Malia places a hand on Jax’s arm. “Don’t worry. I’m good at keeping secrets. It’s part of the job requirement in order to work in Hollywood.”
Malia looks past us all. “Where’s Ethan?”
Everyone goes still.
“Not here,” Dillon says stiffly.
“He hasn’t been back home for a while,” Landon says. “Left to veterinary school and never came back.”
Malia’s face looks concerned. “Is he okay?”
I need to lighten things up. I give Malia a wink. “He’s fine, just busy pampering poodles in the city.”
“The girls are in the back,” Landon says.
As we all head out to the back of the house, my heart speeds up. The two most important people in my life are going to meet. What if it doesn’t go well? I shake the thought from my mind. It will work out. It has to.
Chapter Sixteen
MALIA
I hold my breath as Jax takes my hand in his and leads me out the back. His brothers follow. I don’t know why I’m so nervous, and yet it’s there, twisting my stomach and making me feel as if I’m going to the biggest audition of my life. And in a way, I am. If Jax’s daughter doesn’t like me, what will that mean for us?
A table is set with seven place settings on the porch. A beautiful woman with auburn hair and green eyes is filling glasses with lemon water. She looks like she belongs here at Wyle Away with her cowboy boots and button-down chambray top. Landon closes the distance to the woman and puts his arm around her.
“Malia, this is Kitty,” he says.
The woman smiles at me. “Hello.”
“Aloha,” I say and close the distance to give her a quick hug and kiss on the cheek—the typical Hawaiian greeting. Kitty smells of barbecue and wildflowers.
Her smile widens. “So I finally get to meet the woman who has Jaxon, of all people, swooning.”
“Whoa,” Jax holds his hands up. “Hold on there. I do not swoon.”
Kitty rolls her eyes. “What else would you call acting giddy all the time? Giggling like a schoolgirl at your text messages? Changing your clothes several times each morning?”
Jax coughs, his cheeks tinged pink. “I—I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
I laugh, already liking Kitty. I reach out and squeeze Jax’s hand. “Aww, you like me.” I flutter my lashes at him. “You really like me.”
His face softens and he smiles. “That I do.” He lifts my hand up and kisses the back of it.
“See,” Kitty says with a triumphant smile. “Swooning.”
“Well, I’ll take the swoon over the smolder any day,” I say.
“The famous Jaxon smolder failed?” Kitty asks.
I laugh. “You mean that expression where he looks like he’s constipated?”
Jax cringes. Kitty laughs.
“Hey, it worked on you once upon a time,” Jax counters to Kitty.
“Oh, no. We’ve already established that it was merely a training exercise,” she says. “It didn’t count.”
I raise my brows at them.