Page 177 of You Found Me
Della giggled. “We really should move. There’s an embarrassingly large display of sunflowers headed this way.”
Ward pulled her to the side to give Piper enough room to get by. “They could just leave them on the porch.”
Della shook her head. “Don’t be silly. They’ll last twice as long inside.”
Lizzie paused in front of them with two vases of sunflowers braced against her belly. “You should both get off your feet, you just got out of the hospital. Della, be careful of that ankle as you go up that last step, sweetie.”
Ward pulled Della up the last step and into the house. “She’s right. You should sit down.”
“My ankle isn’t that bad. I’ve had worse on tour.” She took one of the vases from Lizzie. “I want this one with me.”
Renic appeared behind Lizzie, arms full of flowers. “They aren’t the only ones who should get off their feet.”
Lizzie wrinkled her nose at him. “I’m pregnant, not disabled,” she said before she sailed into the living room with the vases she carried.
“We don’t have to unload them all in one trip,” Mattie said. “We could take two or three trips.”
“No, we can’t,” Adam said. “The faster we get this done, the faster we can jam it out with that sweet new guitar I’ve been hearing about.”
Mason almost dropped his vases as he followed them through the door. “You serious?”
“Almost never,” Adam teased. “But in this case, hell yeah.”
They headed for the kitchen, talking excitedly about the make, model, and potential of Ward’s birthday present to Mason.
Ward watched them go, concern starting to gnaw at him. “That can’t be good.”
Della leaned into him and sighed. “Thanks for the flowers. I love them. I especially love the card. ‘Always’ sounds really, really nice.”
He liked the way the sunflowers made Della smile, but he really wished their well-meaning visitors would find somewhere else to go.
“It’s too crowded in here,” he muttered.
“Oh, it’s not that bad.” Della patted his arm. “You should see the inn at Christmas.”
Elyse appeared at the doorway. “Donovan, how many people do you think we have here? I count thirteen, but I don’t know how many security people are in the yard. They’ve all blended in with the trees. I don’t think I made enough casserole.”
Ward saw the plan spinning behind his stepmother’s eyes with growing horror. She was ready to host a potluck. The kind that lasted for hours. “We don’t have to feed the whole neighborhood.”
“Don’t worry about that, Elyse,” Lizzie said. She rubbed her belly absentmindedly. “We’ll send Adam and Blake out for pizza or something.”
“Oh hell no,” Ward said at the same time Dad said, “Oh no you won’t.”
The last thing they needed was those two showing their faces at the town square. Thank God Dad saw the lunacy in that idea too.
“You’ve all had enough takeout,” Dad cut in as he set a vase of sunflowers on the hallway entry table. “We’ll cobble together a barbecue. This house has a great setup out back. That yard was made for entertaining.”
Ward watched the horde coming and going with increasing frustration. “Parties just pop up around you, wherever you go, don’t they. Like a circus.”
Della giggled. “Why do you hate parties so much?”
“Today?” he growled. He was tired, his leg hurt, and he wanted to be alone with her.
“I love a cookout,” Adam said as he strolled by with more flowers. “We should get a bonfire going.”
“Do you think they’d notice if we sneak out?” Della whispered.
The look in her eyes was warm and inviting and filled with all kinds of promises he intended to investigate. They needed to be alone. Now. “This is our house. We aren’t the ones who need to leave.”