She shook her head. “I told him I wouldn’t say.”
“And you’re suddenly so loyal to a man you don’t even know?”
“No. But I love you. And I want to protect you.”
I let her go so abruptly that she nearly fell backward into the loveseat situation not far behind her. I moved past her, stormed across the room, not sure where I was going. I just…how could she say that to me after everything I’d done to her? How could she say that when I walked into her life and turned it upside down, tore her brother from her home, took away the whole reason she was living in that small town, keeping a business she hated afloat? How could she…?
“Why?”
I turned slowly and looked at her. There tears in her eyes, but not a single one fell.
“I don’t know. Why not?”
“Because…because I’m the asshole who ripped your family apart.”
“No. You’re the guy who wanted to do the right thing when you stumbled on a secret your mother kept from you.”
“The right thing? Marching into your life, turning it upside down…that was the right thing?”
“I don’t know. Maybe. JT…he needed something more than I was giving him. Maybe you can give that to him.”
“And you?”
“I don’t know,” she said, shaking her head. “But I’d like to find out.”
There was such honesty in that statement. How could I turn my back on that?
I crossed to her, took her face between my hands and stared at her. “Tell me you aren’t just saying this because you think it’s the only way to stay close to JT.”
She groaned. “You really do have commitment problems, don’t you?”
I laughed, but the sound was drowned by her kiss. And then there was no more laughter, just groans and sighs.
“How would you feel if we all moved in together?” I asked JT later that night.
He looked up from the video game he was playing. “I thought we already had.”
I tilted my head slightly. “I mean, a little more permanently.”
“Are you going to marry my sister?”
I think I choked a little. Penelope, however, just laughed.
“Don’t rush him,” she said. “He’s a little commitment phobic.”
“I am not. I’m just…” I looked from him to her and sighed. There really was no point in arguing, was there? “I just thought I’d be able to do it a little later, maybe a little more romantically.”
That shut her up and made JT drop his game controller because he was laughing so hard.
We could make this work. We were an unusual family. And there was still a lot we would have to work out. But we could make it work.
And maybe she and I would finally live a part of the dream we’d given up because, well, it’s all about family, right?
End
LUCIEN
Chapter 1
Lucien
“I need a fucking drink,” I said as I joined my brother at a table in the hottest bar in town, Tandem Lines. Jacob looked up, amusement dancing in his dark eyes.
“Hard day?”
“Aren’t they all?”
Jacob picked up the glass of seltzer he’d been nursing all night. I didn’t have to be here to know it was his first and that he wouldn’t finish it. Jacob wasn’t a drinker, and he balked at the outrageous prices a place like this charged for something as simple as seltzer. It was a personality quirk that annoyed most people, but that I found amusing. Imagine, the son of one of the most well-known oil barons in the country groaning about having to pay five dollars for a glass of fancy water.
I gestured to the waitress in the tight black skirt. She came over, a big smile on her brightly painted lips.
“What can I get for you gentlemen?” she asked, her eyes on me only.
“Vodka and cranberry juice.”
Her smile widened slightly. “You strike me as more of a scotch and water sort of guy.”
“Do I?”
Her eyes moved slowly over the expensive suit, lingering on the silk tie.
“Definitely,” she said.
“Well, tonight, I’d kind of like cranberry juice, if you don’t mind.”
“No problem.”
She gave me another onceover then walked away, moving her hips in a lovely roll that I’m sure was mostly for my benefit. As I watched her walk away, I caught sight of a beautiful woman with jet black hair sitting at the bar. She was wearing a simple wrap dress with just the smallest hint of cleavage. She turned in her stool as I watched, crossing her legs in that seductive way some women have, moving her bare calves over one another like they were covered in silk. She definitely had it.
“Look at that,” I said, nudging Jacob. “Isn’t that something to look at?”
“There’re lots of good looking women here tonight.”
“Yeah, but that one in the wrap dress is really something.”
Jacob looked again, his eyes moving slowly over the length of her. “She’s pretty.”
“Not just pretty. Sexy as hell.”
Jacob lifted his drink again, sipping at the flavorless bubbles.
“I thought we came here to talk about the meeting with JDRF.”