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Twelve
They’d had a gourmet dinner of crackers, lunch meat, cheese and some fruit. Zara had grabbed a bottle of wine from the cellar, and now she sat on the chaise, legs stretched before her, her back against the side arm as she twirled the stem of her wineglass.
The poor kitten was going stir-crazy, so Zara had taken him for a walk through the house. Braden was already seeing their bond form, but he wasn’t about to call her on it. She’d realize soon enough.
As the kitten pounced on her shoe, Zara watched him. “Should we give him a name or something?”
“Does this mean you’re keeping him?”
Zara threw Braden a look. “I didn’t say that. I just feel like he should be called something other than Cat.”
Braden laughed. “Admit it, you like him.”
“I’ll call him Jack while he’s here,” she decided.
“Jack?”
Zara nodded. “Jack Frost.”
Braden smiled at the perfect name. “Jack it is.”
Zara didn’t want to make commitments, didn’t want to have to worry about anyone else but herself, and Braden understood her reasons. But at some point she’d have to put herself out there, even if it was with a cat. She was going to be one lonely person if she kept herself so distanced. He wouldn’t know what he’d do without his family.
“So, what’s it like having siblings?” she asked, staring into her glass...her fourth glass if he was counting correctly. “Being an only child sucked sometimes.”
Braden shifted his back against the side of the bed, brought his knee up and reached out to pet Jack as he came over and slid against Zara’s leg. Braden had stopped at three glasses of wine. He was a big guy, so he wasn’t feeling anything, and one of them had to keep their wits about them. Apparently that responsibility fell to him.
“We had our moments,” he admitted. “Laney is the baby, and she gets a bit angry when Mac and I look out for her. She’s determined, stubborn, always putting others first, even at the sacrifice of her own happiness.” He narrowed his gaze, which he knew she could see since they had lit candles and she was only a few feet away, staring right at him. “Sounds like someone else I know.”
Zara took a sip of wine. “I prefer career driven.”
Braden laughed as went on. “Mac and I tend to get along now, but when we were younger we pretty much caused havoc in the house. Mom passed when I was ten, Mac was seven and Laney was only four. That was about the time Ryker started coming around, too.”
Propping her elbow on the arm of the chaise, Zara rested her head in her hand and settled the base of the wineglass in front of her, still holding on to the rim with those delicate fingers. “You speak of him quite a bit. You all are really close. I can hear the affection in your tone when you talk of your family.”
When she discussed her parents, all that had laced her tone was disdain. The only love he heard from her was when she told stories of her grandmother.
“We’ve always been a close family. My parents were adamant about that. We may fight, yell, even throw a few punches, but when it comes down to it, I know my family always has my back, and they know I always have theirs.”
Zara smiled. “Unconditional love.” She drained the rest of her glass, then sat it on the small accent table on the other side of the arm. “I bet when you all were younger you had snowball fights in weather like this.”
Braden nodded, his hand stilled on the kitten’s back as he replayed one particular day. “My brother, Mac, has a scar running through his brow as a souvenir from one of our snowball fights.”
Zara’s eyes widened. “He got cut from snow?”
“He got cut because our sister threw a snowball that had a rock in it. She’s a lot stronger than she looks, but she had no idea about the rock. Trust me, she felt awful, and Mac played on her guilt for years.”
She made a soft noise of acknowledgment, nearly a tender tone that had him almost hating how he was reliving these memories when she didn’t have too many happy ones. But she wanted to hear them, and he actually enjoyed sharing stories of his family...so long as people didn’t start butting into the family business and asking unnecessary questions.
“I bet you all had a big Christmas tree, family vacations, huge birthday parties.”
“Yes to all of that,” he confirmed. “The downfall of the siblings, when you’re a kid, no matter what you got for a present, you had to share. I never liked that rule. When something belongs to me, it’s mine for good.”
