Bennett Mafia(65)

“Imagine that.” My tone was wry.

She laughed, and her whole face lightened. “Can I hug you now? Are we going to get in trouble if I do that?” She glared over her shoulder at Eric.

He didn’t respond, just folded his hands in front of him.

She grunted. “Eric, I’ve seen you naked.”

His Adam’s apple bobbed up, paused, and he swallowed hard. “Yes, you sure have, Miss Bennett.”

“Eric’s family is close to ours. He grew up with us,” she explained. “When’d you come to work for Kai? How long ago was that?”

He wouldn’t meet her gaze, keeping his focus trained above her head. “I’ve been working for your family for five years, Miss Bennett.”

She linked our elbows. “Eric used to run around naked with Tanner and me when we were little. We loved it when Samuel set up the sprinklers. We ran through them in our backyard.”

I assumed Samuel was another guard. Or a groundskeeper.

“I see.”

Brooke tugged me toward the kitchen. “Enough about Eric.” She squeezed my arm. “Are you still upset with me?”

“Yes.”

She burst out with a laugh. “Yes. Same Riley. You didn’t mince words back then either.”

I gave her a look. That wasn’t true. I’d barely spoken when she knew me before. If she asked a direction question, I would answer, but I did mince words. I realized now how much I’d tiptoed around Brooke.

I’d wanted a friend. I’d wanted someone to talk to, someone to listen to me, to care about me. I didn’t know how to demand that, so I cared first, I listened first. It was all coming back to me.

Eric was watching me. I glanced up, and he gave me a knowing look.

I looked away, clearing my throat. “Is Kai in the kitchen?”

“He’s in the study.”

“Where’s that?”

Brooke tugged on my arm again. “Who cares? Let’s get drunk. This place has wine.”

We entered the kitchen, and she let go of my arm and went for the pantry. She opened the door to reveal a full wine rack just inside.

“See?” Her smile was smug as she grabbed two bottles and two wine glasses. “Eric, I assume you’re not joining?”

He took position outside the doorway that linked the kitchen to the sitting room and moved so he could stare out one of the larger windows.

She snorted, shutting the pantry door and going to the table. Plopping down with a dramatic sound, she leaned back in her seat. “You have no idea how exhausted I am. This whole ordeal has been tiring.”

She was telling me that?

But I sat. I was slipping into my old role without even trying. I only smiled at her.

She twisted the cap off the wine and poured two generous glasses. Pushing one toward me, she took hers and sipped. “Oh my gosh. That’s so good. They always has the best stuff here.” Her eyes narrowed, seeing I hadn’t taken mine. “Do you not drink? I know we snuck wine in the dorms, but maybe you’ve changed.” She perused me a moment. “You did look kinda hippyish when I saw your house.”

“I’m not hippyish. That’s my roommate.” But she wasn’t altogether wrong.

Being outdoors was my happy place. Raven had some hippy tendencies, and Raven and Riley had some similarities.

I straightened up.

I didn’t want her telling me who I was. That was for her to learn from me. It wasn’t her place.

“You’re being judgmental, sister,” Kai drawled, entering the kitchen.

My mouth dried at the sight of him.

He’d changed into a gray Henley and black pants. He was devastating in a business suit, lethal in athletic clothes, but with this shirt, he looked like power. Pure and simple—though there was nothing pure about his power nor simple about him.

Nevertheless, I felt a rush of relief, as if he were an ally coming to my defense. As if Brooke were my enemy.

I looked down at my lap, not wanting to see the way Brooke greeted her brother.

I didn’t want to see her hostility, because I didn’t think I could be hostile with a brother who loved me that much. Or maybe I’d see a fond resignation toward him, because while she didn’t agree with his actions, he had moved heaven and earth to find her.

That meant something.

“I’m not being judgmental,” she said.

Her reaction was neither. They’d just fallen back in place as if they were home, as if nothing had happened, as if they were arguing whether to play Monopoly or Bunko.

“You should take that back, brother.” She mocked him. “I was just saying what I saw.”

“You saw wrong.” Kai took the seat beside me, reaching for the bottle and pouring a little into a glass he’d brought with him. “I saw the inside of her house. I agree with Riley. Her room was simple, straight to the point—a bed, a counter, a desk, a closet. That’s it. Nothing extra. It’s a room used for sleeping. That doesn’t say hippy to me at all.”

I looked at him. “When did you see my house?” My room?!

But Brooke wasn’t having it. She propped her elbow on the table and pointed. “Okay. One, when did you see her house? Two, you were in her room?! Three, you’re acting like there’s something wrong with being a hippy. I have quite a few friends who are hippies. They’re hilarious to party with.”