He grins, and then I’m being swallowed in a giant bear hug that has my eyes even wetter.
“This is so cool,” he says as he lets me go. “I’ve never had a sister. My cousin Sabrina’s close, but it’s not the same.”
I manage to get the emotions under control, and I’m almost steady as I reply, “I’ve never had a brother either. Or anything close.”
“Well, now you have three.” He winces. “Kind of.”
“Decker’s suspicious,” I say. Can’t help it. Tackling elephants is what I do.
He winces harder. “It’s not you. It’s him. He’s not a people person. He’s a people-he-knows person, but not a people person in general.”
“It’s okay. I know it takes more than blood to make family.”
“Yeah. Good thing too, because my dad—” He pauses and gives me one of those awkward looks that I’ve gotten very familiar with since I started making an effort to get to know as many people as I can in my department at work, not just my direct reports, but as many people as I can. “My dad’s fucking awesome, and there’s no other way to put it. He’s family, no matter what’s in our veins. We don’t want to hurt him.”
“I’m good at keeping secrets,” I tell him. “If your parents find out we share a little DNA, it won’t be through me. Promise.”
I’ll lie to him about other things, but not this.
Honestly?
I think his mother was smart to keep the truth from them, even if the lingering question is if she’s kept the truth from their dad too.
And much as I want the triplets’ help, I won’t lay who I really am, and also the favor I’d like to ask, at their feet unless it’s clear they’re open to it.
Not having their help will make finishing the job of destroying my father harder, but not impossible.
Nothing’s impossible.
But I’ve been looking for a smoking gun for four years, and they’re it.
If they ultimately don’t want to help—nope.
Can’t even think about facing another four years of pretending to be happy every time I see my parents, that I love working beneath my father, that I’m not ready to take his position by force and do to him what he did to Daphne.
Or as close as I can come to it.
Lucky blows out a breath. “I appreciate it. We all do. It’s just?—”
“Family’s complicated, and I don’t want to make it worse.”
“Yeah. That. That’s how we feel too. Speaking of complicated…Rhys here?”
“No, he left a few minutes ago.”
“Everything okay there? I’m really sorry?—”
“Oh, don’t be sorry. Honestly. I appreciate you letting me stay here. And if sharing a cabin for a few days is what it takes, that’s fine. Rhys was—ah, he was understandably grumpy. But I guess I don’t have to set up any more home security systems while he’s here, huh?”
Lucky grins again. “Unless you want to have some fun. Decker and Jack and me might have set up a few booby traps in our time.”
My eyes burn again.
Daphne’s always channeled her energy into things like saving the polar bears or stopping climate change, but if we’d grown up in a less high-pressure environment, she absolutely would’ve channeled her energy into something fun like this.
Lucky lifts his brows at me. “You okay?”
“Yes! Yes.” I rub at my eyes. “Dust. Bad thing to be reactive to for a housekeeper, but it’s fine.”
