Page 53 of Bulletproof

“Who cares about used to?” I pointed out.

He was staring at me when Hayes joined us.

“You ditched me,” he said flatly.

“Because his kids were more fun,” I told him, chuckling as I moved around the two brothers to find a seat in the dining room.

I introduced myself to the others at the table—Hayes’s sister, Jane; her husband, Marc; and various cousins, spouses, and finally, the family patriarch. I rose to shake William Fisher’s hand, and he gave me the two-handed shake and smiled a real one.

“Pleasure. Jory what?”

“Harcourt.”

“Harcourt?”

I sighed and smiled. “Yep, Dane Harcourt’s brother.”

And he was impressed because in Dane’s reflected glow, I was golden.

After dinner, I took a tour of the house with William and got him talking as he showed me his collection of antique revolvers, and I listened to his family history and finally ended up looking at the pictures along the stairs.

He left me in the game room with the girls, the teens and tweens. There were five of them in all, and I showed them how fast the Dance Dance Revolution was supposed to be done on the PlayStation 2. There were squeals of delight when two of their mothers poked their heads in an hour later. I talked them both into trying, and no matter what, no matter how old, when parents joined in with their kids, they loved it. Making fun of their moms was fun, and the laughter from the women was nice.

“Oh, Jory,” Jillian Fisher cooed, hugging me tight. “When are you coming back?”

The second time I hit the buffet, I had all five girls in tow. We talked about boys, and I looked at pictures on phones, and when Libby and William started dancing on the patio by the pool, I asked one of the girls, Andrea, if she’d like to join me.

“Oh, Jory, I can’t dance,” she told me.

But I led her out beside her grandparents, had her put her hand on my shoulder, put a hand on her waist, and showed her simple steps before asking her to follow my lead. In twenty minutes, we were moving pretty well. There was no glide, but she was thrilled. When I dipped her, there was applause. She blushed bright red, but it was easy to see the happy there too.

When I was getting some water afterward, Hayes came up beside me.

“Hey,” I said, smiling at him.

“Okay, so now that you’ve completely charmed my family, what’s your plan here?”

“I’m sorry?”

“David just asked me how serious it was with us because he’d really like to ask you out.”

“What about Derek?”

“Why are you asking that?”

I yawned. “I dunno. Seemed polite.”

“Well,” he said, his voice lowering as he stepped closer, his eyes all over my face, “apparently, Derek’s appeal has waned now that he’s met you.”

“Huh.”

“I told him if anyone in this family is dating you, it’s going to be me.”

“What happened with your divorce?”

“Did you hear what I said?”

“Yep. Tell me about the divorce.”