Page 336 of The Romance Adventure

Which we both are, but of what? I’m not entirely sure.

Jolie

CHAPTER 5

My adult male husband—not a little kid hiding from his parents—lets out a long sigh and says, “Looks like they found us.”

“Were we hiding? Correction, why were we hiding?” For a second there, I thought I was going to have to reveal that I am capable of handling a couple of thieves if those guys came here to rob the joint.

CJ tips his head from side to side. “Buckle up, it’s going to be a bumpy ride.”

“I find that hard to believe.”

“You don’t have three older brothers. Or do you?”

I playfully swat him. “No, I’m an only child.”

As far as I know, that’s true. There’s no telling whether Kent Von Dräger and his long list of aliases had other offspring.

Getting to my feet, I smooth my linen pants and set the cup of horchata on the counter.

A strong fist bangs on the door.

A male calls, “We know you’re in there.”

“I have to pee, CJ,” a female says.

My husband opens the door. “Hello, welcome to our home. So glad you came by unannounced. How’d you get past the gate?”

That’s a good question. Palm Cove Villa is a secluded hideaway, but in my line of work, I take my safety seriously. Losing my house key notwithstanding.

One by one, six people and a baby enter the kitchen through the back door.

“Isla, the bathroom is down that way.” CJ points.

Her smile is borderline apologetic. “I don’t actually have to pee. I just knew that would get you to open up.”

CJ pouts. “Not fair using your pregnancy to pull on my heartstrings.”

“Don’t tell me you were going to ignore us,” says a guy with dark hair and slightly taller than CJ.

Two of the men look a lot alike. They all do, relatively speaking, unmistakably brothers, but especially two of them.

Did I run a background check on CJ? Yes.

But the results were minimal—just the usual with date and location of birth, current address, family, and occupation—deep-sea diver. No record to speak of, except for a couple of traffic tickets. In his spare time, he looks for treasure. When I asked around, I learned that he held specific ties to the one I want to find.

Chip Junior McGregor is just a regular guy with a larger-than-life family. Seriously, they’re all exceptionally tall. Even one of the women is, but I don’t think she’s the sister.

Making themselves at home, they take various positions around the kitchen. The woman who had to pee sits at the dinette along with the woman holding the baby—age estimate: just over twelve months. He babbles, saying what sounds like, “Dino.”

“I’m Uncle Dino, for dinosaur.” CJ makes goofy dinosaur noises and the baby giggles with delight. “And I’m the first person to get two syllables out of this kid.”

“He’s working on saying Mama,” Harley says.

“Nah. Dada will be first,” Ryan says.

“Nice house,” the guy who looks a lot like the guy with the baby says.