“So are Hendrix and Constantine. You don’t hate them.”
“That’s different,” I hastily refute, even though his point hits its target because he’s right.
I’ve never been jealous of Hen or Con. Not once. Not when it came to Aoife when we were kids, and not now with Syn. So why am I jealous of him?
“Why?” he asks, mirroring my thoughts.
“Because they’re my bro—” I realize what I’m about to say and don’t, but Aleksander finishes it for me.
“Brothers,” he replies with a monotonously sad inflection.
Feeling like an asshole, I face him. We may not look alike, but for the first time, I can see the resemblance. The shared traits. They’re subtle, but they’re there. The same shape of the eyes and fullness of our lips. The same dimples when we smile, which we do often whenever we’re with Syn. The same heart-shaped freckle on the outer helix of our left ear that can only be passed down genetically. Syn looked it up when she noticed we both had one.
“Yeah, they are. Syn once told me, sometimes the best families aren’t the ones you’re born into, but the people you choose to love, who love you back without end or obligation or expectation. Found family, she calls it. Francesco wanted us to be enemies. Don’t let him win.”
Aleksander’s eyes meet mine, and for the first time, they hold steady.
“Sorry I’m late,” Dierdre says out of breath when she joins us.
I hook my arm around her waist, then take a chance and cuff Aleksander’s shoulder, completing the sibling connection. “You’re right on time.”
Shielding her eyes with her hand, she looks out over the meadow of sunflowers. “Oh, this is beautiful, Aleksander.”
“Aleksei liked coming here. It was his favorite place.”
“It’s a perfect spot.” She slips out from my arm and walks into the meadow, playing her fingers over the tops of the tall grass. “Hey, Aleksei. It’s your big sis.”
Aleksander moves closer to my side, my hand still on his shoulder, and we listen to our sister talk to the brother I regret not giving a chance to know before he was gone.
Thirty-One
“See you back at the house,”Dierdre says, hugging Tristan, then me, before getting into her rental car.
“She needs something to drive when she’s here that’s not a POS mid-size.”
Once the baby comes, she’ll be staying at the house for a while to help Syn. Wasted money to pay for a rental for that amount of time.
Tristan opens the driver’s side door of the Range Rover, his gaze following Dierdre’s taillights as they disappear around the bend. “We’ve offered to let her drive one of ours, but she always declines.”
“Talk to Cillian. She won’t say no to him.”
He grimaces. “Still can’t believe that they’re together. She’s…” He waves a hand around. “And he’s…” More hand gestures. “They’re complete opposites.”
“Who like to have sex together,” I say just to wind him up.
If glares could melt steel, I’d be a puddle on the asphalt. “Didn’t need that image seared into my brain, asshole. Honestly, I don’t get it, but if it makes her happy.” He slides into the driver’s seat and shuts the door.
Setting the sunflowers I picked for Syn in the back, I get in on my side and buckle up. The engine roars quietly to life, a purr of sound that vibrates under my feet. Tristan checks his mirrors before pulling onto the road.
“Thanks for letting me come out.”
I turn my gaze from the scenery blurring past my window. “He wasn’t a bad person.”
Aleksei did some stupid stuff, but he was a good brother.
“He did hold a gun to my head,” Tristan quips.
And would’ve killed Constantine and Syn that morning at the Knight estate, but he leaves that unsaid.
