The Dangerous Jacob Wilde

Today, Emma was scrambling eggs, Lissa was taking a pan of biscuits from the oven and Jaimie was frying bacon.

Travis and Caleb were sitting at the big oak table that was the heart of the kitchen, sipping coffee and reading the newspaper.

For a minute, he stood and watched them, these people he loved and who loved him.

He’d let them down.

That was the worst part.

They didn’t know it but he had—and why in hell hadn’t he stepped off that plane last night, gone straight to the ticket counter and booked himself to L. A. or New York or Seattle or—

“Hey,” Travis said, “it lives!”

Caleb grinned. “Had a late night, did you, my man?”

Jake searched for an answer. Foolish, when all he had to do was grin back and say nothing.

Somehow, he couldn’t.

Em unknowingly came to his rescue with a mug of black coffee, a one-armed hug and a smacking kiss.

“Sit down, little brother, and pay no attention to these jerks.”

Little brother. She’d always called him that because he was the youngest of the Wilde brothers, even though he had four years on her as well as seven or eight inches.

“Do I ever?” he said, flashing her a smile.

Travis raised an eyebrow. “We hope you did last night.”

Lissa scooped bacon and eggs on a plate, put the plate in front of Jake and hugged him, too.

“Eat while it’s hot, and they hope you did what?”

Caleb shot Travis a look. “Oh, Jake said he wanted to get some air, so we told him to take Trav’s truck and go for a drive.”

Jaimie put the basket of biscuits on the table, dropped a kiss on Jake’s head, sat next to him and said, “A drive where?”

Jake looked at the food. The coffee was all he wanted—he had the feeling anything else would lodge in his throat—but his sisters would never let him get away with that, especially when it was obvious they’d shooed away Senora Lopez, the housekeeper, so they could make breakfast themselves.

“Believe it or not,” Caleb said in a deliberate stage-whisper, “it’s all edible,”

Em grabbed a napkin and threw it at him.

“A drive where?” she said.

Jake concentrated on forking up some eggs. “Oh, you know. Just around.”

Jaimie ruffled his hair. “We wondered what happened to you.”

Lissa nodded. “We thought it might have something to do with the McDowell woman.”

Jake shot his brothers a look. Travis gave a little shake of his head; Caleb mouthed a quick no.

“Why would you think that?”

“Well, you both vanished.”

“Pretty much at the same time,” Em added.