She heard footsteps on the stairs, and looked up to see Ryan coming down in jeans and a flannel shirt, his dark hair still wet from the shower. He smiled at Gen, and she marveled at how his smile always made the blood rush to certain parts of her body that she couldn’t mention in front of his parents. Or the kids, for that matter.
“Hey,” he said as he descended. “It’s good to see you.”
Any further conversation was forestalled as the boys rushed to Ryan, throwing themselves at his body. With the ease of someone who’d done it thousands of times before, he hoisted Michael up onto his shoulders, and lifted Lucas up into one arm.
Laden with boys, Ryan came the rest of the way down the stairs and kissed Gen on the cheek as the boys giggled and squirmed. “Eww! You kissed her!” Michael cried.
“I did,” Ryan confirmed. “And I’m gonna do it again.”
This time, he planted a quick, chaste kiss on Gen’s lips.
“Ewww!” both boys cried out in unison, earning them a chuckle from Ryan.
Sandra appeared at the doorway to the kitchen again. “Well, I don’t know what’s taking you so long to get in here,” she said to Gen.
If Gen hadn’t already spent some time with Sandra, she’d have taken the comment as a rebuke. But as it was, she understood that this was Sandra’s way of making Gen feel welcomed into the heart of the family—the kitchen.
Pie in hand, Gen went into the kitchen and found Sandra working over a big Dutch oven. Gen set the pie down on the butcher block table in the center of the kitchen.
“Is there anything I can do to help?”
“Well, I don’t suppose that salad is going to make itself.” Sandra gestured toward a collection of lettuce and other vegetables that had been set out on the table. Gen grinned and got to work.
Dinner consisted of a pot roast with potatoes and carrots, collard greens, a bulgur wheat dish with olives and tomatoes for Ryan, and Gen’s green salad. When Sandra called everyone to the table, there was a flurry of hand-washing, glass-filling, and seat-finding during which Breanna had to gently scold the boys more than once.
Gen found the general disarray of things, the noise and the chaos, to be reassuring and somehow comforting. In her own home when she’d been growing up, there’d been no such happy disorganization, since she was an only child, and her mother was more occupied with the task of finding another husband than she was with Gen. Then there had been New York, where children had rarely been a part of her world. She might have expected this kind of noise and disorder to be intimidating or distasteful, but instead, she felt a warmth inside her that was wholly surprising.
Ryan took her hand and led her to a seat at the table next to his own. Her anxieties melted away, and it was as though she’d always been here, had always been a part of the loud, squirming organism that was this family.
She dug into the pot roast and potatoes as Orin talked about his day and about the business of the ranch. Redmond groused about the game he’d been watching, and Breanna chatted with the boys about an outing they were planning for the following day. Sandra asked Gen about the gallery and about “that artist you got living in our guest house,” and Gen talked about Kendrick and about how she’d come to live in Cambria after her time in New York.
When dinner was done, including Gen’s pie, Michael and Lucas took Gen by the hand and pulled her into the living room, where they insisted that she play a game of Sorry! with them. At only five years old, Lucas needed help reading the cards and counting spaces, but his brother, two years older, seemed to enjoy showing off his own more advanced abilities.
At first, it felt strange and awkward to Gen sitting on the floor playing with small children. She’d had such limited experience with kids that it felt like they were small aliens come to take her to their own strange and miniature-sized planet. But she was charmed by how quickly they had warmed to her, how readily they accepted her as a playmate. Before long, all three of them were laughing and exclaiming over the twists and turns of the game, yelling “Sorry!” when someone got bumped back to start.
Gen was surprised and touched when, during a rare quiet moment in the game, Lucas leaned over and rested his head against her side.
Ryan watched from the kitchen doorway as Gen threw up her hands in triumph and shouted “Sorry!” to Michael as his game piece was sent back to Start. He saw Lucas lean his head against Gen, saw her put her arm around him and rub his small back with her palm.
Sandra came and stood next to Ryan and watched with him for a while.
“If you don’t hang on to this one, you’re an idiot,” she said in her usual blunt, Sandra way. “And I didn’t raise any idiots.”
“Well, I plan to hang on to her,” he said mildly. “But it’s not just my choice, is it? She’s still talking about moving back East.”
Sandra waved a hand and made a scoffing sound. “That’s not what she wants. She thinks it is, but it’s not.”
Ryan raised his eyebrows. “You seem awfully sure.”
“You wait and see,” she said.
“Well.” He shifted uncomfortably from one foot to another. “I hope you’re right.”
“Wait and see.”
At the end of the evening, Ryan walked her to her car. When they arrived, she leaned back against the driver’s side door, and he kissed her.
“That was really nice,” Gen murmured, her mouth still close to his.
“The kiss, or the dinner?”
“Mmm. Both.”
The evening air was mild, with a light mist from the ocean softening everything, like a photo blurred at the edges.
“They like you,” Ryan said.
“I like them.”
He nodded. “It showed.”
“Your mom …” she began.
“Aw, don’t worry about her. She puts on a big show of being all gruff and crusty, but …”
“I love your mom,” Gen assured him.
He grinned. “You do?”
“Oh, God, yes. Coming from New York, I know so many people who are all sweet and charming to your face, but then cut you down the minute you turn your back. Your mom is refreshing.”
He chuckled. “Well, I’m not sure I’ve ever heard anyone describe her as refreshing. But she’s genuine. If she doesn’t like you, you’ll know it. And if she does, well, that’s that. Once the decision is made, she sticks to it.”
“And she likes me?”
“She does.” He kissed her again, gently.
“That’s … well. I’m honored.” And she meant it. Tears came to her eyes suddenly, and as hard as she tried to blink them away, a few spilled down her cheeks. She quickly swiped at them with the backs of her hands.
“What’s wrong?” Ryan sounded alarmed.
“Nothing. Nothing’s wrong. It’s just … Tonight was really nice.”
He held her, rubbing a hand in gentle circles on her back. “I’d like to meet your family sometime.”
“Oh.” She gave a shaky laugh. “I don’t think you’d like it as much as you think.”
“Why not?”
“My family … they’re not like yours. My mother’s been divorced four times. My father sends cards at Christmas and on my birthday. When he remembers.”
“That’s rough.”
“It is.” She looked up at him and into his liquid brown eyes. “You’re lucky, Ryan. You’re so lucky.”
“I feel pretty lucky right now,” he said. They kissed, and it was a long, warm kiss that made Gen feel cherished and protected. It made her feel safe.