“I was in one of Owen’s stores when I checked my phone and saw five thousand missed calls from the brothers. Owen drove me here and stopped the meltdown from happening. And kept his head enough to make sure I brought Elizabeth’s gift,” Payton said, handing a bag across the bed to Killian who laughed.
“This could’ve waited. You’ve even managed to wrap it,” he said, pulling one of the books out of the bag.
“Elizabeth says thank you and she’ll let you indoctrinate her when she’s old enough for them to be suitable,” Claire said, looking at the tiny baby.
“How do you know what they are?” Payton said, disbelief in her voice. “Can you see through paper now? Is that a pregnancy superpower?”
Killian snorted. “Her only pregnancy superpowers were being as bitchy as fuck and more demanding than normal, which I didn’t think was humanly possible.”
“I’ve just been cut open so your spawn could be delivered safely. You could at least be complementary about my superpowers,” she said, shifting in the bed and holding the baby out to Payton. “If you hadn’t bought her theHarry Potterseries I’d have been worried. Hold your niece.”
Payton took her as if she was made of glass, her face lighting up with pure adoration. I hoped there would be someone to reign in what she bought Elizabeth for birthdays and Christmas, else there’d be one hugely spoilt girl at some point.
“She’s so tiny and pink.”
“You should’ve seen her straight after,” Claire said. “I’ve never heard anyone say newborns were cute and she illustrated exactly why. She also screamed the place down, a bit like you do when you’re not allowed any more margaritas. Her screaming was the most wonderful sound in the world. Killian’s sobbing was not.”
Killian was clearly a wise man as he simply smiled and shook his head, looking at the books. “These are gorgeous. Thank you Payton and Owen.”
I raised my brows at him and he passed me the tag. She’d put my name on there too.
Chapter Five
Payton
During the journeyback the city I tried not to think about the state I’d left my apartment in or the clothes that were strewn everywhere. My swearing off men equated in my mind to not having to tidy up the hurricane that I left behind wherever I went.
I decided on the way home Owen clearly had magical powers as he’d managed to charm all of my family, my brothers included. He was easy going, intelligent and seemed to know what to say at the right time—completely the opposite to my usual foot-in-mouth haphazard manner.
“Do you want to stop and get dinner from somewhere?” he said as my stomach rumbled for the ninth time. “I’m not inviting myself back to yours—I have a frozen meal in at home courtesy of my mother who’s not realised that I’m thirty-two and can cook for myself yet.”
“Don’t turn it down. Parental meals aren’t something that should cease. When I moved back here from Manchester my mum came over with about sixteen frozen containers for me and Seph, with a list of instructions how to heat each one up,” I said, fighting fatigue. I was still on the verge of tears which was not a place I wanted to remain in, especially in front of Owen again. He was going to think I was a complete weakling and not the strong woman I thought I was most of the time.
He switched lanes, avoiding an idiot who was trying to race through London. “What were you doing in Manchester?”
“We had a satellite office there that we decided to expand. I went up there for six months to help it get off the ground. It should’ve been longer but Seph split from his girlfriend and started to go off the rails, so I came back as soon as everything was pretty much sorted,” I said, remembering the state my twin had been in when I returned. He was drinking too much, not sleeping enough and fucking anything with tits and long hair, usually female. He’d turned into a party-addicted manwhore and refused to listen to anyone.
I saw Owen’s arm muscle tense as he changed gears and felt a forgotten clench between my legs. I was attracted to him, but then most straight females would be as he was gorgeous in a gym-geek kind of way, but he was also a good guy and that had thrown me. I wasn’t usually the girl who went for the decent men; I had a tendency to target the overly groomed metrosexuals who haunted the city in search of a personality. So Owen, with his gorgeousness and charisma and charm was sending me completely off-kilter. Because I wasn’t dating anyone.
“You and Seph are close?” he said, glancing at me, interest in his eyes.
I pulled my hair back from my face, yearning for a shower to get rid of the hospital smell. “We all are, I suppose. But I’m close to Seph in a different way. He’s never been cross with me or blamed me, other than for wrecking his bike when we were kids. We’ve never fallen out and I know that’s weird. How about you? Do you have brothers and sisters?”
“No. I’m an only child,” he said. “So your family seems huge to me. What are your thoughts on food?”
“You’re hungry, aren’t you?” I cast my eyes over him and laughed. He was a big man and we hadn’t eaten since the pastries in my office. “There’s a pizza place near my apartment if you want to join me and don’t mind ignoring the complete disaster of a mess that is my home.”
He laughed. “I’m used to messes. And pizza sounds good. I could eat anything right now. How about your other siblings? Do you all get along?”
“We’re tight, but we do argue sometimes. Maxwell is stubborn and bossy pretty much all of the time. Jackson was a workaholic until he met Vanessa; he’s a bit calmer and more of a planner. Claire’s always been really together and focused while Ava’s a charmer and flirts through life. Callum’s been away for years and has his own issues. Marie’s mine, Seph’s and Ava’s mum. The other four lost their mother when they were young—I think Cal was only about two. What’s being an only child like?” I said.
My family was usually a subject of conversation for someone who was new to us. Big families were rare and the closeness of us was unusual to everyone else. To me, it was normal. I loved my siblings and they were my best friends. The message from Seph about Claire had rocked me this morning and I wasn’t sure how to recover from it, other than staring at the million photos I’d taken of her and Elizabeth.
Owen grinned and skipped a track. He’d picked the music and we’d listened to acoustic sets for most of the way back. It had been relaxing and more chilled out than I was used to. “I had a weird childhood. My mum’s a hippy for want of a better description and liked to move to where she felt she was called. We lived by ourselves sometimes, but always near to friends and people she’d met over the years. Sometimes we lived in shared houses and communes. I was home schooled for a lot of it until I hit fourteen and then my mum managed to stay in one place while I did my exams and then got into university. Different from having the same family all the time,” he said. I watched his face as he spoke and saw no sign of sadness or regret at how his childhood had been.
“You sound like you were happy,” I said.
He nodded. “It was normal to me and I was resilient as a child. From being little I knew how to make friends and suss people out, so I could generally tell who was a nice person and who to avoid.”
