“Daddy!” Ava ran to her father and jumped into his waiting arms as Jake closed the door behind them.
“There’s my princess!” He smiled as he hugged her tightly, carrying her into the living room. He stopped mid stride. Cara and Sam were wearing tiaras, and feather boas, holding up tea cups as his father pretended to pour the tea. Joe, also wearing a feather boa, and was that lipstick? Looked up at his son and dropped the teapot.
“Thank God. Tea party’s over kids! Deb! Time to eat!” He hollered.
Luke nuzzled his daughter’s cheek. “Did you drive Grandpa crazy today?”
“No Daddy. But Grandpa isn’t very good at playing tea party.”
Nick leaned against the door jamb, his hands stuffed into the pockets of his worn, faded jeans. He nodded towards Cara and smiled, “Hey, Cara.” She looked up and sent one of her dazzling smiles his way, but Nick was immune to her charms, he was too consumed in Sam.
“Well, well, well. Look what the wind blew in.” Sam said, her voice rich with sarcasm.
He raised an eyebrow, pushing himself off the door jamb to advance towards her. “Nice to, see you too, sweetheart.” He winked at her. Sam rolled her eyes and glanced at Jake, probably looking for him to save her from the wrath of Nick, all he did was shrug his shoulders. There was no way he was intervening. She sighed and went to walk past Nick, but he grabbed her wrist just as she brushed her hip against his in passing, stopping her in her tracks. “I missed you; did you miss me, Sam?” His voice was all but a whisper.
Jake chuckled, reminding Nick he wasn’t the only one standing in the living room, and swung his arm around Cara’s shoulders. “Here they go again.” Jake whispered to her before raising his voice so Nick and Sam would hear him. “Hey guys, while we’re all happy to be watching you two go another round, do you think we can maybe eat dinner first?” He looked back to Cara. “You brought the popcorn for later, right?”
“I even brought the different flavor seasonings,” She said and laced her fingers through Jakes. He spun her around and she dipped under their extended arms. He loved when she played into his shenanigans.
They were all seated around the dining room table, just like they had so many times before, all in their respective seats. Deb and Joe sat on either end, while Jake, Sam and Nick, occupied one half, and Luke, Ava, and Cara the other. Jake hadn’t realized how much he had missed this, all of them together again. His mother always cooked a huge Sunday dinner, though there were times when all of them hadn’t been able to make it. Nick had been gone for the last six years, leaving one empty chair at the table. He smiled to himself, it was good to have everyone together again.
“So Nick, when should we expect the delivery?” Luke asked as he cut Ava’s food for her.
Nick handed Jake the salad bowl and grabbed another platter of food, helping himself as he spoke. “The trailers should be coming in by the end of the week. We probably will have enough work to keep us busy, for at least two months. By then the car shows will be in, full swing.”
Joe looked up from his plate. “What are you guys doing?”
“I’ve been buying old classic cars that are on their last days. We’re going to restore them, and flip them to collectors. I have two trailers coming from Seattle. Some really nice cars Joe, you’re going to love them.”
“You got any bikes on that trailer?” Jake asked, and winked at Cara.
“Why? Are you looking to buy another one?” She asked him, her eyes wide with curiosity. One ride with him and he had created a monster, he chuckled.
“Maybe. I was thinking we’ll get his and hers Harleys.” He wiggled his eyebrows at her and bit into a piece of bread, chewing slowly as he watched her eyes light up.
“You won’t even let the poor girl on the bike you have now.” Luke said and glanced at Cara, “You going to let him tease you like that?”
Her eyes remained on Jake as she answered his brother, “Actually, your brother took me for a ride the other night.” She blew Jake a kiss and he grinned like a big fool. Yeah, he was in deep shit. He looked over at his brother, giving him a ‘so there’ look.
“You bought into the garage?” He heard his sister say beside him, breaking him out of his stare down with his brother. By the outrage in her voice, he could tell she was not happy.
“Well, that was the original plan.” Deb reminded her daughter.
“Yeah, six years ago.” Sam said as she threw the half eaten piece of bread into her dish, disgusted. Clearly she wasn’t on board with the idea. Jake mentally began counting down, the eruption that would surely come from his little sister.