Page 5

“She’s a personal chef and here for our mom.” I try to inject as much older brother ferocity and cool indifference as possible. The reminder of Sage’s relationship with our mother, and reason for being here, is for both of us.

Not that Reese was implying any interest in her. He just wants an idea of what he’s walking into. This new addition to our family tradition is throwing him off.

“She seems fine. Quiet. Nice.” There. A succinct but truthful answer. There’s no more time for questions as we finally make it to the kitchen and dining area where Sybil, Mars, our mother, and Sage sit. They all seem to be getting along like old friends.

Reese elbows my side “Dude.” I have to bite my tongue, this dude shit is getting old. Reese keeps going, his voice a hurried whisper, like he needs to get this out but doesn’t want anyone else to hear. “You didn’t say the chef was a fox.”

His words grate on my skin. I’m preparing to drag him away from our family by his arm and rip him a new one or two but he’s saved by our mother.

“Reese! My love, come, sit, eat. I want you to meet Sage.” Mother waves him over frantically and I do my best to ignore the tell-tale gleam in her eyes. I also do my best to ignore the stupid grin pulling at my middle brother’s face as he takes in the pair of us, no doubt hearing at least a snippet of Reese’s exclamation.

Reese saunters over to the table with all the adults and sits next to Sage, introducing himself properly before his focus strays to the grazing board the caterer prepared for us, reaching out and plucking up a grape and tossing it into his mouth.

“Does anyone need a drink before I sit?” My family voices that they’re fine but, of course, Ms. Bergen stands and walks towards me. I have to fight to keep my eyes from widening in panic. The point of offering to get drinks was to give myself a moment away from her. Shit. Shit. She was getting closer and I was just standing here like an idiot.

“Can you please point me to the restroom?” Before I can react to her quiet question, Reese pushes back from his chair, offering, “I can show you, Sage.” The kid hustles around the table and starts to walk Sage to the half bath down the hall. I can hear them chatting as they get farther and farther away.

Stomping into the kitchen, I open the door to my refrigerator with a little more force than necessary and pull out a bottle of water. With the fridge open, I take a few quick breaths of cold air. I don’t need any of my family to see the flustered expression I’m sure is painted across my face.

I need to get my shit together.

Sure, my mother’s companion is the sexiest woman I’ve seen in years and, sure, I want to kick my family out of my house so I can sweep everything off my kitchen table and make a feast of her lush curvy body. However, we’ve exchanged no more than a few words, she’s younger than me, and she’s a guest in my home for the next week. Oh, and she works for my mother! She might as well have ‘forbidden’ stamped across her forehead.

I down half of my water bottle before I feel that I’ve calmed down enough that I can keep my dirty thoughts about Sage out of my head and rejoin my family for the night.

“Oh, dear, would you mind grabbing Sage a bottle of water?” My mother calls out to me, unintentionally giving me a few more moments to compose myself.

“Of course, Mother.” I spin on my heel and run right into Ms. Bergen. It feels like everything is moving in slow-motion as our bodies collide. She bounces off me like a pinball and in an attempt to save her from bruising her delicious backside, I wrap my arms around her waist and pull her against my body.

That would have been fine and dandy, if not for the fact that my water bottle wasn’t properly closed and when I make my move to keep Sage from falling down, my grip tightens in anticipation of our collision. The crinkle of plastic feels like a sonic boom and any water that had remained in the bottle turns into a geyser, coming up her back and over her head.

The poor girl’s drenched. I manage to escape with barely a drop on me even though my arms are still hugging her body against mine. Of course, that’s when time starts moving at normal speed. I’m assaulted by the thunderous laughter of my brothers, my mother’s gasp of horror and my nephew’s, “ooooooh.”

Sybil and Julie instantly move to the top of my favorite family members lists, both blissfully silent during the spectacle.

4

SAGE

Holy fucking ravioli.

I’d tried to be stealthy.

I thought waiting until I heard retreating footsteps would save me from the awkward back and forth shuffle that happens when two people walk into the same space at the same time. That would have been so much better than what actually happened.

Of-freaking-course I had to screw up trying to avoid awkwardness. In front of everyone, if the background sounds were any indication, I couldn’t bring myself to open my eyes to the reality of what just happened. And, of course, I had to run into the one member of Bea’s family who seemed especially perturbed by my presents at their family get together.

I thought I’d be able to take a moment for myself in the bathroom, then rejoin everyone and complain about jet lag or something, giving me the perfect excuse to take myself to my temporary room for the rest of the night. I need to decompress from meeting so many new people and had assumed this would be the best time to use that excuse without much push back from Bea.

In truth, I feel wired and jittery. Bea’s family is so different from my own and it feels wrong to not be fussing about in the kitchen. The kitchen has always been my safe space and the idea of not being able to cook a meal, any meal, for a whole week is making my skin feel tight and hot.

Well, that and Bea’s wildly attractive single sons.

It’s incredible how similar Bea looks like her two younger sons. It’s like she hit copy and paste then stretched the images. It’s also wild how different York looks from the rest of the family, he seems much cooler than the rest of the Snyder clan. His dark coloring, the much more formal way of dressing and glasses all contribute to helping him stand out in the most annoyingly tantalizing way. He must take after their father.

Lost in those thoughts, I bounced off his hard body and was fully prepared to eat shit in this lovely home in front of this kind family. I accepted my fate, knowing I’ll just be embarrassed as hell for the next week. Then I’ll just never ever ever ever do anything to let Bea talk me into visiting any of her family members again. I’ll take a vacation if any of them ever decide to visit her.

I’m spiraling mentally, preparing for contact with the hard floor against my back. It takes me a little longer than I’d like to admit to realize it never comes. No, instead, my front makes contact with something hard. My boobs are squished up between me and the hard surface but since I scrunched up my eyes to prepare for the fall, I’m straight up refusing to open them.