Total pages in book: 140
Estimated words: 137144 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 686(@200wpm)___ 549(@250wpm)___ 457(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 137144 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 686(@200wpm)___ 549(@250wpm)___ 457(@300wpm)
“Yep, Sunday is the day that we all go for lunch at the big house. Alec and Mia always host Sunday lunch for the entire family.”
“Oh, that’s a nice thing for them to do. Well, that’s okay. I can just putter around here and find my own lunch. Are you leaving now?”
“No, you won’t putter around and find something for lunch. You’re coming with us. Come on, we’re leaving in forty.”
“I really don’t have to go. I mean, I’m not family,” she protested.
“You’re my family,” Clem told her. “That means you’re welcome there.”
This was a bad idea.
Lily was completely overwhelmed. There were so many people. This was nothing like Sunday lunch at her house growing up, which had been a quiet and cold, formal affair.
This was raucous and loud. People were talking over each other. They were passing food to each other. Across from her, one of Jaret’s brothers stole a dinner roll off another brother’s plate. She wasn’t sure why, since there was a large plate of rolls in the middle of the table.
The other brother turned and caught him. Then, grabbing his fork, he tried to stab him in the hand with it. She gasped and nearly slid under the table in surprise.
“You two, behave yourselves,” Alec said, pointing at them both. “You’re going to scare Lily.”
Suddenly, everyone turned to stare at her, and they all grew quiet.
Everyone except Clem, who kept eating. “Lily’s not scared. She knows I’ll protect her from any dinner roll thieves.”
Lamb Chop let out a baa from outside as though he was backing Clem up. The window was open, and he was peering in.
“See, Lamb Chop’s ready to defend her too. He knows we don’t put up with no dinner roll thieves.” Clem pointed her fork at the thief in question, who just smiled back at her angelically.
The gorgeous woman next to him rolled her eyes. “Beau, stop stealing Butch’s dinner roll.”
“Everyone knows that dinner rolls taste better when you steal them from someone else’s plate,” Beau stated.
They did?
“But don’t worry, Lily, I won’t steal yours.” Beau stared down at her plate. “You’d actually have to have something on your plate in order for it to be stolen.”
And now everybody was staring at her empty plate. It wasn’t that the food didn’t look amazing, and she was kind of hungry, but it had been sort of a free-for-all, and she hadn’t known exactly what she was supposed to do. So she just sat there and watched in amazement, waiting for her turn, which had never really come.
“Jaret,” Alec said in a warning tone.
“On it,” Jaret replied.
Jaret picked up her plate and put a dinner roll on it, as well as some meat. Then he passed it to the person next to him. Suddenly, her plate was going around the table, and several of the Malone men placed food on it.
By the time the plate was back in front of her, it was bulging with food, and she knew there was no way she could eat it all.
But she simply smiled at everyone and nodded her thanks. Then, when they all returned to talking and eating, she leaned closer to Clem to whisper, “I can’t eat all of this.”
Clem shrugged. “Just do what you can.”
“But it’s a terrible waste of food, isn’t it? Will people be upset with me if I don’t eat everything? Is it not an insult to whoever cooked all of this?”
Clem looked at her, then turned to the woman sitting next to Alec. “Hey Mia, you going to be insulted if Lily can’t eat that whole plate of food?”
Oh my God, her sister didn’t just do that. But she had, and now Mia was glancing over at her. Then she grinned. “Lily, if you can eat that whole plate of food, I’ll die of shock.”
“No dying,” Alec warned.
“Fine, I won’t die, but I’ll do a naked dance on the dining table.”
His glare turned even more fiery. “No naked dancing, unless it’s just for me.”
“Ew, but not on the dining table, okay?” Beau said. “Save that stuff for the bedroom, will you?”
“My house, my rules,” Alec said. “Mia wants to dance naked on the table for my eyes only. She gets to do that.”
“Oh my God, how did this turn into a thing?” Mia placed her hands over her cheeks. “There are children in the room, you know?”
“Yes, someone cover Beau’s ears,” Jaret drawled.
“You’re just jealous because I still know how to have fun. You’re turning into West.” Beau pointed at Jaret with his fork
“Hey, there are worse things than turning into West,” one of the women said.
“Is there?” Beau drawled. “Is there?”
Suddenly, there was a debate over whether everybody would want to be West or not. The man, who she assumed was West, was the only one not participating, along with Alec. They were both sitting there and eating calmly, as if this was something that happened every day.