Katrina definitely surprised him.
“Leo, time to set the table,” Katrina said as she poured out the vegetables onto a serving platter and set the meat into the wok.
“Anything else I can do?” Grant asked.
She motioned with her head. “There’s a wine fridge over there. Pick something out and open it up?”
“Sure.”
He selected a bottle and opened it, setting it on the dining room table to breathe. Then he helped Leo finish setting the table, bringing some of the food over as well.
“It smells good, doesn’t it?” he asked Leo as Anya and Katrina brought the meat, vegetables, and rice to the table.
“Anya and Kat can definitely cook,” Leo said, taking his seat. “We don’t complain about that.”
“Kat taught me a lot about cooking,” Anya said. “She brought me in the kitchen with her when I was little and let me start helping her. And I learned more on my own.”
“No,” Katrina said. “You don’t complain about the cooking thing. You just complain about everything else.”
Anya shrugged. “It’s in the teenager handbook. Chapter three is titled whining, moaning, and complaining. Didn’t you read it?”
Katrina placed her napkin in her lap and graced her sister with a benevolent smile. “Read it, highlighted it, and made notes in the margins.”
Grant smiled. “This conversation is making me miss my brothers and my sister.”
“You have brothers?” Anya asked.
“Three of them. One is older and two are younger.”
“How old is your sister?” Katrina asked as everyone began to scoop food onto their plates.
“Mia is twenty-one.”
“And your brothers all play sports like you,” Leo said.
Katrina shifted her gaze to Leo. “You know a lot.”
He shrugged. “You just assume I only play video games in my room. I know sports and players. Like Grant. His family is famous. They’re a dynasty. His dad is a Hall of Fame football player, too.”
Katrina looked at Grant. “Is that right?”
Grant swallowed, then nodded. “Yeah. He played football for Green Bay for his entire career—fifteen seasons—until he retired.”
“Wow,” Anya said. “And your brothers play football, too?”
“Barrett and Flynn do. Tucker plays baseball.”
Katrina leaned back in her chair. “Fascinating. Does your sister play sports?”
“She plays for the soccer team at her college. As far as I know she isn’t planning on a professional sports career. She says the rest of us have that covered.”
Katrina laughed. “It certainly sounds like you all do. Your poor mother. I can only imagine what that must have been like.”
“What?”
“Wrangling all you boys to all those practices? I assume you all played when you were little?”
“Yeah. We all played baseball, soccer, and football.”
She laid her fork down and stared at him. “While your father was off playing pro ball? How did she manage?”
“A lot of helping hands. We have a big extended family, so that helped. My dad has three brothers, so they and their wives would help out taking us to practices and games since Mom couldn’t be everywhere at once, especially if Dad was on the road.”
“Oh, that’s nice. I’m sure they were a huge help to her.”
“We didn’t have a large family,” Anya said. “So when our mom died, and Dad was gone, it was just Kat around to take care of us.”
Grant looked over at Anya. “That must have been tough for all of you.”
“We managed. We give Kat a hard time, but we could have ended up in foster care if it wasn’t for her. She dug in and made them give her custody of us. It was hard for her.”
Big statement for a teenager to make. Anya understood a lot. Grant wondered if Katrina realized she wasn’t the only one who understood the responsibility she’d carried.
“It wasn’t hard at all,” Katrina said. “We’re a family and it stays that way.”
“That’s been her line for the past ten years,” Leo said with a wry grin.
He liked this family, the way they gave each other a hard time, yet he could still see how much she loved these kids—and how much they loved her back. It reminded him so much of his own, and made him realize it had been a while since he’d seen his family. He was going to have to make time for a visit.
They finished dinner and Leo immediately set about clearing the table, loading the dishwasher and washing the pots and pans without complaint.