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“Damn... You Wilders are so hot,” Lilah laughs at Bellamy, who just shakes her head.
“Ehh. They’re okay.” Bellamy sips her water but keeps her eyes focused on the guys in the ocean. My brothers are out there with Callen and Maddox and a few of our cousins. And I guess I’d feel the same way if someone told me Nixon, Leo, or Henny were hot. Even just thinking it gives me the icks.
I mean, I know they’re handsome. But that’s as far as I want to go.
Ares puts Jax down, and his little orange bucket hat slides sideways as he runs to Bellamy. “BB,” he calls out for her before he trips into her open arms. “Go in the ocean wif me, BB.”
He doesn’t even know who I am.
To him, I’m a face on a phone or a computer.
And that hurts my heart.
Bellamy stands and takes Jax’s hand. “I’m going to take Jax in the ocean, okay, Everly?”
My sister smiles, and I decide I want in on the auntie love. “Hold up. You’ve been the favorite aunt his whole life. Share the wealth,” I joke and take Jax’s other hand.
“Maybe you should move back home permanently,” Everly calls out.
I’m starting to think maybe she’s right.
Ares
“So, you and Gracie just happened to be at the airport together?” Grace’s dad, Declan, asks me as he hands me a sandwich later that afternoon. Luckily, he doesn’t wait for an answer. “I’m sure she appreciated that convenient coincidence.”
“I was happy to be there.” I don’t elaborate. I like Declan. He’s a good guy, and he accepted Cross and our whole family as part of his own immediately. I don’t like the idea of lying to him. But I promised Grace we’d keep things quiet for now.
“She seems happy today,” he muses, staring out into the ocean where the girls are standing, cooling off. “Not sure she’s been that happy lately.”
Alarm bells go off in my head.
I’ve got to tread carefully here.
“I’m sure she’ll feel better once she rehabs.” There. That was a safe answer.
Declan crosses his thick arms over his chest. The man might be in his late forties, but he was still the number-one pro quarterback in the country just a few years ago. He’s just as jacked now as he was in his prime.
“Yeah,” he draws out quietly. “I think so too. Not sure I’ll be ready for her to go back to London after having her home for a few weeks though.”
That makes two of us, but I can’t tell him that.
Declan reaches into the cooler and pulls out two beers. He hands me one, then stares off into the ocean again. “Did anybody tell you the story of my brother, Cooper, and his wife?”
“Carys? The one who owns the lingerie shop?” I ask, pretty sure I’m right. Their family is huge, and it takes some getting used to when you grew up without any cousins or grandparents.
“Yeah. They spent a year together before they let anyone know.”
And I choke on my beer.
“Crazy, right? Why would anyone hide being happy from their family? But Carys had it in her brain that she wasn’t ready for anyone to know. And as men, we go along with what they want. I know I did. At least that’s what Belles thought when it was us. She wanted to keep me in the friend zone, so I had to take my time and break down her walls. I had to show her we were worth it. In a way, I think that’s what Coop had to do too.”
Now it’s my turn to stare out at the girls because there’s no way in hell I’m looking Declan Sinclair in the eyes and lying to his face.
“It worked out in the long run for both of us. But it takes a certain kind of man with a certain level of confidence and patience to do that. Rushing a woman never works. And lord knows, my girls are stubborn just like their mother. I was glad Everly found Cross. He’s a good man. You’re a good man too, Ares. Not sure you think that though. But trust me. I’m a great fucking judge of character.”
He smacks me on the back. “Good talk.”
I have no clue how the hell I’m supposed to respond to any of this.
