DONOVAN (Gray Wolf Security, #1)(118)

“That’s sweet, I suppose,” Adrienne said. “A little self-serving.”

“But, you see, he was already in love with her,” I said, running my hands over her lower arms. She touched me, too, gripping my forearms so that we were holding each other in an odd sort of way. “A few months after the first, my father suffered a second heart attack and died.”

“Oh, God, I’m sorry,” she said, lifting a hand to her mouth.

I tugged her hand away from her mouth. “I was very young. I don’t really remember him that well.”

“But, still, he was your father.”

“He was a bit of a loser,” Jacob said. “He was probably better off without him.”

Adrienne’s eyes widened.

I glanced back at Jacob. “A bit harsh,” I said in a loud whisper.

Jacob just shrugged.

“Anyway, Karl pays for the funeral without asking. Telling my mom that he was a good employee and he felt it was the least the company could do. And then he started sending us money every month, claiming it was part of some life insurance thing the company had. But my mom knew it was really from him personally. But she couldn’t afford to turn it down, so she kept careful account of every penny, determined to pay him back when she didn’t need it anymore. But they also stayed close, talking on the phone late at night. He helped my mom get a job at a department store, and she went back to helping Jacob with his math.”

Adrienne glanced at Jacob. “Did you like her?”

He shrugged. “Everyone likes Elizabeth.”

I leaned close and whispered near her ear, “I think he had a crush on her.”

She smiled, her eyes moving over my jaw, my throat, as I pulled back. There was definite interest there; I could feel it. I was definitely not going home alone tonight.

“Then what happened?” she asked.

“I got sick.”

Jacob groaned. “He always tells it like it was him getting sick that brought them together. But, really, I think it would have happened anyway. In fact, I’m pretty sure I nearly walked in on them making out a couple of times months before he got sick. They would have gotten together anyway.”

“Yeah, but Karl might not have asked her to marry him over my hospital bed if not for the fact that I got sick.”

“Maybe. Maybe he would have done it somewhere much more romantic.”

“Either way,” I said, falling into Adrienne’s eyes, “he proposed over my hospital bed, she said yes, and they were married three months later. And they’ve been married ever since.”

“Twenty years next month,” Jacob said. And even he seemed to have a little awe in his voice.

“That is impressive,” Adrienne said, squeezing my arm and pulling back, lifting her wine glass to her lips.

“Isn’t that an interesting story?”

“I only asked why you didn’t look alike.” Her eyes moved from Jacob’s mousy brown hair and milky green eyes to my gold curls and deep blue eyes, from his slight stature to my overwhelming height. “You could have just said you were stepbrothers.”

“But what would the fun have been in that? Besides, we’re not just stepbrothers. ‘Step’ implies angst. But we’ve never shared a bit of bad blood.”

“True,” Jacob said, inclining his head slightly. “As long as he remembers I’m the older brother in this little arrangement.”

“How could I forget? You never fail to remind me.”

Adrienne laughed. “You certainly sound like siblings.”

“Do you have brothers or sisters, Adrienne?” Jacob asked.

Again, that flash of sadness burst into her eyes for a brief second. But it disappeared so quickly that if I hadn’t seen it before, I might have thought I’d imagined it.

“No,” she said.

“Well, not only do I have to contend with this one,” Jacob said, jabbing a thumb in my direction, “but we have a little sister, too. She’s eighteen and she thinks this one over here roped the moon for her.”

Adrienne looked at me with something like a new appreciation. “Yeah?”

“She adores him, too. He just doesn’t like to admit it because then it might mean he has a heart.”

Jacob busied himself trying to get the waitress’s attention again, purposely ignoring me. I focused on Adrienne again, wondering if I’d lost her there. Some women seemed to like Jacob’s aloofness. His soon to be ex-wife not the least of them.

“So,” I said, leaning in close to get her attention, “would you like to come back to the house with us? I have a lovely bottle of Chateau Margaux that is pretty exquisite. It’d probably make that stuff you’re drinking taste like a cheap wine cooler.”

She glanced at Jacob, then back toward the bar.

“I hardly know you,” she said.

“I’m not a bad guy. And my brother will be there to supervise.”

She smiled at that last bit, her eyes moving to Jacob. I was really beginning to wonder if she had a thing developing for him. But then her eyes moved back to mine, and she sighed softly.

“I have to warn you, I have pepper spray in my purse. And a rape whistle. So you better keep your hands where they belong.”

“Certainly,” I said, raising my hands from where they’d been moving slowly over her knees. “I won’t put them anywhere you’d rather they didn’t go.”