“And I was convinced Mom was going to have yet another boy,” Flynn said.
“I think by that point we were all certain it was going to be a boy,” Grant said, then he looked over at Mia. “And then you showed up and ruined everything.”
Mia laughed. “No, I finally gave Mom and Dad what they really wanted after those first four wasted efforts.” She beamed a smile.
Amelia laughed. “Quite the handful, this family.”
“Oh, Amelia, you have no idea.” Lydia shot a wry smile over at Amelia. “But every one of these kids has been worth it. We’ve had such an amazing, happy life.”
To hear his mother say that meant everything to Flynn. He loved his parents, and he knew the sacrifices they had made—especially his mom—to raise five children. Sure, his dad had made a good living as a quarterback, and his mother had done exceptionally well as an attorney. But when they decided to buy the ranch, his mother had given up her career, choosing to dedicate her time to raising all of them.
“Mom, I don’t know that I ever told you how much I appreciate you sacrificing your career to raise us,” Flynn said.
His mother cocked her head to the side. “It was never a sacrifice, Flynn. It was a choice. I didn’t give up a thing.”
“Well, thank you. Because we all benefitted from it.”
She got up and came around the table, put her arms around Flynn and kissed his cheek. “Thank you. That means a lot.”
“Oh sure, say the nice thing,” Tucker said. “Now we’re all going to have to hug her.”
“Yeah, and the next thing you know there’ll be a group hug,” Barrett said.
Mia grimaced. “Not the Cassidy family group hug. I hate those.”
His mother laughed. “All of you finish your breakfasts. We can group hug later.”
“Thank God for that,” Mia said. “Because I’m shorter than all of you and I always get stuck in the middle of those group hugs. It’s like being squashed by bears.”
The more time she spent with the Cassidys, the more Amelia wished she had grown up with siblings. Of course, her mother had barely known what to do with her, let alone more than one child. Career had been everything to her mother. She’d had little interest in raising a daughter. If Amelia hadn’t had her father around, she wouldn’t have had much parenting at all. Or any love.
Her father’s death had left a giant hole on the parenting front. Being here was filling a well Amelia hadn’t realized had felt so empty for the past ten years since her father had died. And she intended to let that well fill with love and laughter for as long as she was here.
She was also filling the well of her stomach, and she was afraid her clothes weren’t going to fit by the time she left. It was a good thing they were only here for a couple of days. If she ate like this all the time, she’d have to get up in the mornings and start running with Flynn, and she wasn’t a runner.
Once breakfast was finished, they all took their plates into the kitchen and the guys did cleanup. She couldn’t quite get used to seeing that, but she had to admit she enjoyed watching Flynn, his brothers, his dad and his uncles do dishes and clean the kitchen. She made a mental note to train her sons—if she had any—early on how to clean a kitchen and do dishes. It was such an admirable trait.
“It is fun to watch them, isn’t it?” Aubry asked as she came up beside Amelia.
“It’s something you don’t see every day. Something I don’t see every day, anyway.”
“Oh, come on,” Mia said as she came up to lean against the counter on Amelia’s other side. “You’re a head chef. Surely you employ male staff who do dishes.”
“That’s different. In my personal world, this is unique. I’ve dated men—hell, I married one—who never once stepped foot in a kitchen, either to cook or to do the cleanup.”
Mia slanted a look of surprise at her. “Really?”
“Yes. I guess some men are still married to traditional gender roles.”
“I guess so.”
“Those men aren’t in this kitchen, obviously,” Harmony said. “And I for one am so grateful for that. Barrett is more than willing to wash dishes, do laundry and cook a meal.”
Aubry nodded. “My schedule is always so whacked out that it’s not like I’m home at five o’clock every night. And I don’t have to worry about him starving, because Tucker knows how to fix a meal for himself. And often I’ll come home after working a hellishly long shift at the hospital and he’ll have fixed something and left it in the fridge for me to warm up.”
“Aww, that’s so sweet,” Amelia said.
“It really is.”
“It makes me appreciate Flynn so much more because he does spend a lot of time not only in his kitchen, but also never has a problem mixing it up in mine, including the cleanup part.”
Aubry smiled. “That’s great.”
“If you all are going to continue to wax poetic about my brothers, I’m going to lose my breakfast,” Mia said. “Knock it off.”
Amelia laughed. “Sorry.”
“They are kind of atypical,” Harmony said.
“More like ass-holical,” Mia said. “But that’s my perspective because I grew up with them. I’ve seen them crack jokes about buttholes and B.O. and seen them shove things up their noses that you do not want to know about.”