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Lydia laughs and my face heats up again. “Okay, that is plenty of detail for me.”

“Are you sure?” I tease her, safe in the knowledge that she won’t actually press me for more information. “I can tell you all kinds of things…”

“Oh, gross, no.” Lydia laughs harder. “Absolutely not!”

We get the dry and wet ingredients mixed for the various doughs, then scoop them out to get them baked. “So, you got me alone,” Lydia says. “Feel free to pump me for information any time.”

“Oh, so fair’s fair?”

“Sure, if you want to call it that. But maybe I’m just excited to share embarrassing stories from Ford’s misspent youth.” Lydia winks at me.

“I can’t imagine Ford ‘misspending’ anything,” I admit with a chuckle.

“Oh, he was always very focused on what he wanted to do when he grew up and who he wanted to become. I admired him so much for that clarity. But don’t worry, I still have plenty of embarrassing stories.”

Lydia launches into them as I help press out the shapes for the sugar cookies and get them onto baking sheets. My fingers are shaking with laughter. What surprises me as she talks is that I didn’t realize Ford met Gabriel and Hayden when they were so young.

“They were only teenagers when they met?” I ask. “I didn’t know that.”

“I’m surprised you didn’t,” Lydia admits.

We load the cookies into the oven.

“All three of them are incredibly private,” I admit. “It feels like pulling teeth sometimes to get personal information out of them.”

“Oh, man, I can imagine. But that’s why I view Hayden and Gabriel like older brothers to me, too. They’ve always been around, and with the age difference, it really does feel like they’ve been in my life since the beginning.”

“I love that,” I tell her honestly. I’ve wondered sometimes if having an older sibling would have made my life turn out differently—to have someone else who could have my back and support me. To have three men who are so reliable and protective, there for you… that would have been incredible.

Not that I want Hayden, Ford, and Gabriel to be like brothers to me. Far from it.

Honestly, hearing how close they all were, and how they could be so relaxed in casual settings, not just as business partners, has me wondering… they seemed to team up so often on pranks and adventures…

What other things could they team up on…

Stop it, I tell myself sternly, slapping that thought away. It’s ridiculous and will never happen. There’s no point thinking about it. All it would do is embarrass and distract me, and the last thing I need right now is even more confusion.

“I didn’t realize that the three of them were so interconnected,” I note. “I mean—I knew that they were business partners, but it’s another thing entirely to hear about them just goofing off and being teenagers together.”

“I know, they’re so private and they try so hard to be intimidating.” Lydia laughs with the confidence of a younger sibling who feels entirely safe around her older brothers, knowing that the rest of the world might find them scary, but not her. “I know Dad didn’t like Hayden and Gabriel being around so much.”

“Oh?” I had picked up on the fact that Mr. Kingsley doesn’t seem to be proud of Ford the way his wife is. He’s been very quiet, and has barely said two words to me.

But now that I think about it, he’s barely spoken to Hayden or Gabriel, either.

Lydia nods. “He thinks that they were a bad influence on Ford, and convinced him to take the path that he has. But between you and me—I really admire Ford for striking out on his own like he did. I want to do the same thing.” She grimaces. “Although I’m not sure mine will make as much money.”

“What do you want to do?” The cookies are in the oven, so we start cleaning up.

“I’m in school for fine art,” Lydia admits. “I’m also getting a marketing degree, but that’s just to help Dad feel better about it. I, um, told him that I’m taking graphic design, not fine art, so he thinks that I’ll go into advertising design or something. It’s not his favorite but at least it’s steady work, and you can open up an advertising firm when you get good enough.”

“But that’s not what you want,” I guess.

“Nope. I want to make art for a living. There are so many amazing mediums out there. Silk flowers, three-dimensional pieces you can peer into, cut glass, large installations… I’ve been experimenting with performance art on campus and it’s been incredible.”

“I love that,” I tell her. “I’m not artistic at all, but I think that’s really fantastic. You should pursue it.”

“I’m lucky I have the trust fund. It’s paying for my school, and if I don’t overspend, I can live off it for a while,” Lydia says. “Dad can’t touch it. I would love to use it to fund my own projects. But I know he won’t approve.”