“Because it’s not your fucking business. My marriage isn’t your fucking business. My wife is definitely not your fucking business.”
“Does she know about us?”
His brows snapped together. “There was never an ‘us.’ We fucked. Once. That’s it. And you probably only wanted it because you were trying to get Kent’s attention.”
Her head jerked back. “Is that honestly what you think?”
He shrugged one shoulder. “I don’t see that it matters either way.”
“I would never have used you like that, Dane. Never. I cared about you. Now I care for you as a sister, and it always saddened me that you were intent on being alone. I understand what made you this way, but I don’t want you to spend your life alone. I want you to have someone who cares for you. If I thought that this thing you have with your PA was real, I’d be delighted for you. But I don’t believe it is.”
“So you’ve already said. Now if you’re done …”
“I’m not done. I haven’t finished telling you what I learned about your PA. Her father has Dissociative Identity Disorder, you know. That’s probably hereditary. If you had any children with her, they’d probably get it.”
A snicker popped out of me before I could stop it. Both Dane and Jen looked at me. He didn’t seem surprised to see me there, so I wondered if he’d already sensed my presence. Jen, however, looked shocked as all shit.
“Oh no, please, do continue,” I urged, smiling at her.
She licked her front teeth. “Dane didn’t tell me you were here.”
“I kind of live here now.”
Jen’s jaw dropped. She looked from me to him, her eyes wide. “You asked her to move in with you?”
Dane frowned. “Where else would I want my wife to be?”
I pushed away from the doorjamb and slowly crossed to her. “You sure do seem very interested in me, what with you doing all that ‘homework.’”
She jutted out her chin. “I’m just looking out for my brother-in-law, that’s all.”
“No, you were being judgy and intrusive and feeling he needed to justify himself to you. Which I just don’t get. I mean, do you shove your nose in Travis’s business? I doubt it. Yet, you think you should have some say in what Dane does. Maybe that makes sense in your head, but it doesn’t in mine.”
“Dane is my family.”
“And now I’m your family, too. How cool is that?” I took another step closer to her. “Here’s my problem, Jenny—”
“It’s Jen.”
“Families should support each other. Should be there for one another. Should want to see their loved ones happy. You, well, you’re not being supportive of Dane, are you? And that bugs me, because he deserves to have the support of his family. If you can’t give him that, if you can’t get off your high fucking horse and quite simply accept his choice of wife, there’ll only be one result: You won’t come between me and him. You’ll come between you and him.”
She shook her head. “That wouldn’t happen.”
“Don’t take my word for it. Ask him.”
Jen’s gaze sliced to him, blazing with indignation. “You’d choose her over me and your brothers?”
He looked her square in the eye. “In a fucking heartbeat.”
Jen sucked in a breath.
I smiled. “Well, now that that’s out of the way, I’m going to scrounge up some dinner. Anyone hungry?”
Without waiting for a response, I headed to the kitchen. It wasn’t a straightforward journey, since I didn’t yet know my way around, but I found the room eventually. I was looking through the dark cherry wooden cupboards when I heard footsteps behind me.
“She’s gone.”
I glanced over my shoulder at Dane, who stood near the kitchen island. “And here I was thinking she’d want to get to know me better. Is she always so judgmental?”
“No, not usually. But if she’s determined to dislike someone, she’ll find all sorts of reasons to disapprove of them.”
“Like that they grew up in foster care, as if it’s a major deal. Whatever. I’m done talking about her. She bores me. Your home, however? Far from boring. I had no idea it was this big. Isn’t it odd having all this empty space around you?”
“Where you see empty space, I see private space. Plus, I wanted somewhere that had lots of land, no nosy neighbors.”
“Where you could be the emperor of your domain.” He’d done what his uncle had done. He’d bought himself a huge home. But where Hugh had found himself hating that he lived alone, Dane wasn’t bothered by it. Or, at least, he wasn’t yet bothered by it. That might one day change, but I wouldn’t bet money on it. “Are there any rooms that are off-limits?”
“My office isn’t off-limits as such. But when I’m not there, it’s always locked. If I am in there, feel free to enter. My bedroom is out of bounds to anyone but me,” he added with such seriousness that I blinked.