He shook his head and took a big bite from the burger he’d been trying to foist off on her. “I’m concerned about my cousin’s tender heart.”
“Really, Jake?”
“He keeps looking over at you and glaring at me. Squeeze my bicep again. I don’t think he likes it when you do that.” Jake’s expression became pure evil.
“Stop it, Jake. You’ll…”
Her sentence was cut short by the sound of a huge cheer. Abby turned around and saw Sadie Grace wrapped around the rope, feet poised on a large knot, swinging wildly about and screaming to be pushed higher, an order everyone was ignoring.
“You wouldn’t know but Sadie’s mum, Grace, was a calm, quiet soul who was peace personified. After she died, Rayah helped out and I’m pretty sure somehow the Maynard genes hopped onto that tiny baby and destroyed any chance Jonny had of never going grey.” Jake shook his head and pointed at his sister. “Rayah should come with a warning.”
“Those kids adore her.”
“They do. And she would walk over hot coals and sharpened nails for them.”
Abby saw Jake’s face morph into something more than the playboy he portrayed. He adored his sister, every bone in her body.
“You should be proud.”
“I am. I am of Alex too.” The look in his eyes changed. “And I don’t want him to be hurt.”
Abby took a step back, unsure of what to say or where to look.
Jake shook his head. “No, Abby, don’t look like that. I don’t for one second think you’d do anything deliberate to hurt him. I don’t think you have any agenda other than whatever it is you’re doing here. But I’ve never known Alex to ask anyone to stay with him. Or look at a girl like he’s looking at you now.”
She turned to see where Alex was now, standing around a small bonfire that had been lit, a bottle of IPA in his hand, his hair mussed by the breeze and as well as by his fingers, because messing with his hair was his go-to habit.
She might’ve studied him a bit over the last couple of years.
Something in her chest exploded and she tried to quieten it.
“I’m not going to hurt him.”
Jake didn’t reply straight away. Then he grinned broadly, around his eyes crinkled and a deep chuckle erupted.
“You git. You’ve just got me to confess.” She’d been had.
“What’s my cousin doing to you?” Alex appeared behind her.
Abby wished he’d put a hand on her, a touch to her back or the glimpse of a finger over her skin, but she knew he didn’t think she wanted that.
Hell, she didn’t know what she wanted.
“He’s trying to force feed me.” She gave Jake another glare.
Alex raised an eyebrow. “Stop digging for gossip.”
Jake looked entirely too innocent. “Abby was just telling me about how you’re no longer a two-pump chump. So I guess you’ve improved since Michelle Bowles told everyone about how you…”
“And stop right there else I’ll find a whole bank of memories I just need to share as soon as the kids are packed off to bed.”
She felt Alex’s hand rest on the small of her back, just above where her ass started to curve. It was a possessive touch, one she’d missed, one that made her heart dance a rumba and the first hint of panic start to sprinkle in her stomach.
There were so many “what ifs”. Too many.
Abby swallowed and remembered that she was the woman who climbed Everest. She abseiled down cliff faces before breakfast and she led men who were the top of their fields across terrains that had taken lives.
She was more than a woman whose sister was missing. She was more than the events in her life.
