AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Dammit.”
Orlando chuckled. “Are you going to introduce me to your date?”
I followed his line of vision to where Sam was walking toward us. At least he appeared to be alone.
“Sam, this is my brother Orlando.”
Sam nodded, giving my brother half a second of his attention before focusing on me. “You didn’t get a drink.”
“I got interrupted.” I gestured at Orlando.
“Come on.” Sam grabbed my hand and pulled me into the kitchen. “Mimosa okay?”
“You know my drink preferences?” I asked in surprise.
He gave me that look that said he was questioning my intelligence. “You frequent my bar.”
“I didn’t realize my drink orders were being cataloged for you. And a lot of people frequent your bar.”
“All those other people aren’t you.” He handed me a glass filled with orange juice and bubbly.
“What’s that supposed to mean?” I asked, taking the drink from him.
His lips quirked up. “Figure it out, Siren.” His hand captured mine again, his thumb rubbing over the back of my knuckles.
“Why did you leave Boston? And why did you come back?” I asked before I could think better of it.
The small smile disappeared. “I was trying to do the right thing.”
“The right thing for whom?”
“Me. My family. You.”
“Me?” I was a child he barely knew when he left. As much as I’d like to believe that our kiss meant as much to him as it had to me, I wasn’t that naive.
“It would be better for both of us if I stayed far away from you.”
“Why?”
“What do you want from your life?” he asked, and I wasn’t sure if he was changing the subject or making a point.
I swallowed. “I want a family that’s as wonderful and full of love as the one I grew up in.”
“You planning on having five kids too?”
“Maybe. At least two or three.”
Sam nodded, his smile not reaching his eyes. “What else?”
“What do you mean?”
“Besides having this family, what else do you want?”
“I’m not sure yet. I’ve always wanted to travel, meet people from different places, do something real.”
“What counts as something real?”
I looked around the room at the other people standing around, talking over drinks and flirting. “You see the blonde over there, the one in the little black dress? She’s after Hayden, probably his money but it could be his body. She’s been sneaking glances his way for the past several minutes. She watches him until he looks over and then pretends she couldn’t care less that he’s there. But that’s only part of the game. When she knows he’s looking, she plays with her hair or fiddles with the pendant on her necklace, drawing his eye to her best assets. Pretty soon, she’s going to go for something a bit bolder like holding his gaze while she bites her lip, pretending like she’s shy and innocent.” I glanced up at Sam. “Something real means the kind of interaction that isn’t so practiced I can predict every move.”
