“Then we’ll have a wedding.” He grabs a shirt before he turns around and pulls it over his head.
“My sister can come,” I add. “Apparently she missed the last one,” I joke, yanking my dress over my head.
Kade gives me a half smile but something is off. Does it have to do with my sister? I might not remember much but there’s a bond with her and I feel it deep inside of me. There was no question she’s my sister when she came barging into my bedroom.
I clear the distance between Kade and me. “You look like someone kicked your puppy.”
“I don’t think anyone has ever referenced me that way.”
“No, I doubt that,” I laugh, but with me, Kade is different. I can see it and feel it with how he is with others. I heard him on a business call and he didn’t sound like someone you messed around with. With me he’s all sweetness.
“I need to talk to Berkley.” I look up at him.
“I know. I might want to choke my brothers sometimes, but I know what that bond between us is. I have no doubt you have that with your sister.” He says the words but doesn’t look happy about it.
“Maybe we haven’t been so close. I mean, she didn’t know I was married and you didn’t know about her,” I remind him.
I say the words though they feel wrong. I think I am close with her because I felt it the second our eyes met. Hers were full of so many emotions and I could see that something was wrong.
“I saw your face light up when you remembered her. You two are close.” Kade confirms my thoughts as his hands slip into mine. “I won’t keep you from something you want.”
He gives my hand a small squeeze as he leads me out of the closet. I stop in the bathroom to make sure I’m put together enough to see my sister. I know it was clear what Kade and I were up to before she came bursting in, but I don’t want to look like a mess, so I tame my hair and brush my teeth while Kade does the same.
“You think she’s giving Vaughn a hard time?” I ask as we walk down the stairs. He leads me out back towards the center home and I realize neither of us have bothered with shoes. I breathe in the fresh ocean air and revel in how much I love waking up in paradise. Kade is crazy to think anything could take me from here.
“She can try. Vaughn is hard to give a hard time to since most things roll off him.” Kade shrugs.
“So he normally picks women up and kidnaps them?”
Kade laughs. “No, that’s a first.”
When we enter the house I see my sister sitting at the counter with her arms folded over her chest as she watches Vaughn. He’s cooking again and she’s trying to look pissy but her eyes don’t leave him. In fact, she doesn’t notice us until Kade clears his throat.
Berkley lets out a small scream of excitement when she sees me. Vaughn moves faster than humanly possible, catching her as she jumps out of the chair. Her foot snags on the bottom rail of the stool and she almost face plants onto the floor.
“Is yours this clumsy?” Vaughn asks, looking at Kade.
“Yours?” she shouts.
Once again she wiggles free of Vaughn and her messy bun falls free. Her mass of chocolate waves comes down and he reluctantly lets her go. She runs over and engulfs me in a hug. A flood of memories hits me hard but not in a bad way. Berkley isn’t only my sister, she’s my everything. It has always been the two of us until… And that’s when the memory hits me. She went to London for school. She’d gotten an offer she couldn’t refuse, one I wouldn’t let her turn down. It was hard for us to be apart and I debated going with her, but it wasn’t feasible. We knew when she was done with school we’d be back together again so we decided to just tough it out.
“I’ve been so worried. You weren’t answering your calls and I couldn’t afford a ticket to try and come home to look myself.” She pulls back, and the happiness and anger on her face a moment ago are gone as tears stream down her face.
“Don’t cry. I’m fine.”
She glances over at Kade as her eyes narrow. “Are you? I don’t trust these guys.” She looks back to Vaughn, who feigns innocence.
“I’m cooking you food and I brought you here on a private plane,” he defends himself.
“I got on your fancy plane because you showed me proof you knew where my sister was.”
“I think you got on it for other reasons too.” I can’t miss the way he’s shamelessly flirting with her. Berkley blushes as she grabs my hand and turns me away from him.