AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Or before I drool.
Jackson comes out the kitchen door with a large charcuterie platter. “No, I didn’t make this. I know you’re all shocked.” He gestures at Ruby and his daughter Fiona, who follow him out the door. “These two get all the credit.”
“Wasted words,” Dash says. “We know you can barely boil an egg.”
Jackson presses his lips together, unable to one-up any of us when it comes to cooking, so he doesn’t bother to try.
“Auntie B!” Fiona yells, skipping over to Beatrix, who used to babysit her regularly before Jackson hired Ruby as his nanny and promptly fell in love with the red-headed free spirit.
“C’mere, kiddo. Did you miss your favorite aunt?” Beatrix puts down her drink and opens her arms to Fi, who bounds over for a hug. I wait my turn, knowing she’ll get to me. When she does, she whispers, “She’s not really my favorite.” Even at seven, she’s a diplomat.
“I know, Fi. We don’t need to tell anyone.” I wink at her, and her dimples flash with a smile that’s one hundred percent my brother. And for the first time in my life, I’m overtaken witha strange feeling of wondering what my own children might look like. Wondering how much they’ll resemble their dad. Wondering who their dad will be.
I quickly shake myself out of that reverie, surprised I went down that road. I’m even more surprised at the small thought I’ve allowed to creep in—that the future father of my kids could look anything like Colin.
Turning my back on the group, I walk over to the railing where Beatrix stands and look out over the vineyard with her. “You okay?” she asks quietly.
“Of course. Just a family dinner. No big deal.”
“Uh-huh, yeah. We’ll talk later.” She raises an eyebrow and moves to the table where the wine bottles sit. I don’t pay attention to her because the acres of greenery are more calming to my senses than the family chaos behind me, so I focus my attention there.
Beatrix reappears a moment later with a cold glass of wine, which she hands me. “Here. This oughtta help.”
Fiona continues making the rounds from sibling to sibling, hugging each one and having very involved conversations for a seven-year-old until she reaches Colin, whom she looks at suspiciously. “I don’t know you.”
He puts on a serious expression and studies her with his arms crossed. “I don’t know you either. What are we going to do about that?” To anyone else, he might look intimidating. Tall, muscular, imposing.
But not to Fiona, who has stared down the best of them. “I guess we should introduce ourselves?” She looks at Jackson for permission, well-trained not to talk with strangers, even if they happen to be standing on your uncle’s deck. Jackson errs on the side of over-protective, which makes Ruby a welcome balance with her carefree exuberance.
Jackson crosses the deck and stands next to her. “I should’ve introduced you. Fi, this is Colin. He went to college with Uncle Arch and me.”
“Ohhhhh,” Fiona says. “Makes sense now. Do you live nearby?”
Colin tilts his head, taking in the sprite in front of him. Her blond hair trails down her back, and she looks up at him with an impish smile. He scans the deck once more, and when his eyes land on me, I catch the barest hint of a smile dusting the corners of his mouth. I will my cheeks not to turn scarlet, but I can feel a rush of heat from head to toe.
Mercifully, Colin looks at Fiona again. “For another week, I do. I’m just visiting your uncle here.”
Fiona nods, satisfied enough to move along. She goes over to investigate what Dash has on the barbecue, and I stand frozen, willing Colin to look at me again. And also hoping he won’t. I don’t think I can take it.
From my side, Beatrix chuckles. “Wow, honey. You’ve got it bad.”
I let out a long breath. There’s no point in trying to put one over on my sister. While my brothers can be blissfully oblivious, she doesn’t miss a thing. “Yeah. Any suggestions on what to do?”
“Dohim.”
I roll my eyes, but not because the idea hasn’t occurred to me a couple thousand times. And in the few minutes since he walked onto the deck, it’s occurred a few thousand more. “Why does he have to look like that? It’s just…not fair to the rest of the population. Men can’t keep up with him, and women can’t get over him.”
“Oh my,” Beatrix says, stealing a look at Colin and nodding. “You’re not wrong, and from the way his eyes are undressing you each time he looks your way, the feeling is mutual. Just do it already.”
Until she says the words, I realize I’ve been in denial about the way he’s been looking at me, certain that all my feelings are one-sided. Even though he seemed swept away last night, I haven’t seen him since. If he felt a fraction of the molten lava coursing through my veins at the barest hint of a kiss, he’d have been breaking my door down the moment he returned from his night out with Archer.
I tossed and turned for hours, listening for the sign of him returning from Wine Town or wherever else Archer took him. The last time I remember looking at the clock, it was after two and I was pretty certain he hadn’t come back yet.
Eventually, I drifted off to sleep, and when I woke up to head to yoga this morning, the cottage was silent.
“I…don’t know if I want to anymore.”
She takes me by the shoulders and turns me to face her. “Why not?”
