“Oh, you’rethatJulian?” Ray said sweetly by way of greeting. “Ila had a crush on you, you know?”
Ila smacked her arm. “I said he had nice eyes. In what way is that a crush?”
“I don’t mind.” Julian laughed. “It makes me feel young.”
“Really? You’re four years older than me. How is that old?” I demanded.
“By four years.” He deadpanned.
I snorted. I’d forgotten how much I liked his sense of humor.
“You’re here by yourselves?” He glanced down the corridor as if our guys would hang around here.
“Oh, no,” I said. “Ila and Ray are both married. They’re here with their husbands.”
“And you?” he asked me, in full, overprotective brother mode.
Ugh. “I have a date.”
“Good.” He nodded, then said to Ila, “I saw the wedding photos in the papers. Max Sinclair. I know his father, met Max once.”
“You should stop by and say hi,” Ila said.
“Give me a minute.” He disappeared into the men’s room.
“I didn’t know you had a stepbrother?” Ray said.
“From my mother’s fourth marriage. I liked Julian and his father a lot. When Charles died, it was hard. Julian was wonderful to the lonely girl foisted on his family through our parents’ marriage. But he and my mother don’t see eye-to-eye. So, I seldom get to see him since Charles’ death. Still, he does occasionally call to check on how I’m doing.”
“He seems very protective,” Ray said.
“Oh, he is,” Ila murmured with a smile. “Remember uni, Char? The guys treaded carefully around us when he was there.”
As Ila filled Ray in about Julian and the cold looks he rained down on the poor guys who liked us, I remained silent. I’d been dating Steven back then, another dickwad unbeknown to me. I was just one of his many. Julian found out and punched him, sending him skedaddling from my life. It hurt a lot to find out the truth about my so-called boyfriend back then.
So yeah, I knew my brother. Either way, he would have escorted us back to our table to vet out who I was with. And I wondered if he’d seen War and me on social media.
“He’s back,” I said, hiding my trepidation at the meeting of my beloved stepbrother and my boyfriend as Julian strolled to us.
When the two glaciers met…I prayed to God they bypassed quietly.
WAR
“So you and Charli, eh?” Max eyed me curiously. He drew the nacho platter from Jack, picked up a cheesy drizzled chip, and ate it.
The food came, but not the girls, causing my restlessness to hike.
I nodded, taking a sip of my water.
Jack snorted, leaning back in his seat, ice gray eyes gleaming. “Hard to say when he looks about as excited as a puddle of old rainwater.”
Yeah, that was payback for when I tried to stop him from going after Ray.
“Just think if I hadn’t set Ray up with Cal,” I drawled, “you’d still be moping about.”
He laughed, didn’t seem to care about my ribbing. “True. Do I still want to break Cal’s jaw? You can bet your life on it. But I’m damn grateful she took a chance on me. She is all that is right in my life.”
Something inside me fisted at his words. Yes, I was aware, he and Max had some serious messed-up family issues. Max blamed himself for his mother’s death. Jack never spoke about his problems, and he didn’t care much for his grandmother and her meddling. And yet, somehow, they managed to overcome it all, fall for their wives, and win their hearts. Their contentment gave me a little hope, but instilled a damn lot of fear in me, too, because my past was worse than theirs.
