Page 31 of Entwined With You

Hadn’t he?

He took another sip of coffee, then another, feeling suddenly off-balance. Sabrina had been the love of his life, and yet it wasn’t her he’d been thinking about last night. It had been Samantha. The woman in his robe. In his bed.

He groaned and rubbed the bridge of his nose. Was that it? Proximity and circumstance? Was he projecting his memories of Brina onto her sister? Or was he actually attracted to the woman who was just a few yards away behind the closed door?

“You okay?” Cami stood in front of him with the coffee pot. He glanced down, and realized that somehow he’d drained the entire mug.

He passed it to her, and she frowned as she poured. “Wanna talk about it?”

He shook his head.

“Fine. Then I’ll tell you what Gimble did this morning.” Gimble was her pet hamster, and from the way she told the story, Gimble had decided to try out a career as an escape artist. “I mean, I have no idea how he got out of the cage. But then to get out of the habitrail ball, too….”

She shook her head, laughing. “I had to crawl all over the floor to find him, and when I did, do you know what finally urged him out from under the sofa?”

“Chips Ahoy.” A reasonable guess, since that was Cami’s favorite snack.

“Singing,” she said. “I made up a bullshit come out hamster song and sang it to the tune of Singing in the Rain. And it worked.”

She sang a bar of it, and they both cracked up, agreeing that Gimble was clearly deaf because that sound should rightfully have sent him running in the opposite direction.

“Oh, hey!” Cami said, shifting gears. “Coffee?”

It took Brax a second to catch up, and when he did, he twisted on the barstool and saw Samantha standing there in jeans and a plain white T-shirt. Her tousled hair caught the sunlight streaming in through the thin curtains, making her face seem to glow. She wore no shoes and no make-up. And as far as Brax was concerned, she was the loveliest thing he’d ever woken up to.

“Coffee?” he repeated. “Ca—Carly makes a decent pot.”

“Um, sure.”

He tapped the stool beside him, gesturing for her to come sit. She came, but she stood beside it, her attention on Cami who was pouring coffee. “I’m making scrambled eggs, too. Want some?”

“I—sure.”

Brax frowned, wondering about the way that Samantha was watching Cami. And then he remembered the shirt and mentally groaned. Surely she didn’t think…

“Carly spilled coffee all over her tank top on the way over here,” he said. “She makes a great breakfast, but braking isn’t one of her better skills.”

“Careful, or you won’t even get breakfast,” Cami said, then shifted her attention to Samantha. “It’s not exactly a fashion statement, but it was on his coffee table, so I commandeered it.”

“Better than wearing coffee,” Samantha said, sliding onto the stool beside Brax.

He’d been right. It was the shirt. But as for what that meant, he really didn’t know.

They all chatted for a while as Cami made breakfast, refusing any help from either of them. Then she slid two plates in front of them and kept her own on the kitchen counter, standing and eating while they kept talking.

“I’m really sorry about your sister,” Cami said when the conversation lulled.

A sad little smile touched Samantha’s lips. “Thanks. I appreciate that.”

“Would it be crass to say I’m looking forward to this job?”

Samantha shrugged. “I’m just glad Brax knew and trusted you. We need a fifth.”

Cami nodded. “Brax told me what happened before. How the job went bad. Sabrina. Tim getting killed in prison.”

“I’m surprised you signed on,” Samantha said. “When I hear you say it like that, it sounds like the Sisters are cursed.”

“They probably are,” Brax said. “That’s what they say about the Hope Diamond. And they were cut from the same stone, after all.”