There with You (Adair Family 2)

“This is about more than just Stacey keeping letters,” Mac deduced, watching me carefully.

“It is,” I agreed. “It’s about her projecting this idea of who I am onto me since before I was even allowed to develop into the person I wanted to be. Robyn was the capable, responsible one. I was the silly, frivolous, wild child. And that’s not me. And it wasn’t Robyn’s place to parent me, but Mom put that on her too. It’s like she turned me into a problem that didn’t even exist but then made sure she had someone else to blame when I messed up. That’s wrong.”

“You need to talk to your mother,” Mac advised sternly. “You can’t go around with this resentment hanging over you, Regan.”

I knew he was right. The intensity of my reaction to Robyn’s revelations about Mac’s letters surprised me. “Do I have to right away? It’ll ruin my job vacation,” I joked.

“Not right away,” Robyn answered. “But soon.”

“I’ll talk to her when I see her again,” I decided. “This isn’t a discussion you have over the phone.” As if on cue, my cell beeped in my purse. “Sorry, let me just check that.”

I opened it to discover a text from Thane, and weirdly, it soothed my agitation.

Bringing takeout for dinner. Chinese. Arro is joining us and you’re welcome too. Just let me know what you’d like.

I smiled, realizing he was giving me an easy time on my first day by buying takeout. As I texted back that I’d love to join them, along with my selection, I didn’t realize I was grinning until I looked up and saw my companions studying me.

My cheeks flushed. “It’s just Thane. He’s doing takeout for dinner, which means my workload just got easier today.” I played off my reaction to his text as happiness about the latter.

But Mac narrowed his eyes ever so slightly, and it was as if I were caught like a rabbit in headlights. Was that suspicion in his expression?

No way.

I’d just replied to a text. Nothing else. My feelings for Thane were … so what if I … ugh!

I wrenched my gaze from Mac’s and listened to Robyn talk about a hike she wanted to take me on when I had a day off.

Seriously.

My sister’s dad saw way too much.

9

Thane

“You seem in a better mood.”

Thane turned from watching the slowly lowering sunset across the water to meet his brother’s gaze. They were sitting on Lachlan’s comfortably furnished, raised back deck, beers in hand, enjoying the gorgeous summer evening. A half hour ago, his brother had texted to ask if he fancied a beer out back. He’d just put the kids to bed, and at Eilidh’s demand of a bedtime story from Regan, Robyn’s sister was still at the house. Thane had tried to tell Eilidh that Regan had to go as it was past her working hours, but Regan shushed him, happy to do as Eilidh asked. She seemed disinclined to return to her annex, and he didn’t mind her presence. It was actually nice not being the only adult in the house.

“Go have a beer,” she’d said as they descended the staircase. “I can stay here in case the kids wake up.”

“You don’t need to do that. I’m not paying you to work after hours, Regan.”

She’d given him a droll look. “Either I watch a Friday night movie in the guest house, or I watch it here. There’s no difference other than you can go have a beer with your brother if I do it here.”

Reassured, Thane left her in front of a romantic comedy, curled on his big sectional.

“Regan’s lifted the atmosphere in the house,” he answered his brother. “She’s taken the kids’ minds off Lucy. That whole thing was confusing for them. I think I made it confusing for them.”

“Isn’t it confusing for you?” Lachlan prodded quietly before taking another sip of beer.

Low-level anger burned in his gut as he looked out at the water. “I wasn’t the one she stalked.”

“What she did, how she could lie so brilliantly, fucked with my head. If it weren’t for Robyn, I’d have become even more of a mistrustful bastard than I already am. As it is, I find it difficult to trust anyone new coming into our lives because of what she did.”

Lachlan’s confession didn’t shock Thane. They were so close in age, they were more like twins. While they rarely discussed their emotions with other men outside of the family, they’d never held back from telling each other what was going on in their heads. Most of the time.

“Regan arriving hasn’t been easy,” Lachlan continued, and Thane experienced a twinge of something strangely like defensiveness. But before he could voice it, his brother said, “But I trust Robyn, and she trusts her sister. She believes Regan has owned up to her mistakes and that she means well … I’m glad you put some trust in her, for Robyn’s sake, but I wouldn’t blame you if you were struggling, in general, to trust people.”