The Family You Make (Sunrise Cove #1)

Would she see him again?

And what business did she have for wanting to so badly her heart was threatening to pound out of her chest?

When she opened her eyes again, she wasn’t alone.

Shirl and Tess were seated opposite her, smiling.

“Heard you made an appointment for Cat to get spayed,” Shirl said, looking pleased.

Jane had to clear her throat to speak. “We decided to keep each other. My friend Charlotte offered to keep feeding her after I’m gone, so she’ll always have a home. What are you doing here?”

“We’re not stalking you or anything,” Shirl said.

Tess snorted. “We’re totally stalking you.” She looked recovered from her shocking pregnancy reveal last night. Serene and calm. “But we’re the good kind of stalkers, because . . .” She opened a large lunch box. “We come bearing food.”

“Thanks, but I brought my own.” Jane pulled out a banana, a yogurt, and a package of peanut butter crackers, all pilfered from Charlotte’s kitchen because she hadn’t had a chance to get to the store. Oh, who was she kidding. She hated going to the store, she always waited until she was half starved to death, and by then Charlotte had stocked her up.

Shirl looked over Jane’s lunch and shook her head. “That’s just sad.”

“I packed at five this morning,” Jane said in her defense. “I wasn’t feeling like much then.”

“How about a meatloaf sandwich?” Shirl asked.

“It’s her special recipe,” Tess said. “It’s crackalicious.”

“It doesn’t contain real crack,” Shirl said. “I do have a few secret ingredients in there, but they’re all perfectly legal, I promise you.” She pushed a glass container at Jane. “Brought you one.”

“How did you know I’d be able to eat with you?”

“Just hoping.” Shirl smiled. “I wanted to tell you how good you are for Levi.”

Jane’s smile faltered as she realized the depths of the deception she and Levi had laid out and how it was not only going to destroy herself—something she was trying to come to terms with—but also hurt others. In trying to make his mom happy, they were now about to do the very opposite. “You know I’m leaving soon,” she said carefully.

“Yes.” Shirl reached for Jane’s hand. “And you know about Amy?”

Jane nodded.

Shirl and Tess exchanged a knowing look.

“What?” Jane asked.

Shirl squeezed Jane’s fingers gently. “Amy was his best friend for years and years. And then his girlfriend. And then his fiancée.”

“I get that.”

“But you might not get that he hasn’t really let another woman in since. You’re the first. That’s how we knew before we’d even met you that you had to be special.”

“Because I’m Levi’s girlfriend,” Jane said quietly, hating the facade she and Levi had created.

“No, because you’re Jane Parks.”

Jane froze, feeling that definitive statement clear through her heart like an arrow had pierced it. How ironic that all her life she’d shied away from commitments to keep her heart safe, only to fail utterly here. Because what she felt for Levi was shockingly real, and now she was going to hurt his family, who didn’t deserve it.

“At least take a bite,” Shirl said, nudging the meatloaf sandwich closer.

Not knowing what else to do, Jane took a bite of the sandwich and— “Oh my God.”

Tess smiled. “Right?”

Shirl just sat back, looking pleased.

Jane practically moaned her way through the entire sandwich and just barely managed not to lick the container when she was done.

“Here.” Levi’s mom was going through her phone, tapping away, and then Jane’s phone buzzed with a text. “The recipe.”

“Are you kidding me?” Tess asked. “I’ve been asking you for that recipe for years.”

“You don’t need the meatloaf,” Shirl said.

“Was that a fat joke? I’m pregnant, not fat.”

“Honey.” Shirl reached out and hugged Tess. “Of course that wasn’t a fat joke, you’re perfect. I just meant that you don’t need the recipe because I’ll always cook it for you. You’ve given me Peyton, and now another sweet grandbaby is coming . . .” She put her hand on Tess’s still-flat belly. “And you indulge me by living at home and letting me be part of their daily village.”

“It’s because I can’t afford to move out.”

“Shh. Don’t ruin my fantasy.”

Tess laughed, but Jane actually felt her heart tug hard at these two women who’d somehow become a part of her life.

How was she going to let them go? How was she going to let Levi go? To distract herself, she looked at the recipe. “This might be above my pay grade.”

“Levi loves this recipe,” Shirl said.

“Are you suggesting that Jane cook it to snare Levi?” Tess asked in horror. “Mom, women don’t have to cook for their men anymore. You know that, right? Love comes from the heart, not the stomach.”

“Bull pucky,” Shirl said. “Cook the meatloaf, Jane. Trust me on this.”

“Mom, seriously. Stop. You’re setting women back fifty years.”

Shirl shrugged. “I’m still married to the man I married forty years ago. The proof’s in the pudding. Or, in this case, the meatloaf.”

Jane didn’t want to be rude and disagree, but personally she thought if a man wanted her for her meatloaf, he was going to go through life greatly disappointed.

But if said man loved her for her and her alone . . . and if that man was Levi, she knew she’d do everything she could to make it work. How scary was that?

WHEN JANE GOT off work, she stopped at the store and bought the ingredients for the meatloaf. But only because it’d been a most excellent meatloaf.

She wandered into the kitchen and found Mateo, who had Charlotte up against the fridge. They were . . . well, kissing seemed too tame a word, but even from across the room Jane could see how much he loved her even as his hands slid up her back, pulling her even closer.

Jane cleared her throat. “Nice use of appliance.”

Charlotte gasped and broke free.

Mateo grinned. “We got hungry.”