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I’m basically struck dumb, so I have no words when she pulls away, and I finally notice that she isn’t alone. Oh, shit shizzle. She brought the friend my brothers kidnapped.
Ayana totally notices me staring at her friend and takes pity on me, but with no small amount of amusement. “Yes, I brought my bestie. Cassadina, Ransom. Ransom, Cassadina. Cass, for short. I know you’ve met, but you haven’t been properly introduced. You know, when she wasn’t tied to a chair and gagged.”
“I’m seriously sorry about that,” I garble out, finally finding my voice.
Cass is wearing a dark green, flowy maxi dress and has her hair tossed about her shoulders. She’s very pretty in a sweet kind of way. She looks nothing at all like Ayana, and I still can’t believe my brothers kidnapped her. I guess they didn’t bother with photos or listening to what I ever said about Ayana because they would have known she wasn’t blonde then. Cass is curvy and tall, whereas Ayana is petite and willowy. They look absolutely nothing alike. Sigh. Sigh, as in, I have to fix this.
Cass shrugs. “Maybe my luck is turning around. We stopped for gas on the way, and I bought a scratch-off ticket, and I won a hundred bucks. I never win anything. I’m the unluckiest person around. Maybe the kidnapping was what changed it all.”
Ayana groans. “At least she’s looking on the bright side of things.” I have no comment. I’d rather not get involved in the whole thing. “I hope it’s okay that I brought Cass with me. Your granny made whatever we were going to do sound like fun. And she’s already met everyone. She was free, and I asked her if she’d like to join us. I thought that maybe…uh, it would help put some water under the bridge.”
“The bridge of being kidnapped,” Cass clarifies rather needlessly, but she smiles.
“Has the surprise been revealed yet?” Ayana asks as we walk into the living room.
I grasp her hand. “No. Granny was waiting for you to get here.”
When my brothers’ eyes stray from Ayana to the tall blonde just behind us, I watch them collectively freeze when they see her—Cass. Lennox gasps, Atlas hisses air through his teeth, Orion makes a burping sound, which could very well be from the bubbly beer, and Granny claps her hands in delight. She’s probably the only one of us who doesn’t mind surprises, even awkward ones.
“Oh, this is going to be awesome! So delightful. But first, introductions. Boys, stand up.” As one, my brothers leap to their feet. They study said feet after, probably afraid of inciting Granny’s wrath, but also chagrined about the whole kidnapping business all over again.
“This lovely lady with dark hair, boys, dark hair, is Ayana. Her friend, the one without dark hair, again, I’ll repeat, without dark hair, is Cass. But since you already know that now, I’ll introduce you lunkheads. Lovable lunkheads, because god knows I’d move heaven and hell themselves if any of them was in trouble—trouble they themselves didn’t cause. Alright, so even if they caused it, I’d still be right there trying everything I could to get them out of it. This is Lennox, and over here….” She moves to stand beside the twins, setting her hand on Atlas’ shoulder, which looks funny because she has to reach way up. “Over here, we have Atlas and Orion. And they’re all incredibly sorry for the misunderstanding the other night.”
Cass is wearing green flip-flops to match her dress, and she digs the toe of one into the hardwood floor. She sweeps her eyes over the twins and then quickly over to Lennox, who glances away, though not before turning scarlet. Scarlet is a color that Lennox never wears.
What the hell? Is he that mortified about the kidnapping business?
“So…” I say before things can get more awkward. I slip my arm around Ayana’s waist, and she rests her fingers over mine. It’s so easy and natural that it makes my heart flutter. I’m filled with an enormous amount of gratitude that she’s here, meeting my family the way I met her dad and brothers at the club with Granny. After everything was settled that night, we had a proper, less hostile, surly, and growly round of introductions. “What are we doing today, Granny?”
Granny’s eyes are positively lit up with wicked delight. My heart starts thrumming because Granny can get some pretty wild ideas. I should have told her that there was no way jumping out of a plane or bungee jumping or doing other dangerous, overly adrenaline-flooded activities were appropriate for Ayana to take part in right now.
But of course, Granny knows that. She’s the smartest, most intuitive woman I know.
Which is why she picked the perfect activity.
“Pack your baskets, boys. We’re going on a picnic. A lovely picnic in a lovely park, followed by rides in lovely swan boats that I know you’re all going to think are super uber-masculine and exciting while you’re peddling them down the tranquil waterway, enjoying the sweetness of each other’s company.”
