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“Me too,” I said, a lump filling my throat out of nowhere. My attention slipped away from Seth to the third figure at thetable.
That guy was sitting casually, his back propped against the side of the table just beyond the shade of the umbrella. The sun lit up his golden-brown skin and the blue streaks dyed into his smooth black hair. Those werenew.
The slow grin he gave me lit up his dark eyes in turn. “Our Briar Rose has returned to her castle at last,” he said. “It’s been too long since I’ve seen that pretty face ofyours.”
A face which was now flushing. Jin Lyang had always been a flirt. It was just a little harder to brush off those remarks when they were coming from a rather stunning man and not a still kind of gawky youngteenager.
“I wish it hadn’t been so long,” I said. “But, you know, evil stepmothers and all.” I swallowed hard and found I didn’t know what else to say. It’d been hard enough figuring out how to talk to just Kyler last night. Now I had three visions from my past, all grown-up, in front ofme.
I sensed Philomena lingering behind me, but for once she kept her mouth shut, as if she could tell I needed a moment or two to process. There was a reason I’d picked her as my bestfriend.
“You should have something to drink,” Ky said, waving me over to thetable.
The waitress appeared beside me. “I, um— Can I get a Coke, please?” Isaid.
“Sure thing, dear,” she said, and hustledoff.
As I sat down gingerly at one end of the picnic table bench, my gaze fell on Ky’s glass. He was drinking beer. Jin had a half-empty glass of red wine beside his sprawled arm. Suddenly I felt as childish as I had in my cat pajamas two nightsago.
Well, Seth only hadwater.
“Where’s Damon?” I ventured. “Ky said Gabriel wasn’t in town anymore, but Ithought—”
Jin rolled his eyes with a chuckle. “You know Damon. Thin skin, thick layer of attitude. He’ll show up just late enough to make the point that coming wasn’tthatimportant tohim.”
“Oh.” My gut twisted. Way back when, he’d never acted that prickly withme.
“Don’t worry about him,” Seth said firmly. “Whatever issues Damon has, they’re definitelyhis. Ky told us you’re back at the manor forgood?”
I took a deep breath. “Yeah. I’m sure we’ll travel around every now and then, but other than that, I’m sticking around. They’ve finally decided I’m all grown up and ready to takeownership.”
Not that Celestine had much choice in the matter. It wasn’t as if my father would have let her stop me from coming into mymagic.
I glanced around the table at the guys. Ky was still beaming, rocking eagerly on his feet, and Jin still wore that easy grin. Even Seth smiled a little when my eyes met his again. My pulse skipped, but in a much happierway.
I was back. Back with my boys. It wasn’t quite the same, and maybe it never would be, but I was more at home right now than I’d ever been in that house inPortland.
“What have you two been up to all these years?” I said, looking from Seth to Jin andback.
Seth swung his thumb toward the back of a store with a stack of two-by-fours outside, just down the laneway beyond the patio. “I’ve been helping my dad with his company. Got a degree in business management, which doesn’t help as much as you’d hope with managing an actual business.” His smile turned wry. “Mostly I go out and help him with the construction jobs hegets.”
Philomena let out a low whistle. “With the muscles on that fine specimen of manhood, I’d bet he could do a job and a half all byhimself.”
I figured it was better not to pass on that observation to Seth. Even if it was accurate. “And you?” I asked Jin. My artist. We’d never had any doubt that he’d be creating some kind of masterpieces even back when we werekids.
Jin made a vague gesture in the air. “Oh, I hit the road with my dad for a while as soon as I was done with high school. Got to see a lot of the world while he was touring with the latest band. Lots of inspiration. I’m doing mixed-media paintings these days. Had a gallery in Seattle pick up a few, but mostly I sell them online. My mom even brought a couple to display at the hairdresser’s so she can pitch them to the customers while she works. It’s astart.”
“That’s great,” I said, but my brain had stuck on his second-last sentence. I held my tongue as the waitress set my Coke on the table in front of me. When she’d vanished back inside, I curled my fingers around the coolly sweating glass and made myself look at Jinagain.
“Your mother isn’t working in our gardensanymore?”
Jin’s eyes twitched, as if he’d just realized he’d made a misstep. His gaze shot to the twins before returning to me. “No,” he said gently. “She, you know, after the whole thing… I’m sure it all turned out for thebest.”
Wait. I turned back to Seth and Kyler. “Isyourmom still working as our pastrychef?”
Seth froze. Ky’s mouth bobbed open and shut. “Well,” he said, but I could already tell theanswer.
A chill washed over me. “He laid them all off, didn’t he? My father. Your dad didn’t leave because he wanted to try something new. He hadto.”
