A Vine Mess (Love on the Vine #4)

5. Ella

Poor Liam looked like a deer caught in the headlights of an oncoming semi, and I shot him an apologetic smile as he struggled to navigate the turn the evening had taken.

“I can’t believe you guys still do this,” Mom said, obviously pouting.

“Do what?” I asked innocently.

“Gang up on us.”

Next to her, Dad snorted, and I fought back a grin at the death glare Mom leveled him with. “Oh, you think that’s funny, do you?”

“I mean…yeah,” Dad said. “Or are you forgetting that you gave me five children and not a single one of them is a son?”

My mother rolled her eyes in a gesture so like Delia, the chuckle I’d been choking down burst free. All heads in the room snapped to me, but I sobered quickly as I took in my sisters while Mom and Dad had a murmured argument.

“Excuse you,” I said, glancing between Chloe and Amara. “ Where are my nieces?”

As if on cue, Calvin and Logan waltzed into the room, each with a baby bundled against their chests. Owen and Ezra followed closely behind, moving to stand next to Delia and Brie respectively. Cal paused in front of me long enough to hand off baby Cora while Logan beelined for Mom, who made grabby hands at Aleah.

“Hello, my beautiful girl,” I cooed at Cora.

At barely a month old, she was the most alert I’d ever seen her, with her eyes wide open. She was so damn precious it nearly took my breath away.

Was I ready for kids myself? No. But with Chloe and Amara bringing these new additions to the family, and because Brie had one on the way, I could admit I was experiencing a bit of baby fever.

“Now that everyone is sufficiently calmed down with a baby in their arms,” Dad said, “will someone tell me what the fuck you’re talking about when you say ‘road trip buddy’?”

I shrugged. “Exactly what it sounds like. I’m going out west with Liam.”

“Over my dead body.”

“That can be arranged,” Delia said sweetly, and Dad made a low, menacing growling sound deep in his throat.

Of all my sisters, Delia was the one who most loved poking the bear, so to speak. Recognizing this about her, Owen, her boyfriend, bent and whispered something in her ear. Delia relaxed a fraction and nodded, smiling up at him. Happier than I’d ever seen her.

The same could be said for all of my sisters, and a stab of hurt panged in my chest. I’d had that—someone to share my life with. It may not have been perfect, and, okay, it definitely would’ve ended sooner rather than later, Alfie’s infidelity notwithstanding, but I missed having someone by my side for moments like this.

I was grateful Liam had at least agreed to come with me, even knowing he’d be facing my father. Liam and I were friends, so it wasn’t exactly the same, but I appreciated his presence nonetheless.

Dad pointed a finger at Delia. “Watch it, missy.”

Delia simply stuck her tongue out, and Dad reclined on the couch, lifting his hands to grip his salt-and-pepper hair at the temples.

“These girls were raised by wolves,” he grumbled.

“You love us,” I quipped.

“Most days,” he said, though his grin told me he was all bluster. That man would do anything for any of us, and we knew it. “Now let’s circle back to the matter at hand. You’re going on a road trip with Liam?”

I nodded emphatically. “I sort of invited myself, but he was gracious enough to allow it.”

I shot Liam a wink, who returned it before sobering his expression and facing my parents.

“I know you’re not exactly thrilled about this idea,” he said, taking the words right out of my mouth, “but I promise I’ll take good care of her. And while it’s not my place to insert myself in what is clearly family business”—he pointedly looked around at the crowd of my sisters and their significant others—“I’ve spent considerable time with Ella over the last few months. I’ve watched her struggle when she thinks no one is watching. And if she says she needs this, then I’m inclined to give it to her.”

No one in my family had dared to voice that thought before, that I wasn’t doing as well in the wake of my breakup as I liked to pretend. While this intervention wasn’t exactly my idea of a good time, it also wasn’t entirely unwarranted. So for this man—who wasn’t related to me and really had no personal stake in my welfare—to have been paying that close attention…it sparked something under my skin. Something long slumbering. Some intrinsic part of me I’d forgotten I’d been missing.

“She’s not going with you,” my dad said. “End of story.”

Around me, my sisters’ groans drowned out the sound of my own. “In case you forgot, Dad, I’m twenty-six years old. I’m fully capable of making my own decisions, and this is one I’m not backing down on.”

One of my sisters cupped a hand around my shoulder and gave me a reassuring squeeze. With the contact, the reminder that they were behind me, I sat up straighter, steeling my spine, readying for what came next.

My parents shared a look, silently communicating in that way they always had. After nearly thirty-five years together, I supposed it made a lot of sense that they’d developed their own secret language. When I was younger, it used to freak me out.

Now, though? Now, it made me jealous.

At last, Dad looked straight at Liam and said, “You protect her with your life. If you don’t, yours is over. Understood?”

Liam didn’t balk, didn’t even flinch. He only nodded. “Consider it done.”

During dinner, everyone studiously avoided the topic of my impending departure, focusing instead on the babies who were growing like weeds and the apples of everyone’s eyes.

I was terribly exhausted by the time the whole production was over, after I’d walked Liam to the door and seen him off.

When all the men left, my sisters and I convened in the den for a nightcap. Since opening the distillery with her boyfriend, Delia had been working on improving her bartending skills. She typically had a heavy hand with the liquor, but I had to admit, the old-fashioned she concocted was perfectly balanced. I snuggled into the oversized sectional, a fleece blanket draped over my lap and my sisters spread out around me.

Not one for beating around the bush, with an eyebrow wiggle, Delia said, “So you and Liam, huh?”

I threw a pillow at her.

“It’s a fair question,” Chloe pointed out. Logan and Cal had taken the girls home so Chloe and Amara could have sister time, and truthfully, I was grateful.

With them starting their own families outside of the people in this room, sometimes I felt a little left behind. And it wasn’t through any fault of their own. I was ecstatic for each of them, that they’d all managed to find their person.

I simply wanted to find mine too.

“There’s nothing going on there,” I said, though the words tasted like a lie. Maybe, deep down, I wanted to be wrong. “We’re just friends. ”

Brie snorted. “Yeah, you sure looked like it.”

I whirled on her. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

“Him coming to your defense like that with Dad? Hell, him coming with you to the house at all? That’s not friendly behavior. Trust me, I would know.”

And she would. She and Ezra had tried the “just friends” thing…and it landed them engaged with a baby on the way.

But our situations couldn’t have been more different. Before I could open my mouth to protest, to say exactly that, Amara chimed in.

“You know that man has been half in love with you since he met you, right?”

“Please,” I said, rolling my eyes, though the shiver of a thrill raced down my spine. “How could you possibly know that? The man doesn’t speak.”

“He speaks to you,” Chloe said.

Yeah, I didn’t want to examine too closely why that was. I had given three years to a man—no, boy —who had done nothing but string me along and get my hopes up only to repeatedly dash them. I wasn’t about to make the same mistake again.

“We work together,” Amara reminded me in answer to my question. “And…I can just tell.”

Delia snorted. “One workplace romance under your belt and suddenly you’re an expert?”

“That’s a little pot-calling-the-kettle-black, don’t you think?” my second eldest sister countered.

As the two got swept up in an argument, I tuned them out, turning my attention inward.

Over the course of the last few months, Liam had been there for me in ways I’d never seen him be for anyone else. And I had been watching. His presence in any room, in any space, was magnetic. He was so goddamn hard to look away from.

But maybe I hadn’t been looking close enough.

Maybe…Amara had a point.

Maybe…Liam really did feel something for me beyond some sort of white knight complex.

And maybe, just maybe…this road trip would be my chance to figure it out.