Welcome to the Family

79: Final Chapter

Read Chapter 78 first 🧡
Final chapter

***

I hadn't slept at all and it showed. My brother reached for a piece of bacon and I batted Cameron's hand away with my fork. He yelped, pulling his hand back quickly. "Ouch, Maisie."

"Keep your hands off," I warned, glaring at my brother. "What are you, an animal? Goddamn, Hazel has better manners than you."

Cameron gasped. "Rude,"  he muttered. We were in the breakfast hall of the hotel, and for once, it wasn't shitty food. "Someone woke up on the wrong side of the bed."

I glared at him, stabbing a hash brown with my fork. "What are we doing today?" I asked, ignoring his comment.

"I don't know," he said, leaning back in his seat, "what do you wanna do?"

"I want to uh ... what do you call it, water paddling?"

"But I'm tired," Sebastian whined, shooting me a death glare.

I rolled my eyes. "Not my fault you and Cameron stayed up half the night," I said and Cameron cursed under his breath.

We had woken up early this morning ... well, I had woken Sebastian up to go for a light run. He argued, telling me to go back to bed, but when I admitted I  hadn't slept and had been going stir-crazy, he caved ... eventually.

"Hush," he grumbled and yawned.

My phone buzzed and Noel sent a message: Meet me outside in twenty minutes?

Noel, Milo, and Chance arrived last night. I'm excited to spend time with him. "I'm going out with Noel," I said, glancing over at Cameron. "I'll be back in an hour  or two."

He seemed hesitant but nodded. "Okay. Let me know if you're going to be late, alright?" I  smiled, nodded, and stood up to take my breakfast plate to the discard counter. "I'll take your plate, don't worry about it."

"Thank you."

"Stay out of trouble," Cameron warned as I walked to the lobby.

I turned and shrugged. "No promises."

"We mean it," Isobel shouted and I mocked them.

First, I headed upstairs to get my jacket and purse.

Noel leaned on the wall, grinning when he noticed me. "Hi, how are you? I've missed you."

"I missed you too," he said, laughing and we hugged.

I kissed his lips. "Let's do something."

Noel he pulled back, holding me arm's length. "You haven't slept, have you?" He asked, concern flickering in his eyes.

"You noticed too?" I said, sighing.

"Yeah ... I have an idea," he said, grabbing my hand and pulling me down the sidewalk. He surprised me with a movie date, in the theatre, all to ourselves. It reminded me of the night at the safe house, when he set up a projector in the barn. I don't know how he does it, but I loved it.

We decided on the Karate Kid, the 1984 version.

"Did you bring-"

I didn't finish before he leaned down and picked up a bag of junk food. Chips and chocolate and soda.

"You're the best."

He grinned. "I know."

I laughed, settled into his arms, and watched the film.