Her question startles me and I turn back to her. Her icy glare gives me goose bumps and I rub my arms while I try to figure out what the fuck she’s asking. “I’m not sure I understand what you mean?”
She rolls her eyes and takes a swig of her wine before setting it down on the end table next to her. “What’s your angle with my brother?”
“My angle?”
“Yeah, are you after his money?”
What the fuck?
“Seriously? Why would you even ask that? I don’t want a dime from Savage.”
Her eyes narrow and she glares at me with such contempt, I’m tempted to get up and leave the house without bothering to meet the rest of the family.
“You better not hurt him. He’s been through enough.”
My blood boils and my skin heats as anger rises. “You think I don’t know that? I would never hurt him.”
She gives me a look that assures me she doesn’t believe me and makes it very clear we aren’t going to be best friends anytime soon.
A child’s squeal breaks me from her icy gaze and I turn to find my savior finally arriving.
“Hello, ladies. What are you two talking about?” With Angelica dangling from my neck, I approach Skye and Danika.
Dani gives me a fake smile and my heart sinks. I look to Skye and she widens her eyes as if to ask me “what?”
Fucking Skye…why can’t she ever keep her mouth shut?
I can only imagine what she must have said to Danika to make her look so uncomfortable. It looks like I’ll need to have a private convo with my little sis. After a continued moment of silence, I clear my throat and detangle Angelica so I can turn her to face Dani.
“Angelica, this is my friend, Dani. Dani, this is my niece, Angelica.” Danika gives me a genuine smile and moves from the couch, dropping to her knees in front of me to put herself on the same level as Angelica.
“Hi, Angelica.” She smiles shyly in response before I have a tiny face buried in my neck again. Angelica isn’t usually shy around people we introduce her to; maybe it’s the tension between Dani and Skye throwing her off.
Someone approaches from behind me and Angelica giggles. “Is she being shy all of a sudden?” Storm appears and Danika climbs to her feet. “You look like you could use one of these.” Storm hands Dani a glass of wine with a knowing smile before casting a glare at Skye.
“Thank you.” Dani reaches out and takes it and then extends her hand to Storm. “You must be Storm.”
“I am, and don’t let Skye get to you. She’s the difficult one in the family.” Skye rolls her eyes and downs the remaining wine in her glass before climbing from her chair and disappearing into the kitchen.
Her attitude needs a serious adjustment. We all cut her some slack, but Dani means too much to me to let her scare her off. Not that I think that would really do it. Dani doesn’t scare easily and I imagine she had some choice words for Skye in response to whatever my sister threw at her.
Things have been going so well since we had our big fight a couple of weeks ago. I don’t want anything to get in the way of what is turning out to be a seriously good thing, maybe the best thing that’s ever happened to me.
I won’t let this get fucked up.
Storm shakes Dani’s hand and ushers her to sit back down on the couch. She scoops Angelica up off my lap and plops down with her in the chair Skye just vacated.
“So, Savage tells me you’re an investigative reporter?”
Relief washes over me when Dani jumps right into an easy conversation with Storm. I knew I could count on the eldest Hawke girl to make her feel welcome.
With Dani in Storm’s capable hands, I set out to search for Gabe and Ben. I find them in the backyard, drinking beers on the patio. Skye must have joined my mom in the kitchen. It’s probably a good thing she’s not back here. I’m not sure I could rein in my anger right now. This is too important to me.
“Hey, man, what’s up?” Ben reaches out and shakes my hand. Gabe nods.
“Nothing, except apparently Skye didn’t waste any time digging into Dani.”
Gabe’s lips press into a tight line and I know he’s just as annoyed with her as I am. Ben chuckles and takes a swig of his beer. “Well, that’s just par for the course. If she wants to hang with the Hawkes, she’s going to have to learn how to deal with Skye.”
I would have loved to avoid Dani’s trial by fire, but Ben’s right. It was only a matter of time and Skye doesn’t even let up on us, so there’s no way she is going to with someone new—especially the first girl I’ve dated since the accident.
“You think she’s gonna last?”
Ben’s question is certainly a fair one. After all, he knows about our rocky start. He also knows Becca bailed pretty quickly. It’s not out of the question for Dani to still disappear.