Bloom

Brushing a hand over the arm of his black suit jacket, he huffs out a laugh. “I stopped by your apartment last night. You weren’t there.”

I know that his concern is grounded in love. My older brother has always looked out for me. When I was in high school, I was asked to the senior prom. Jeremy insisted on meeting the guy before he agreed to take me to buy a dress.

He wasn’t my dream prom date by any means, but he handled himself well during Jeremy’s interrogation.

“I was out.”

“Smartass.” He levels the words at me with a wink. “I just want to know if his intentions are honorable, Athena.”

“You might want to jump into this century, Jer.” I roll my eyes before I lower my voice to mimic his. “Were your intentions honorable when you spent the night in Vegas with Linny? Didn’t you two meet for the first time that day?”

A sheepish grin plays on his lips. “Touché.”

“Did you come down here before daybreak to check up on me?”

His gaze falls to the locket hanging around my neck. Jeremy knows the story. He understands that I’ve wanted to patch together my past for years.

“I came here because I love my sister.” He crosses his arms over his chest. “Why don’t you invite him to have dinner with us on your birthday?”

That’s soon. It feels too soon to introduce Liam to my family.

“That deer in the headlight look you’ve got going on is telling me something.” He taps his chin. “If he’s important to you, Athena, we want to meet him.”

I’m touched that he recognizes that Liam isn’t like the other men I’ve dated.

“Give it some thought.” He inches around me headed toward the coolers. “If you feel up to it, there will be an extra chair at our table at Nova for him.”

Nova is the restaurant we always go to when one of us is

celebrating a birthday. It’s a family tradition. Jeremy has never offered to add an extra chair for anyone before.

I trail behind him as he heads straight for my workstation. “I’ll think about it.”

He stops mid-step to turn and face me. “I’ll be on my best behavior. I can’t say the same for my daughter.”

I laugh as I round him. “Speaking of Cass, I take it you want a little something to surprise her with when you go back home to tell Linny about this conversation?”

He huffs out a laugh. “She was set to come, but Cass wasn’t having it. She wanted her mama this morning.”

I slide open the door of the cooler and tug two pink roses out of a large bucket. I shove them into his hand. “Tell Linny I love her. Cass too.”

He arches a brow. “Me too?”

Pushing to my tiptoes, I kiss his cheek. “You too.”

***

As I lock the door of the shop, a hand on my shoulder spins me around fast. I have my key in my hand to use for protection if need be. It’s a trick my mom taught me when I was a kid. I was responsible for getting my younger brothers home from school, so I had a key in my pocket.

We lived in a rental house in upstate New York back then.

We had enough land that we could run through the field and get lost beneath the tall grass if we crouched down.

I’d spend hours chasing Breccan and Zach under the sunshine.

That was our home for less than three months, but I still consider it one of the best places in the world.

Audrey’s hands dart in the air in surrender. “It’s just me.”