“And then rearranged her kitchen,” I say dryly.
Her eyes narrow. “I was just organizing.”
“So she couldn’t find anything?”
“Excuse me for?—”
Someone clears their throat and Briar and I freeze. Slowly, I tear my gaze from her beautiful face and remember…
We’re not alone.
And everyone is watching us.
There are smiles all around—on every face except for Thorn, that is.
But he’s not scowling, which is a freaking miracle in and of itself.
“Here’s your plate,” Chrissy says brightly, bringing it over to Briar.
“Thanks.”
The quiet stretches for a moment before Rory says something outrageous, making everyone laugh as they eat. Then Chrissy’s baby starts crying and Rome jumps in with diaper duty while she preps a bottle. King and Jean-Michel start discussing the team’s upcoming road trip game while River fusses over everyone—though she at least makes her way through her own plate as she buzzes about.
It’s chaotic and loud and it’s far from the first time I’ve been swept up in the whirlwind of people that Jace brought into my life.
At first, it was weird, overwhelming.
Then it became like home.
But is Briar feeling the same?
Or is she—a woman who’s spent far too much time alone—stuck in overwhelm like the other day?
My gaze keeps going to her, watching, waiting for any sign this all might be too much. But though she’s quiet and subdued, sitting on the floor next to the giant ass cat tower that now dominates my living room, a pair of kittens in her lap, she seems relaxed.
She absently pets the cats, her mouth curved into a small smile as she takes in the craziness that’s become my normal.
“You okay?”
I turn to Jace, though it’s remarkably hard for me to tear my gaze from Briar. “I’m not the one who’s been through a nightmare.”
His eyebrows lift. “Haven’t you?”
“I shouldn’t have walked away,” I mutter. “This shit is all my fault.”
“I think thisshitis much deeper than any of us realize—Jean-Michel’s ex showing up after everyone thought she was dead and creating a nightmare for him and Chrissy, not to mention all that shit with Cam and Attie?—”
Cam plays for the Eagles and his wife is an FBI agent who was shot during the investigation of Jean-Michel’s ex and a group of human traffickers linked to the Lyons.
“—not to mention the attacks on our companies and the blackmail and letters and everything that happened with Briar.”
I blink. “You think it’s all connected?”
“Do you somehow think it’snot?”
“I didn’t even know Jean-Michel until you started working with him,” I hedge, though somehow, I know he’s right.
“And when was that?”
