by Alina Jacobs
“Are you and Hunter married?” Annie asked from the back seat as I drove ten miles an hour, hands nervously clenched on the wheel.
“No,” I said.
“Are you married to someone else?” she asked.
“No.” I blew out a breath.
“But you’re old!” she and her sisters shrieked.
Good lord.
“Your car smells weird.”
“It’s doing the best that it can,” I said.
The girls kept up a steady stream of chatter as I drove them to the estate.
“What’s Hunter like?” Enola asked me quietly.
“You’ve never met him?” I glanced over at her. She shook her head.
“He’s…” I thought about it.
“He’s kind and witty and so smart. He wears very sharp suits and can run circles around anyone in the courtroom. He also knows how to ride a horse and build a barn. He’s strong and fearless and, yeah, he’s kind of a jerk, but then he’ll still have an hour-long conversation with one of the townspeople and be very polite about it. He’s generous with his money, even if it’s not necessarily for all the right reasons. He cares about you and your brothers more than anything in the world,” I said, starting to get a little choked up. “He’s a good man, and once you get to know him, you’ll love him as much as I do.”
“Are you going to get married?” Annie shrieked from behind me, making me jump.
I felt sad. “I have to take care of my own sisters.”
“You need to have a big wedding with lots of flowers,” she insisted, twisting in her seat in excitement.
I pulled up to the gate in front of the Svenssons’ house at the old Harrogate estate. I hesitated for a moment then pushed the intercom button.
The video screen flickered. There was commotion in the background, and I heard someone yelling.
“We’re not naming the alligator after you, Archer.”
The top half of a small blond head appeared on the screen, breathing heavily.
“Davy? It’s Meg.”
“Hi!” He jumped up and down then sneezed all over the camera.
Enola was horrified.
“Can you let me in, please?” I asked.
The gates opened.
“We have to live here?” Enola asked, clutching her bag.
“This is a very nice house,” I assured her.
“Are they all sick?”
“Do they have diphtheria?” Annie screeched from the back seat.
Enola took out a handkerchief and pressed it over her face. “I’m not getting sick!”
Ah, tween girls!
They trooped behind me out of the car. We climbed the wide stone steps leading up to the ornate wooden door. I rang the doorbell, and there was commotion on the other side.
The door swung open.
“What did I tell you about letting random people in?” Hunter scolded from the background as he pushed his way through the crowd of brothers who had gathered in the doorway.
“Meg.” His eyes narrowed when he saw me. “I told you…”
“Yes, I know,” I said in a rush, “but I found something of yours wandering on the side of the road.”
“Was it Isaac?” Archer called. “He’s been acting kind of off lately.”
“Come on, girls,” I said.
Hunter froze, eyes wide as I shooed his little sisters inside. He gazed at them adoringly.
“Hey,” he said softly, bending down. The littlest ones clung to Enola.
“I’m Hunter,” he said, voice rough, eyes misty. “I’ve been looking everywhere for you. I’m so glad you’re here. Can you tell me your names?”
They blinked at him but didn’t say a word.
“Go on,” I said to the girls. “Hunter’s nice. Usually. I told you, he and I are friends.”
One by one, I introduced them to Hunter, and they gave him shy smiles and waved at the rest of their brothers.
“And this,” I said, patting the oldest girl on the shoulder, “is Enola.”
Enola took her kerchief off her face. She looked up at Hunter, her jaw set. She narrowed her eyes, curled her lip, and said, “This house is filthy.”
I sucked in a breath. And on that note… “I need to go check on my sisters,” I said. Hunter looked at me, wide eyes, as Enola started barking at her brothers to fetch mops, dust rags, and buckets.
“Meg, wait!”
“Have fun!” I called over my shoulder and slipped away so I wouldn’t have to hear him tell me again that he didn’t want anything to do with me.
80
Hunter
I wanted to run after Meg, but Enola was a bomb that had gone off in the household.
“There’s dust everywhere!” she shrieked as she bullied my brothers like a corgi, barking out orders. “The windows are covered in crud, and there are crumbs in the carpet.”
“We just had dinner,” Archer explained, hopping out of the way of one of our youngest sisters.
“Crumbs! We’re going to get ants!”
Davy climbed on top of a table to escape her.
“Get down from there this instant, Davy,” Enola hissed.
“I don’t like this!” he wailed.
One of my sisters raced by and handed me a broom then raced off to start dusting.
“There will be order in this household,” Enola announced over the din.
“You have to admit, the house has never been cleaner,” Mace said, very early the next morning. After hours of frantic scrubbing, Enola had deemed the house “clean enough” then forced all my younger brothers to bathe, checked them, then told them to bathe again.
“You could eat off these floors.”
“This is not going to work,” Garrett said to me in a low voice. “They cannot stay here.”
“This is what we’ve been working toward for years,” I reminded him. “One big happy family.”
Enola stormed into the dining room.
“Aren’t you supposed to be in bed?” I asked gently.
She glared at me. “Aren’t you?”
“No? I’m an adult.”
She peered at me. “Your ears are dirty. Honestly, I don’t know what Meg sees in you.”
I peered at my reflection in a highly polished mirror. “I think I know how to bathe.”
“Clearly not.”
“I am in charge here,” I reminded her. My tone would have had my brothers cowering. But not Enola.
“Are you?” Her voice dripped with derision, then she turned and headed to the kitchen.
“What are you doing?” I asked, running after her. “It’s five in the morning. Aren’t you tired?”
“It is well to be up before daybreak, for such habits contribute to health, wealth, and wisdom,” she quoted.
“Yes, but you didn’t even sleep,” I said as she washed her hands.
“Someone has to start breakfast.”
“I have breakfast duty today,” I told her delicately. I tried to take the frying pan out of her hands and got rapped on the knuckles for my trouble.
“Get out of my kitchen.”
An hour and a half later, when Enola went to rouse my brothers out of bed, there was a huge breakfast spread ready.
“I want pancakes,” Davy complained.
“This is all healthy food,” Enola told him.
“Is this tree bark cereal?” Nate made a face.
“It’s homemade granola,” Enola said. “With no sugar.”
“I’m going to Minnie’s to eat,” Isaac said, pushing back his chair.
“Don’t go over there bothering them,” I warned.
The doorbell rang right as I chased Isaac to the front door. Meg was standing there with several huge bags.
“Which one of my brothers let you in?” I asked, sounding more snappish than I intended.
“One of the small blond ones,” she deadpanned. “I brought clothes for the girls; they’re Minnie’s and Rose’s old things. I figured you didn’t have any.” She so
unded wary.
I didn’t know whether to apologize or grovel. I shouldn’t have been so harsh to her, especially since she had found my sisters and gotten my father arrested. “Meg…” I ran a hand through my hair.
She looked at the floor sadly. “I get it, Hunter. I screwed up. You have every right to hate me.”
I reached for her. “Meg, I…”
“Come back here!” Annie hollered at Henry, who was racing through the house, carrying a piece of toast smeared with Nutella.
“We just cleaned; you can’t spread crumbs everywhere!”
Henry tripped and went Nutella-face-first onto the carpet. Annie screwed up her face and started berating him.
“Sounds like you have your hands full.”
The rest of my brothers ran into the foyer, and the boys and the girls started screaming at one another.
“You’re animals!” Enola insisted. “Uncivilized.”
“You’re insane,” Nate said, waving his arms dramatically. “This is crazy! Cleaning in the middle of the night—you’re worse than Hunter!”
Arlo looked around in shock at my older brothers. “I can’t live like this!” He wrung his hands.
“I want a breakfast burrito,” Davy wailed.
“Heathens!” Enola exclaimed
“You’re unhinged!” Bruno thundered.
“Don’t insult my sister!” one of the littler girls yelled, tackling him. She was a fourth his size and clung to him like a raccoon.
Bruno looked at me helplessly.
I started to disentangle the little girl, who had a mouthful of his shirt. Then the three toddler triplets and the two toddler girls squared off and started brawling on the floor.
“Holy smokes!” I tried to break up the tussle and was bit on the hand for my troubles.
Meg stuck two fingers in her mouth and let out a piercing whistle over the din. The kids all froze.
“You know what?” Meg said brightly to the girls. “My sister owns a café, and she bakes very pretty desserts. She’s absolutely slammed right now, and I’m a bad cook, but I bet you all are great! She would love for you to come over and help her bake. Wouldn’t you like that? Then we can leave the boys to wallow in their own filth and bad decisions.”
Enola was suspicious.
“We have all sorts of kitchen gadgets,” Meg bribed.
“Do you have a stand mixer?” Annie asked, eyes sparkling.
“I do,” Meg told her, “and it’s pink!”
“Okay!” She glared at her brothers. “We’ll leave the boys and help you bake. Right, Enola?”
“Fine,” she said. “I’ll help.” She turned to the boys. “This house better be spotless when I return.”
My brothers all clamored around me when the girls were gone.
“Absolutely not, absolutely not!” Nate said. “They cannot stay here.”
“They’re family,” I reminded them. “Where else can they stay?”
“They could stay with Meg,” Calvin suggested.
“I want to go over there and see Minnie,” Isaac complained. “But I can’t if Enola has it under lockdown.”
“They’re gone?” Crawford asked, walking into the foyer.
“All of you are terrible.”
Crawford shrugged. “I’m not living with them. I just wanted to rescue them, not get bossed around by a bunch of little girls.”
The toddlers were licking the Nutella off the carpet.
“Maybe the girls do have a point,” Mace said, jerking his chin in their direction.
“What am I supposed to do with our sisters?” I asked.
Garrett smirked. “I think it’s time Greg started pulling his weight.”
81
Meghan
“Oh my god, they are so cute!” Kate squealed when I showed up at the Gray Dove Bistro. It seemed like the whole town was there. Ida was handing out cookies with Vote for Meg on them.
“How did you like meeting your brothers?” Kate asked the Svensson sisters.
“They’re messy,” Annie said, screwing up her face.
“And loud,” her sister added.
“Are you going to be my little helpers today?” Hazel asked, as she and my sisters led the Svensson girls away. “Let me show you what we’re working on!”
Ida immediately commandeered my attention. “Meg, we need to talk about my medal.”
Good lord. I put on my politely interested face.
“I have the perfect thing for you to give me a medal for,” she boasted. “I have solved the compost problem!”
“It can’t go in the middle of town,” I warned her.
“I know,” she said, waving away my concerns. “Remember the guy I was telling you about?”
“It’s not the denture one, is it?” I winced.
“Yep! Told him he owed me. He said we can put the compost pile on some of his spare land. People can go out there and drop off their eggshells and coffee grounds. I’ve got the composting committee developing guidelines, and I got a whole pack of goats from Ernest.” She held out her arms proudly. “Doesn’t that warrant a medal?”
“I mean, sure,” I said, because at this point, what did it matter? “Assuming I’m officially the mayor in a few days, you can have a medal, Ida.”
“Yes!” She pumped a fist in the air.
“If I win,” I reminded her.
“You’ll win!” she said confidently. “I’ve been campaigning hard for you. Nothing beats free food!”
I went back to the kitchen. The Svensson sisters were hard at work, making more Vote for Meg cookies.
“Are they staying?” Hazel asked. “Because they’re little machines.”
“Are they living with us?” Rose asked me.
“I don’t know where they’re staying,” I said.
“Surely the Svenssons have enough room at their huge house,” Kate remarked.
I threw up my hands. “I have bigger problems. We don’t have anywhere to live,” I reminded Hazel.
“I want to stay with you,” Enola pleaded. “I don’t want to go back to that house. It’s a zoo. Can’t you tell Hunter to let us stay here? We can work in Hazel’s shop.”
“They are the cutest cookie makers ever!” Kate said as she took a video of the girls. “This is going on your campaign Instagram account,” she cooed. “It’s so adorable!”
“They almost have all the cookies frosted,” Hazel said in amazement. “I thought it was going to take all afternoon!”
“See?” Enola insisted. “We can be useful.”
“This was a special event,” I explained gently. “I don’t know if we really need a cookie assembly line that makes thousands of cookies an hour.”
“I know Chloe needs it in Manhattan, though,” Hazel joked. “Since I’m a Grey Dove Bistro franchise owner, whenever I go with Archer into Manhattan, she’s constantly trying to rope me into coming to decorate cookies for her.”
“I want to live in Manhattan!” Annie exclaimed, eyes dancing. “We can see a play and go shopping and live in a tower made out of glass! We’ll come back for yours and Hunter’s wedding, though.” She patted my arm.
“I don’t know about that,” I said. “Hunter wasn’t all that happy to see me earlier.”
“Speaking of the devilishly handsome billionaire,” Kate said, pointing at the window.
A SUV had pulled up in front of the café, and Hunter stepped out.
82
Hunter
My sisters and Meg watched me warily as Crawford and I walked into the café.
“Vote for Meg!” Ida called out, handing me a cookie in a little baggie.
“Oh wait, never mind.” Ida snatched the cookie out of my hand and handed it to Crawford. “Hello, handsome stranger!”
Crawford looked at the tiny old woman over his sunglasses. “Ma’am.” All the women in the café swooned.
Crawford smirked.
“Control yourself.” I scowled.
His grin grew wider as we made our way to
the open kitchen area, where my sisters were furiously baking.
“Hey,” I said, feeling uncharacteristically awkward. After years of dealing solely with my brothers, I didn’t have any idea how to relate to my little sisters.
“Do we have to go back already?” Enola asked apprehensively.
“Only if you want to,” I replied.
“We have a proposition for you,” Crawford stated, taking off his sunglasses. “You could stay here with these small-town heathens, or you could move to Manhattan and live with Greg!”
“Manhattan?” Annie shrieked. “Can we go see a Broadway play?”
“You can do all of that and more,” Crawford assured them. “Shopping, nice restaurants, unlimited credit cards, custom interior decorating—all courtesy of Greg. You’ll live in a swanky condo! You can have a balcony!”
“No farm animals,” I added.
“When can we go?” Enola asked excitedly. “We just have to finish these cookies first. Is that okay?”
“I have the car waiting for whenever you’re ready,” Crawford assured them.
“But,” I added, “I don’t want you to think I’m kicking you out. I love you all, and you’re more than welcome to stay here.”
“Absolutely not,” Enola replied.
“But you’ll come for Christmas and holidays, right?” Meg asked excitedly. “You have to come to the Christmas market and the tree trimming.”
“And your wedding!” Annie added happily.
I gave Meg a chagrined look.
“About that wedding…” Crawford drawled.
I gestured Meg outside. Word had gotten around about the free cookies, and there was a line down Main Street.
“Meg,” I said, wanting to take her in my arms but wondering if she wasn’t going to like that. Not to mention, the townspeople in line were obviously gawking, phones ready.
“You want to go somewhere more private?” I asked her.
“Sure. There’s a small park next block over.”
We walked in silence. The sun was high overhead, and the air smelled like flowers. I tried to plan out what I was going to say.
“Meg.” I turned to her when we were alone.