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“Really?” Her eyes go wide. “Your whole family?”
“It was a year after my mother went into remission for breast cancer.”
Her eyes sadden.
“She’s been in remission for almost a decade now. Andreas is the outgoing, charming type,” I continue, changing the subject back to my siblings. “He’s always been a performer, which is why he’s in L.A.”
Riley gasps. “Wait, your brother isn’t Andreas Briggs, is it? From that teen sitcomOver the Bridge?”
My eyebrows pop. “How’d you put that together?” Andreas goes by a different public last name. It’s to keep his professional and personal life as separate as possible. For the past two years, he’s had a starring role in a popular teen drama. At nineteen, he’s poised to make a big splash in the entertainment industry.
She stares at me. “I see the resemblance. He looks like a younger version of you and your father.”
“He’s one of us.”
“Is his twin also an actor?”
My heart sinks slightly at the thought of my youngest brother. “Thiers is in the Army. He dropped out after only one year in college. He’s the most reserved out of all of us.” My brother wouldn’t be caught dead performing for an audience. He’d just as well shoot them.
“Stasi is still in high school. But she loves cooking and tells anyone in earshot that she’s going to open her own restaurant someday.”
“That’s amazing. You talk about your family with such pride in your voice.”
Her smile is tender.
“I’m proud of all of them. And we haven’t even gotten to my cousins yet. They’re all younger, though. Still in middle and high school. But I know they’ll all take on the world one by one.”
“Just like they’re older cousin leading the way.” She looks me in the eye as she says this.
My heart swells with something I want to bottle up and keep close to me forever.
“I’m not the oldest, though.”
“That’s Diego right? How is he? I don’t think I’ve seen him since that night in Miami. I’m surprised he doesn’t work for the family company.”
“He left that same night he stormed off the beach. Spent two weeks out of town with Monique—his best friend, and he’s been busy with work.” I don’t mention why he doesn’t work at Townsend real estate because, honestly, I still don’t know what’s holding him back.
She looks me directly in the eyes, searching for something. “That’s why you work so hard, huh?”
I lift an eyebrow, wondering what conclusions she’s drawing about me. Ordinarily, I don’t care for anyone figuring me out, but I don’t mind it so much with her.
“Most people would assume it’s born out of pure ambition. Or just because you’re some crazy workaholic who gets off on sixteen-hour days. But you do it for your family.”
“Family is everything.”
She cocks her head to the side like my comment surprises her.
“You don’t agree?”
“No, I do. It’s just … I haven’t really ever had a real family, not in the typical sense. Anyway, dinner’s done,” she says, turning again to the counter.
She may have lost the bet, but I’m not a total asshole. I help set the table for our breakfast-dinner meal. But when Riley starts to round the glass table to sit on the other side, I wrap my arms around her and pull her onto my lap.
“You’ll eat from here.”
“First you make me cook while naked for you. Now you’re not even going to let me eat in peace.” She huffs but I see the smile she’s working to suppress.
“Be lucky I’m not feeding you my cock for dinner instead.”
