Let It Be Me (Triplets book 1)

Chapter 24

Sawyer gave her a tender smile as he pulled her close. "We missed you so much, Phee. Don't ever do that again," he said before dropping a kiss on her forehead.

"Ophelia's here, Sullivan," Reyna told him as he entered from the door behind her.

"I see that Momma, thank you," he said as he welcomed Ophelia by dropping a light kiss on her cheek. Ophelia's heart skipped a beat at his nearness. He had showered and changed from when she had seen him earlier, and he looked handsome in his dress shirt and slacks.

"Oh, I am so sorry, Melanie!" Reyna turned to the woman who had answered the door. "Ophelia, this is Melanie, Melanie, this is our Ophelia." Reyna pulled on her right ear, letting Ophelia know that Melanie wasn't trusted.

Melanie nodded at Ophelia, then said something about checking dinner before leaving and closing the door behind her. "Don't worry about her, Phee. She has a thing for Sullen Sully." Sawyer said, moving to pour himself a drink.

"Sullen Sully?" Ophelia asked. That was a new one.

"Yes, since you left, he's been all sulky and gloomy." Sawyer held up his glass, offering Ophelia a drink.

Ophelia shook her head. She didn't want to drink. She wanted to remember every detail of her time spent with them.

"Are you going to offer me one?" Sullivan asked from where he was leaning against the wall by the door.

"Do you want one?" Sawyer asked with an attitude.

"No, thank you. You'd probably spit in it." Sullivan sounded amused.

"That's alright. The alcohol will kill all the germs." Sawyer insisted.

"It's not the germs. It's the point," Sullivan said as he eyed his brother.

"I love your hair like this!" Shay exclaimed as she reached up to tug at a strand. "It's beautiful."

"Thank you," Ophelia said as she allowed Shay to pull her to the couch. "Why is Pops randomly jumping out at people and laughing like that?"

"He's going to break poor Melanie. He's playing a psych patient." Reyna informed Ophelia with a long-suffering sigh. "You missed the clown with the rabbit that was always getting loose and the spitting flower."

"And don't forget the veterinarian. The house was full of animals for months. Polly was not happy." Sullivan added.

"Neither was the cleaning crew or poor Melanie," Reyna giggled.

Ophelia, who was sad to have missed those moments, took a moment to study a laughing Reyna and could see absolutely no ill effects from her head injury.

"Are you alright, dear?" Reyna asked when she caught Ophelia's look.

Ophelia started crying and stood, moving toward her, hugging her once more. "I'm so glad you're alright. I hated to leave you like that."

Reyna hugged her for a minute before pulling away and resting her head against Ophelia's. "I know, sweetie, but I did what I would do with any of my children. I let you go because I knew you would come back."

This made Ophelia cry harder, and then Shay joined both the crying and the hug. Next came Sawyer, who wrapped his arms around all three of them. The door opened, and Pops came in, followed by Melanie. When Pops saw a group hug with Ophelia in the middle, he too joined without saying a word.

After a moment, the hug broke apart, and Sullivan was still leaning against the wall where he had been, but Ophelia could see the muscle in his jaw working, which meant his emotions were high, so she gave him a gentle smile as she wiped her eyes. He looked almost cold to someone who didn't know him, but she knew he felt the moment as strongly as they all did.