“Yeah, well, I do like your hair, but you’re too skinny. You need to eat.”
She laughed. “Dork. I am not. I’m perfectly healthy. I’ve just discovered yoga and good eating and finally lost the weight I needed to lose. That and the stress of work.”
“You were never overweight.” Though he had to admit she looked great in her skinny jeans and some kind of silky tank top. Still, she was his sister, who he’d once nicknamed Pudge, which was cruel as hell, but that’s what brothers did.
“Okay, then, you look awesome.”
She patted his chest. “There might be hope for your species yet.”
“Thanks.”
“Don’t get excited. I didn’t say there was hope for you.”
“See, this is what I enjoy about homecomings. All the family love.”
“Yeah, me, too,” she said, grabbing a carrot stick from the food tray.
“Have you seen Mom?”
She straightened. “Yeah. Why?”
“She ran off somewhere with Evelyn.”
“Oooh, Evelyn. What’s going on with you and Evelyn?”
He rolled his eyes. “Nothing. I need to talk to her about the plan for today.”
“Oooh. You and Evelyn have plans for today?”
“Jesus, Care. Are you twelve?”
She laughed. “Sometimes. When it’s convenient or when it pisses you off. So what is going on with you and Evelyn?”
He’d have to be careful what he said in front of his nosy sister. He led her over to one of the many picnic tables spread out on the lawn, choosing one in a shady spot.
They took a seat next to each other. “Nothing’s going on with Evelyn. Dad assigned her to do some social media shit with me for his campaign. I want to get it over with so I can actually enjoy being here today.”
“Yeah. Right. You and Dad in the same hemisphere? You won’t enjoy today.”
“You have a point.”
“And you need to get over it. He’s not the same person he used to be.”
“So everyone keeps telling me. He looks the same to me. Though he’s lost a lot of weight, no doubt to be more camera-ready for this big election.”
Carolina grasped his upper arm, focusing his attention on her. “Seriously, Gray.
When was the last time you sat down with Dad and had an honest conversation with him?”
His senior year of high school, when he’d told his father he wouldn’t be going to Harvard. “I don’t need to have a conversation with him. I know who he is. And what he’s capable of.”
“Give it another try. He’s changed in the—what—twelve years since the two of you had that blowup?”
Gray shrugged. “It’s not worth rehashing. We both said everything that needed to be said back then.”
“You know, if you agreed to work on Dad’s campaign, at some point the two of you are going to have to talk.”
He looked at her and smiled. “Hey, I can talk. I’m good at talking.”
“I mean a real talk.”
“Not going to happen. But I can toe the party line as good as any of them. You’ve seen my media interviews, right?” He shot her a golden boy grin. “I’m a star, baby.”
“Oh, for God’s sake. I give up.”
“What do you give up on?”
“Hi, Evelyn,” Carolina said, smiling up as Evelyn stood on the other side of the table.
“Am I interrupting a private talk?”
Carolina laughed. “My brother and I do not have private talks. Sit and tell me what’s been going on?”
“Did Gray tell you I’m working with him?”
“He did. How . . . tragic for you.”
Evelyn smiled. “He’s not too bad. Though he wasn’t happy at the beginning.”
Gray folded his hands on the table. “I love how people talk about me like I’m not even here.”
“Well, you weren’t happy about it, were you? As I recall, you threw me out the first night.”
Carolina looked from Evelyn to Gray. “You did not.”
“He did,” Evelyn said. “Politely, but he did.”
Gray had to nod and play this game. He knew what Evelyn was doing. “Yeah. I did.
And then Mom showed up the next day.”
Carolina looked horrified. “She did not.”
“She did,” Gray said, then shifted his gaze to Evelyn. “Because someone called her.”
He still remembered how pissed off he was about that. But he gave props to Evelyn for not taking no for an answer. Her passion was one of the things he admired so much about her. Their gazes met for a few seconds, the attraction between them hotter than the air around then. It was Evelyn who forcibly pulled her gaze away.
Carolina put her hands to her mouth, stifling a laugh. “You did not.”
Evelyn didn’t even try to hide her smug smile. “I have an assignment. I had to pull out the big guns. I always get what I want,” she said, directing her attention to Gray.
If she kept looking at him like that he was going to get hard, and then he’d end up stuck with his hands folded in his lap.
“Oh, my God, Evelyn,” Carolina said. “You so rock.”