“I don’t think I want to do this, Blue.”
“I’ll do it for you, then, and when I find out you are part of the overly intelligent, tight-ass race, I won’t share that with you.”
He glared at her. “Hilarious.”
She looked good sitting in his kitchen. Right, Jay thought, but he kept that to himself.
When they’d eaten, he stacked the plates in the dishwasher while she poured more coffee. Then he wiped the counter down. Easy jobs that hundreds of couples did all the time—Jay and Blue weren’t a couple, though.
“Right, so you need to give me your passwords so I can get into your laptop,” she said, pulling it closer.
“Not happening.” Jay took it back and unlocked it.
“It really hurts that you don’t trust me, Jay.”
“That look’s not fooling anyone,” he said, taking the seat beside her. He then went to his emails and found the one he’d received back with his DNA details.
“You could be a cyborg,” she said, trying the lighten the sudden tension that was filling his kitchen.
He didn’t answer.
“Do you have the full report?”
Jay nodded and opened the attachment.
“Okay, so my friend back in New York did this and said you need to look for the inclusion match and exclusion no matches.”
He let her talk while he read. It eased some of the tension inside Jay to know he wasn’t doing this alone.
“Jay,” Blue whispered suddenly after they’d been reading for a while.
“I see it, Blue.”
“There.” She jabbed a finger at his laptop screen. “You have a half sister, and her name is Hazel Davis.”
He just stared at it. For so long, Jay had wanted a blood sibling of his own. The Dukes were his family, but he wanted a link to someone.
“Your mother,” Blue whispered. “I wonder if she’s still alive?”
“I-I don’t know.”
Blue’s eyes were scanning the screen. She’d taken control and was scrolling down as she read. Jay watched her in a daze.
“It’s probably wrong of me to say this about a woman I don’t know, but I was hoping she was dead,” she hissed.
“I agree with you,” he managed to get out.But he had a half sibling.
She looked at him then, a frown creasing between her eyes. Blue then wrapped her arms around his neck and pulled him in close. “I’m sorry, I was so caught up in making you look at these, I didn’t consider what you must be feeling. Are you okay, Jay?”
He pushed his face into her neck and inhaled her sweet scent. It steadied him.
A half sister named Hazel. The thought shouldn’t shock him as much as it did. He knew what his mother was capable of. He’d lain in his room listening some nights while she was in the one next door with a man.
“I’m okay, Blue.” He eased back. Jay had tried hard in his life not to rely on people. Sure, the Dukes had broken through that shield a time or two, but never completely.
He’d built an impenetrable shell around his emotions—or the ones his childhood made him feel, at least. Right then he could feel the walls of that shell shaking.
She cupped his face and stared hard at him. It was uncomfortable, and he thought she saw too much. Like he was walking down the main street naked, which, of course, he had done.
