“Indeed it is.” He winked at her, and for a few moments, they focused on their food. “So, Freya, tell me about this big family of yours. Are your folks having a packed house this Thanksgiving?”
Her chest squeezed. Even after all these years, there were times it felt like yesterday. “My parents actually passed when I was in middle school.”
“Oh shit, I’m so sorry.”
She shook her head. “Thank you. Even though my parents aren’t with us anymore, it’ll still be a packed house. I grew up in Blanchard Bay. It’s a little coastal town about a dozen miles south of the Canadian border. My oldest brother lives in our childhood home with his twin girls. We all go there for Thanksgiving, and it’s absolute chaos.”
“I’m sure.” He ate another bite before asking, “Is it okay to ask how they passed?”
Her mind flashed to all those years ago. Being called out of English class and seeing Axel waiting for her in the principal’s office. The devastation on his face. He’d only been a young man himself, and yet he’d been her rock. He’d been the rock for all their siblings.
Xander squeezed her hand, and she swallowed past the lump in her throat. “Plane crash. It was their twenty-fifth wedding anniversary, and they’d chartered one of those little Cessnas over to Victoria.”
“Freya, baby, I’m so sorry.”
She turned her hand and laced her fingers with his. She wasn’t going to question the comfort she found in his touch. Instead, she was going to embrace her new mantra and just go with it. “Somehow, we made it through, but it was a rough few years.” She lowered her voice in an exaggerated whisper. “Believe it or not, I wasn’t exactly the easiest teenager.”
Understatement of the century. Her biggest act of rebellion had had devastating consequences. It was something she’d never forgive herself for.
“Even though I know my brothers mean well, they drive me crazy. Especially Axel, the oldest. He was twenty-three when our folks passed. The twins were nineteen, and my other brother was eighteen. Axel became my legal guardian, so I didn’t have to go into foster care. He took on the father-figure role as best he could, and I’m sure you can imagine how smoothly—or not smoothly in my case—that went.” The edges of her lips tipped up in a bittersweet smile. “With hindsight, I can see that Axel sacrificed the most for all of us. Even so, he’s also the one I want to strangle the most. Considering he’s a detective with the Blanchard Bay PD, that would be frowned upon.”
“I’d say so.” Xander chuckled. “And your other brothers?”
“The twins—Oscar and Jasper—are four years younger than Axel and run the construction company our dad started years ago. Then there’s Finn. He’s an EMT and probably the one I’m closest to.” She smiled. “I’ll be staying with him for Thanksgiving so Axel and I don’t kill each other.”
“Is it that bad?”
“Yes and no. He treats me like I’m an irresponsible teenager, and so I revert to said teenager to piss him off.” She shrugged. “Rinse and repeat.”
It was on the tip of her tongue to tell XanderwhyAxel treated her the way he did. That she had, in fact, been the mostirresponsible of all teenagers and had hurt so many people. Destroyed so many lives. But that wasn’t a conversation she wanted to have. Ever. She enjoyed how Xander treated her—like she was special and good. If he knew what she’d done all those years ago...
She cleared her throat. “What about you? You mentioned joining the Army and then Hudson Security? What about your family? Are they still in Oregon?”
A look flashed over his face before it settled into a carefully blank expression, one that was similar to his work-Xander look. “No family. Apparently, my mom was a junkie who OD’d when I was three. I went into foster care and bounced around until I ended up at a group home at fifteen. I got into a lot of trouble, was a hothead who knew everything.” He gazed off to the side, as if carefully choosing his words. “A couple guys I hung with got picked up for robbing a convenience store. I was supposed to be with them but got the meet-up time wrong. One of the guys had just turned eighteen. He was armed and got nine years. That was a big wake-up call.”
Her heart went out to him. “I’m sorry. That must have been tough.”
“It was what it was.” He shrugged. “After that, I did my best to keep my nose clean until I could enlist.”
“Was joining the Army what you’d hoped it was going to be?”
“It was definitely different than what I’d expected.” A small smile lifted the edges of his lips, softening his guarded look. “It was good. It gave me structure I didn’t know I needed. Gave me brothers I didn’t know I wanted.”
Her chest squeezed. The man was remarkable. “Well, you should be proud of yourself.”
His eyes narrowed in question.
“My brothers and I had our folks as role models. We had them for shorter than we wanted, but we saw the kind of peoplewe wanted to be. My brothers are giant pains in the ass, but they’re stand-up guys. And you, Xander Bonetti, are a good man, and you did it all on your own. That’s beyond admirable.” She held his gaze and silently dared him to look away. He didn’t. “I can see in your eyes you don’t believe me. But trust me, Xander. It’s impressive.You’reimpressive.”
He shook his head and brought their still-joined hands to his lips. He pressed a kiss to the back of her palm and stood. “You’re too sweet. Now, how about that movie?”
He didn’t believe her, but that was okay. She was persistent and could be patient when she wanted to be. And with Xander, she wanted to be. “Sure,” she said, rising. She grabbed their empty plates and brought them to him at the sink. “I can load the dishwasher since you cooked.”
“No way in hell, baby.” He dropped a kiss to her forehead. “Why don’t you go pick a movie, and I’ll clean up here.”
Wrapping her arms around his waist, she pulled him into a hug. His arms went around her, and she propped her chin on his chest, looking up at him. “Thank you again for dinner. For the conversation. For the make-out session. For being so good to me.”
His hands framed her face, and his lips found hers. “Thankyou. You make everything easy. Now go find us a good movie.”
