“He said they’d like to get to know us,” I said, watching as Etta lined up her dolls on the floor. “I think they’re just curious.”
“You don’t know these people,” she argued, her voice hardening. “You might remember them as good, but it’s been ten years.”
“I’ll be careful,” I promised, smiling at Etta as she handed me her least favorite doll to play with.
“Good. So, what’s the brother like?” she asked.
“Nice. Kind of quiet. Nervous. Older than us.”
“That tells me exactly nothing.” She laughed. “Does he look like Henry? Yum.”
I snorted and made Etta’s doll dance when she glanced over her shoulder at me.
“No, they’re adopted, remember?”
“Oh, yeah.”
“He’s still hot, though,” I conceded.
“Yes!”
“You’re a train wreck,” I joked.
“Yeah, yeah. So what’s he look like?”
“Black,” I said, picturing Trevor in my mind. “Gorgeous. Big brown eyes, crazy thick eyelashes, huge smile, broad shoulders—”
“How’s his ass?”
“I didn’t—”
“Don’t lie to me, sister!”
“You could bounce a franking quarter off of it, okay?”
Miranda laughed. “I knew you checked.”
“Of course I did, I’m not blind. But it’s a non-issue. Don’t be weird about it.”
“Hey, this is a purely academic conversation,” she argued. “I’m not saying you have to bang the guy.”
“Oh, God,” I mumbled, my cheeks growing warm at just the thought of it. It had been a long time since I’d been with anyone, and no one, including the father of my child, had been as appealing to me as Trevor Harris. He was really good-looking, that was undeniable, but there was something else that just seemed to do it for me. I wasn’t sure what it was—the way he held himself, or the courteous way he tried to make me comfortable, or something I couldn’t even pinpoint—but hell, he did it for me in a big way.
“Oh, shit,” Miranda said, cackling. “You totally want the brother!”
“I do not!” I snapped back.
“Yes, you do! I can tell!”
“You are never meeting him,” I mumbled, just imagining how that conversation would go.
“I could,” she said, her laughter dying down. “You never know.”
“He said the family would like to get to know us,” I replied, biting at my lip in anxiety.
“Hey,” Miranda said soothingly, hearing the way my tone had changed. “As long as they’re on the up-and-up, that’s a good thing, right? We talked about this.”
“You can’t have enough family,” I replied, not surprised that the minute I sounded nervous she tried to calm me down.
“Exactly. If something happened to me and you—”
“Don’t say that.”
“If she needed them for some reason, it’s good that they want to be around.”
“You’re right,” I said, sliding down on the couch until I was flat on my back. “I know you’re right.”
“Hard to let people into the circle of trust, though,” she said understandingly.
“Seriously.”
“Can we please get back to the hot brother now?” she whispered, like it was a secret.
I giggled and rolled to my side to watch Etta play. “Well…did I tell you he has a franking beard?”
“Oh, God,” my sister replied, dragging out the last word like a moan.
“He asked us to go swimming at his hotel while he’s here,” I whispered so Etta wouldn’t hear me.
“Are you going to do it?”
“I don’t know. I’m thinking about it, though. It seems like it would be less weird than having him come to the house again.”
“And you could see him in a pair of swim trunks.”
“Right, because that is what’s most important.”
“Well, it’s not unimportant, either,” she replied. I could just imagine her shrugging her shoulders like perving on my daughter’s uncle was a totally reasonable thing to do.
Just as I was about to reply I noticed Etta’s face scrunched up in concentration and I quickly pushed myself off the couch.
“I gotta go,” I told Miranda as I grabbed Etta by the hand. “I need to bring Etta to the bathroom.”
“No bathwoom!” Etta argued, trying to pull her hand from mine.
“Love you.”
“Love you, too,” she said, laughing.
I disconnected and got Etta to the bathroom just in time for her to look at me triumphantly.
Oh, yeah. Trevor’s good looks were super important, I thought as I brought Etta into our bedroom to change her diaper. Almost as important as somehow convincing my daughter that pooping on the toilet was fun.
Chapter 5
Trevor
As soon as I stepped into my hotel room and realized that I had absolutely nothing to do except sit there and wonder how in God’s name my little brother had left those two females without a backward glance, I wished I hadn’t left Morgan’s house. Even the awkward silences and the feeling of being a weird spectator in their life had been better than the thoughts racing through my head now.
My throat tightened with emotion as I remembered my mom’s excitement and the sound of her tearful laugh when I’d called her. She’d wanted to know everything all at once, and her questions had been so rapid that I hadn’t had a chance to answer all of them. Knowing that a little piece of Henry was still out there in the world had been a small comfort once we’d moved past the circumstances of her existence. However, not knowing if his child was happy and safe had been like a dark cloud of worry hanging over all of us. It was a huge relief to know that not only was she okay, but that her mom was someone my parents had known. The fact that Morgan had been with our family for just a short while, and over a decade ago, didn’t dim that relief.