Total pages in book: 82
Estimated words: 83211 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 416(@200wpm)___ 333(@250wpm)___ 277(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 83211 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 416(@200wpm)___ 333(@250wpm)___ 277(@300wpm)
“Fuck Sabrina,” Jess says, earning a shove from Pippa. “What? She’s a …” He looks at his mother. “A very mean person.” He grins.
Damaris shakes her head.
I love this family. Not only have they embraced me, but they’ve embraced Bethany, too. And I think she’s going to be okay because of it.
As long as she can get over her crush on Banks …
“Gloria wanted me to ask you all to come to the charity auction next weekend,” Banks says. “She gave me a poster to help tempt you to come, but Sara pinned it to the bedroom wall.”
I laugh.
“In which house?” Moss asks, winking at me.
Banks pouts. “Very funny.”
“It’s next Saturday?” Damaris asks, rinsing a bowl. “Honey was reminding me again this morning. I don’t know what she and Gloria will do when this auction is over. They’re obsessed with it.”
Banks smirks. “Did you see the fliers? Very obsess-able.”
“I did see them,” Damaris says. “The rose was a good touch.”
“Who’s going to get in on the action?” Banks asks.
Moss and Maddox mumble their confirmations. Jess says a solid maybe, which means he will. Foxx sits stoically with no response.
“Are you going, Foxx?” Banks asks him.
He shrugs.
“Come on, you have to come. It’s going to be great,” Banks says.
Foxx sighs. “Probably.”
Banks’s face lights up in a way that worries me. I look at Brooke, and she nods.
“When he uses that tone, he’s up to something. Probably something that will cause a lot of drama around here.”
Shit.
“Hey, Sara. Are you going with us to the vineyard Thursday night? There’s a wine tasting and painting thing,” Pippa says. “Brooke and I are going.”
“Is Ashley?” I ask.
“No. She’s helping Honey with the event.” Pippa laughs. “That thing is taking over everyone’s life.”
“You know, this is the first Sunday dinner in a long time that Jess and Banks haven’t wanted to throttle each other over a prank,” Maddox says.
“Yeah, that’s true.” Moss nods approvingly. “What gives?”
Banks stares at Jess. “Two things. One, he loves the chickens.”
“I do. I do,” Jess says, shrugging.
“And two …” Banks smirks. “I won the race, and Jess can’t hack it.”
Jess shoots to his feet, hands on the table, lobbying for a second race. The two of them go back and forth while the rest of us watch, amused.
“Damaris, do you need any help?” I ask.
“Do you want to stir the tea? We’re about ready to eat.”
I smile. “Sure.”
Every time the family is all together, I’m taken back to the day Banks came to my house to save my rental deposit. I was convinced I was out of good luck and my life was on a downward spiral.
And maybe it was.
But when the universe is ready to show you the path you should be on, it doesn’t care if you’re spiraling or soaring—and that’s what I failed to understand. I always counted myself out because I wasn’t stable. I held myself back because I thought that if I deserved things, they wouldn’t be so hard to attain.
But that’s not true.
If I’ve learned anything, it’s that you have to be willing to receive the blessings coming your way. You have to be willing to receive love, be open to goodness, be willing to take a chance on something, or someone, that seems all wrong.
Take a corner that ends up being the right one after all.
I look up and catch Banks’s eye. He gives me the shy smile that’s just for me.
I took a chance and got a whole wild, amazing, loving family. And soon Banks and I will start our own little branch.
As if he knows what I’m thinking, Banks’s eyes blaze.
I don’t have all the answers to my problems or the solutions to the things that still plague me sometimes. I don’t know when I’ll move in with Banks, when we’ll get married, or when we’ll have our first baby.
But I know enough to trust in the process.
How could I not?
It led me here.
Banks winks at me.
To him.
And, in many ways, to me too.
I’m learning. Some days, I must remind myself that it’s okay to accept love and feel worthy of it. To watch for the moments that others show me, in their own ways, that I’m important to them.
Sometimes, it’s easy to fall back into old habits, and I start building walls, telling jokes—deflecting.
On those days, Damaris is here to remind me.
And every day, with every kiss, every hug, every affirming word—every suggestion that we buy chickens until we have babies, Banks helps me love myself a little more too. I love him so damn much.
We’re going to soar.