get out of it if you can convince Cole to take your shifts.”

  Cole grimaced as he looked at Dylan. “Sorry, no can do. I’ve got plans tonight, and tomorrow. Tomorrow, I’m taking the boys to the beach. Jake is meeting us there with his boat and we’re going tubing.”

  Excitement beamed in everyone’s eyes except for Aric and Dylan’s.

  “I’m sure you’re not going at four AM, you could help with that shift,” Dylan stated.

  “Fine, I’ll help with that one, but I thought you finally hired enough farmhands for the milking,” Cole added.

  “I did, but sometimes they need days off, and to ensure I would have off to take you all to the church picnic on Saturday, I gave Thomas and Juan off tomorrow.”

  “Can’t you get one of the part-timers to help with the afternoon milking? I want to go boating too.” Aric fixed his pleading gaze on Dylan.

  “I’ll see what I can do.”

  * * * *

  It was mid-morning when Dylan and Cole finished the first milk shift of the day, as well as the other routine chores. When they entered the house Cole shot upstairs to shower. Dylan headed toward the master bathroom to do the same. Then he planned on eating breakfast. The hunger pains he woke up with didn’t subside any while doing chores.

  He stepped into the living room to find Luke sitting on Marissa’s lap.

  She paused from reading and glanced up catching his gaze. “Morning.”

  Her soft smile was like a ray of sunshine.

  “Good morning.”

  “Marissa’s reading to me,” Luke chimed as if that was fresh news to Dylan.

  “I see that, buddy.”

  “She’s going to make pancakes today,” his brother informed him.

  “Nate and Braden have been chomping at the bit for breakfast but I told them we were going to wait for you and Cole, and all eat together. I thought you’d like that with Cole being here and all.”

  It was so wonderful having her here to take care of these things so he didn’t have to, but he was already worrying about what he was going to do without her. When she went off to college in less than two months, he’d be back on his own again. What worried him even more was how poor Luke was going to fare without her. The boy had really taken to her and even started talking more since she’d come into their lives. He hoped that was a progression that would continue.

  “I’ll hurry in the shower, I’d hate to see those poor things starve to death.”

  Marissa laughed. “I’ll start them now. It will probably take me twenty minutes or so just to have enough to get you all started.”

  By the time he got out of the shower he could smell the sausage and pancake aroma, and he could hear the loud banter of his brothers in the kitchen.

  He entered the kitchen to find most of his brothers seated at the table waiting impatiently for their breakfast. Luke stood on a chair next to Marissa helping her flip
pancakes on the long griddle spanning two burners on the stovetop. A large cast iron pan nearly overflowed with sausage links.

  Dylan swung his gaze between all his brothers. “Really, out of all of you, only the five-year-old saw fit to help Marissa?”

  “Hey, I offered, but she told me I’d probably just get in the way,” Cole quickly responded.

  Marissa shot him a glance over her shoulder. “It’s true, I did tell him that, but only after he snuck two sausages out of the pan. I tried to keep them all away from the food to ensure there would be some left for you.”

  Cole winked at her, and she smiled.

  Dylan made a mental note to let his brother know Marissa was off limits to him and his womanizing ways.

  Marissa pulled a plate of pancakes from the oven and set them on the table along with a plate of sausages. In less than thirty seconds, the platters were empty and she refilled them. Dylan nearly chuckled out loud at the thought of how far she’d come since the first meal she prepared for him and the boys, which was hardly enough to feed half of them. She caught on quickly in the food preparation area, but she still had room for improvement in terms of being manipulated by the boys. They seemed to figure out quickly just how to use her to get what they wanted or get out of their household chores. He was ecstatic that she was good to them, but sometimes he thought she was too nice to them. She had a big heart and they knew it.

  After breakfast, the boys jumped to their feet to help cleanup. Dylan supposed they were in a hurry to get to the beach and go tubing. It was already eighty degrees out, a great day to be on the water.

  “I can take your truck today, right?” Cole stated, more than asked.

  “Why can’t you take your car?”

  “The six of us won’t fit in there.”

  Dylan arched a brow. “Six?”

  “Yeah, Marissa’s coming too.”

  Shit. His brother was already moving in on her. “I need to see you in my office for a minute before you go.”

  Cole glanced over at Marissa’s backside as she reached into the refrigerator, then looked at him and snickered. “You don’t have an office anymore.”

  Why did his brother have to be such a pain at times? “Fine, my bedroom then.”

  His brother followed him and took a seat on the chair next to his desk which was tucked tightly into the corner of the master bedroom.

  “What’s up?” Cole asked.

  Dylan captured Cole’s gaze. “I don’t want you hitting on Marissa. She’s not your type of girl.”

  Cole’s gaze hardened and he arched a brow. “Really? And you get to dictate this, why?”

  Why, was a good question. What was he doing? What gave him the right?

  Cole filled the silence. “She’s a grown woman who can make her own choices.”

  “She just turned nineteen, yesterday,” Dylan fired back.

  “Yes, she did, she’s an adult, has been for a while. And if I run the math, that makes her less than two years younger than me, and let’s see, and a little over five and one-half years younger than you.”

  Dylan squeezed his eyes shut and sucked in a deep breath. Why did he always have such a difficult time talking about these sorts of things? Though he loved his brother, he disapproved of his womanizing ways, and with Marissa being the sweet naive kind, he feared his brother would just break her heart. And she didn’t need that. He presumed she’d had enough heartbreak already at her young age, with her mom’s passing and her dad’s drinking and basically ridding himself of her a couple months back.

  “You know what, just don’t. You’re only here for the weekend, and you and I both know—”

  “Know what?” Cole interrupted. His tone was hard and defensive.

  Dylan held up a hand. He didn’t want to argue with his brother who was only home for a few days. He had hoped for a nice visit for all of them. “You’re right, it’s not my deal. You guys go and have a good time.”

  His brother’s look softened. “I wish you could spend the day with us, or even part of it. Are you sure you can’t get away?”

  “I wish I could, but I can’t. I need to make a supply run and help with the afternoon milking and chores, but we’ll all be together at the picnic tomorrow.”

  * * * *

  It was just before nine o’clock when Dylan finished in the barn. The house was eerily quiet at first but then he heard Cole and Marissa’s voices in the living room.

  He pulled a beer from the fridge on his way through and stepped into the living room to find them sitting next to each other on the couch, closer than they needed to be.

  His brother glanced up at him and pointed at the television, “We’re just looking at today’s photos. Why don’t you join us?”

  Knowing his brother, there were probably at least two hundred photos of the day. Photos were his thing, and he was good at taking them. In fact, Cole was good at all artsy type things.

  “I’ll change and be right back.”

  He slipped out of his work clothes and into some sweats and returned to the living room just in time to catch a glimpse of Marissa on the television. He nearly choked on his beer at the sight before him. She was wearing an orange bikini that hugged her in all the right places, particularly her breasts.

  Where did those come from? How had he not noticed them before? It’s not like they were too small by any means, but they looked much larger in that bikini top than when hidden under her usual t-shirts, sweatshirts, or sweaters.

  The next photo flashed on the screen and showed Marissa sitting on a bench seat in the boat next to Cole’s buddy, Jake, his arm draped over her shoulders, and the look in his eyes was unmistakable. Dylan ground his teeth together.

  “You okay?” Cole asked, snapping him back into reality.

  “Yeah, why?”

  “You look a little tense.”

  “I’m fine, just tired I guess.”

  Cole chuckled. “You think you’re tired, you should have seen the boys when we got back. Even Aric was hardly able to make it to bed before his eyes closed.”

  “A long day on the water and in the hot sun will do that to kids.”

  Dylan sat on the chair and continued to watch the pictures flash across the TV screen, hoping the next would be of Marissa, and most times he got his wish. There were more pictures of her than of all the boys put together, but the problem was that Jake was in too many of those photos with her, and he was always touching her in some way. A hand on her arm or his arm around her, and him helping to strap her into her life vest, a task he was sure she was perfectly capable of doing herself.

  The photo show ended and Cole unhooked the cord between the camera and television and set the camera on the cocktail table in front of the couch before leaning toward Marissa and giving her a peck on the forehead. “It was fun today, I’m glad you came along.”

  A soft smile stretched her lips. “Yeah, it was great.” She leaned forward and hugged Cole.

  Dylan gripped his beer bottle tighter and raised it to his lips. Well, which is it? Jake or Cole?

  Her bright blue-eyed gaze zoned in on him as she separated herself from his brother. “I wish you could have come along, Dylan. It was so much fun. Even Luke got on the inner tube, you would have been so proud of him.”

  That was a surprise, his baby brother usually didn’t do anything out of the ordinary. Aric, Braden and Nate sure, Luke however, no way, but Marissa seemed to have a way with getting him to try things.

  “I hope not alone.”

  A hint of hurt flashed through her eyes. “No, either I, Cole or Aric rode with him.” Her tone was defensive.

  For lack of words, Dylan nodded. He hadn’t intended on insinuating she didn’t know how to take care of Luke but that’s the way the words sounded when they came out of his mouth.

  Cole and Marissa wished him a good night and disappeared into their rooms.

  Dylan grabbed the camera and went into his room where he hooked it up to his computer so he could view the photos again.
He started the slideshow, eyeing each and every picture closely. His brothers sure seemed to be having a good time, and Cole was a master with the camera, catching all the happy moments, and the right angles, especially where Marissa was concerned. But when it came to her, Dylan supposed there wasn’t a bad angle except for those with Jake in the picture. Why was he in so many pictures with her?

  Luke tugged on his arm. “What are you doing?” his little brother asked as he rubbed his weary eyes.

  Dylan had been so engrossed in the pictures he hadn’t heard his little brother get out of bed. “Looking at your boating pictures. Did you see them yet?”

  His brother shook his head.

  Dylan scooped him up and set him on his lap. Luke leaned back against him and then Dylan started the slideshow over.

  When they got to the picture with Luke wrapped in Marissa’s arms, with a big beach towel wrapped around the both of them, Luke pointed at the screen. “I like Marissa. She’s nice and pretty.”

  Dylan couldn’t argue with his baby brother, she was beyond pretty. She was beautiful, inside and out. And was one of the best things that had happened to their family in a long time. It broke his heart to know she would be leaving for college soon and poor Luke would miss her terribly. He kissed his brother on the top of his head.

  “Looks like you guys had a good time today.”

  “We did. Jake even let me drive the boat.”

  “That’s great, buddy.”

  The last photo flashed across the screen again. It was one of Marissa sitting on the back of the boat. Her thin, yet shapely, legs dangled over the edge but her feet didn’t quite reach the water. The orange swimsuit she wore made her milky white skin look even more pale than normal. Her smile reached her eyes, and her bright blue gaze lit up the sky. Long, silky strands of blonde hair lay over her defined shoulders. Though he didn't like it, he certainly understood why Jake was caught touching her in many of the photos.

  Dylan stared at the photo for a moment longer before he disconnected the camera from the computer. “It’s getting late. We better hit the hay, we have a big day ahead of us tomorrow.”

  Luke smiled. “Yeah, the picnic.”