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“What if I were to offer to pay of all your debts right now?” Shane arches an eyebrow at him and I close my eyes and suck in a breath. I should have known this was coming. This is Shane’s test.
“What’s the catch?” Hayden whispers.
“You leave here now and never come back. You never mention Jessie or Jessica’s name again and you forget that either of them existed. I’ll even throw in an extra fifty thousand bucks so you can get back on your feet. What do you say?”
Hayden doesn’t speak for a few seconds as he considers Shane’s proposal. “I’m not gonna lie and say that’s not a tempting offer… But I’m not here for money.”
I flash Shane a sarcastic smile and refrain from calling him an asshole in front of our guest, hoping that he knows that’s what I’m thinking anyway.
“Then let’s eat,” Shane says as he picks up his fork again.
Hayden is hesitant at first, no doubt wondering if he is about to be blindsided again. I give him a gentle nudge on the arm. “You’ll have to excuse my husbands, they’re very overprotective.”
“With good reason,” Liam snaps before he shovels a forkful of chili into his mouth.
“Well, yeah,” I admit with a laugh.
“I don’t think I want to know,” he says with a shake of his head and a soft smile. “But I guess it’s kind of nice to have people looking out for you.”
I swallow the ball of emotion that rushes up from my chest and gets lodged in my throat. I remember how it felt to be all alone in the world like he is right now. My possessive, overprotective husbands might be a bit much sometimes, but I wouldn’t have them any other way. “It is,” I whisper.
After the strained start to our meal, we end up enjoying the remainder of it and once Hayden has relaxed, he is surprisingly good company. He even makes Mikey laugh when he tells him a story about the chef at the bar where he works getting fired for stealing the owner’s spare panties from her purse.
“That would make you laugh, being a fellow panty-fiend.” I arch an eyebrow at Mikey and he winks at me.
Liam has been quiet throughout the evening and I make a note to speak to him about it later.
Hayden checks his watch as Shane and Liam start clearing the dishes. “I should be going if I’m going to catch the last train.”
“We’ll have a driver take you home,” Shane says.
“If that’s not a problem that would be great. I hate taking the train late at night,” he says.
“You do?” I squeal. “I love the train at night. Not that I ever take it any more.”
Hayden shudders, making me laugh. “It’s full of scary people.”
“No wonder you like it, Red,” Mikey says, pressing a soft kiss on my forehead. “You’re a magnet for scary people.”
“Like you?” I narrow my eyes at him.
“Oh, definitely me,” he whispers in my ear.
“This has been great though. Thank you so much,” Hayden says as he pushes back his chair. “I’d love to see you again, Jessie.”
Neither of us miss the exchange of looks, grins and arched eyebrows that bounce across the room between the brothers.
“I mean, like…” Hayden stammers again, his cheeks turning bright red as he thinks of the right words. Then he throws his hands up in the air. “She’s my damn sister, guys. I didn’t mean…” He shakes his head and everyone except Liam laughs.
“Is she?” Shane asks as he comes up beside me and wraps an arm around my waist. “Because this has been nice, but we don’t really know that you two are even related.”
“So how do we find out?” Hayden asks. “A DNA test?”
“No,” Liam snaps and Shane shoots him a warning look.
“That seems the quickest and easiest way to prove it one way or another,” I say with a shrug.
“Then it’s fine by me,” Hayden replies. “So what do we do? Get one online or something?”
